Cocanut charchol for filtering and HLLE?

[Neptunes World]

I was thinking. If a coal charcoal, which is like adding gas to your tank as far as pollutants go through fines (least thats my theory) causes HLLE, or, thought to of, hence my theory, what about a safer more natural charcoal like cocoanut charcoal? I hear it also makes your water sweet, for those times you get thirsty working on your tank and want to take a quick sip. :rolleye1:

 

[Allmost]

I have read a couple of things about it.
firstly that coconut carbons have the wrong pore size for filtering the target materials from water...

coralife used to make a coconut one ... not sure if they do anymore, and from what I have heard, they were not that usefull.

 

[disc1]

What makes you think there is any real chemical difference between the coal charcoal (organic matter charred under pressure) and the coconut charcoal (organic matter charred under pressure)?. There are some differences, but there are a lot of similarities too. I don't think anyone has a good grasp on the etiology of the link between activated carbon and HLLE, only that the two seem to be linked in a few experiments. So I don't think that it would be safe to assume that just because the coconut feels more natural to you than the coal that it is any safer.

 

[Neptunes World]

Drink a glass of orange juice and then drink a glass of Shell 93 octane and tell me which one you like better. Both are 100% organic, are they both healthy? Yea yea, drastic comparison but you get my point.

Your right, I dont want to assume, thats why I am asking.

There are more case studies of it happening than not. Personally, I would like to play it safe as possible if I can, key words "if I can". :bounce1:

 

[Badbrad8500]

Drink a glass of orange juice and then drink a glass of Shell 93 octane and tell me which one you like better. Both are 100% organic, are they both healthy? Yea yea, drastic comparison but you get my point.

Your right, I dont want to assume, thats why I am asking.

There are more case studies of it happening than not. Personally, I would like to play it safe as possible if I can, key words "if I can". :bounce1:

I like to do the same ("play it safe"). There's a good article in Coral Magazine about the possible link between using charcoal and tangs getting HLLE. As a result, I don't use carbon at all anymore.

 

[Neptunes World]

The only problem with playing it safe is we/I dont get the benefits of what Activated Charcoal can do to help the tank, but, if it is Russian roulette ........ Thats why I was hoping there would be a lesser evil in coconut charcoal.

 

[freezetyle]

I like to do the same ("play it safe"). There's a good article in Coral Magazine about the possible link between using charcoal and tangs getting HLLE. As a result, I don't use carbon at all anymore.

Why not run it for 24 hours once every two weeks to a month? that way you can at least get some of the benefits of it.

I think the majority of problems that arise from charcoal are caused by it tumbling and allowing the dust to enter in the water column. i have run it constantly for the last three years and have never had an issue with any of the tangs I've kept.

I think the article your referring too also narrowed it down to lignite carbon causing all of the problems. I don't remember the difference between the type off the top of my head but the information is out there somewhere

 

[disc1]

Drink a glass of orange juice and then drink a glass of Shell 93 octane and tell me which one you like better. Both are 100% organic, are they both healthy? Yea yea, drastic comparison but you get my point.

It's an inaccurate comparison. Instead you should say,

Drink a glass of 93 octane and then drink a glass of orange juice that I have converted chemically with heat and pressure into gasoline. That doesn't sound so appetizing.

Try not to think about the coconut carbon as being fruit. It is no longer fruit. It has been turned into the same thing (high surface area carbon) as the kind from coal. The major differences will mostly be in the metals content. I would expect the stuff from the ground to have some heavy metals in it that might not be present in the coconut stuff.

But that doesn't make the coconut stuff any better just because it was made from something originally edible. We don't know what in the carbon causes HLLE. If it is something that's not there in the coconut stuff, like a metal, then great the coconut stuff is better. But if it's carbon fines in general that cause the problem the coconut stuff is just as bad. If it is some small organic molecule that gets created in the charcoal making process, then the coconut stuff may be even worse.

Either way, the fact that it used to be something that was edible has no bearing on its safety after you turn it into charcoal.



Besides, I don't get the comparison between charcoal and gasoline. Those are two completely different things. One is carbon, the other is long chain organic molecules. One came from charring organic matter, the other came from separating the volatile portions of crude oil.

 

[Allmost]

Why not run it for 24 hours once every two weeks to a month? that way you can at least get some of the benefits of it.

I dont think that's a good Idea, u would be lowering TOC alot, then remove the GAC, let it rise and rise and bond with elements, then introduce GAC, remove all organics, along with elements it was bounded to !

I think the majority of problems that arise from charcoal are caused by it tumbling and allowing the dust to enter in the water column. i have run it constantly for the last three years and have never had an issue with any of the tangs I've kept.

I think the article your referring too also narrowed it down to lignite carbon causing all of the problems. I don't remember the difference between the type off the top of my head but the information is out there somewhere

agreed 100%, I use higher grade GAC, for MANY years, and never had Issues. I met with someone 2 weeks ago, he claimed everytime he adds GAC, his gem tang gets HLLE, I went over, we rinsed off KZ carbon, and put it in his sump, still no ISsues, so I guess problem was the way he was rinsing it or I dunno what .. lol

 

[Neptunes World]

One came from charring organic matter, the other came from separating the volatile portions of crude oil.

Exactly!

If one was not a elemental scientist and was walking down the road, looked on the ground and saw the two, in his best guess and judgement, which one do you think he would think is safer if he had to pick one? Be it they both come out the same in the end or, if in fact one is harboring something bad, the person would not know unless they snooped around, asked and got educated about them.

In all the drinking water purifying literature they like to use cocoanut coal filters. I would think if they were the same, they would not tout it as being better than AC. If AC is better for our bodies (filtering out more junk and being clean-er), would you not think they would tout that first (tout is actually a stronger word I want to use)? Just taking a wild guess from the evidence in front of me, coconut would be first choice, but, "proper" choice? Maybe not, I am still in class and going through all the options presented to me. :smokin: