sirdarksol

Ok, so I've got a tank with cyanobacteria (dang, that stuff grows fast. It's already made a web over the wysteria again, and I just vacuumed it off yesterday), so I've got to medicate the tank. I plan on removing Keiji from the tank, as well as a few of the snails in there, so I'm going to have the quarantine tank running and hopefully keeping cycled (the filter for the quarantine tank is always running in an occupied tank). There isn't much issue with the timing of putting Keiji back, as I think regular old Maracyn is betta-safe, but I'm worried about the snails, and about the colony in the backup filter. I plan on putting the quarantine filter in the tank after the meds have been cleaned out in order to help cycle the tank safely.

So my question is, after using Maracyn for three days, then putting AC into the filter, about how long before the stuff has been scrubbed from the water?

Chief_waterchanger

Within the first hour.

COBettaCouple

yea, it shouldn't take too long.. you could run it a day or 2 or 3 to be sure, but i'd not leave the carbon in any longer than that.

Dino

All the sites on the carbon that grab organic molecules are filled with an an hour usually.

COBettaCouple

hmm.. i didn't realize it worked that fast.. is that figuring 10gph per gallon or is it not dependent on GPH?

Chief_waterchanger

It is depending on how much carbon you have for how much organics are dissolved in the water. Any proportional filter (filter capacity versus tank capacity) should have the carbon used up within an hour.

COBettaCouple

thanks, new information to file in my head. ...or maybe someplace with less holes.

sirdarksol

Just want to make sure that I understood that. (I'm still sick, and my brain's not working right).
If I have a filter that is properly sized for my tank (around 10gph+), it should take an hour.
So if I have a smaller filter, I should run it for an hour or so, and then change the carbon and repeat? (I figure that, despite the size of the filter vs size of tank, it's the size of filter vs amount of carbon that will determine how quickly the carbon gets "filled" with the meds, so I'll need to change it out once or twice, or use extra carbon, to make up for it if my filter's smaller than the tank dictates.)

The reason I'm asking isn't actually for this tank, but for another tank and future reference if I have to medicate that one. It has a few different filtration types, and only one of them can be loaded with carbon. It also uses a UGF and a plethora of plants.

Dino

If you are concerned about meds being in the tank after carbon has been running an hour, replace the carbon with new and let run another hour.

Depending on the turnover for the filters, this should remove it all.