Hi!
Woot, for first post!
My friends and I are having a discussion about activated carbon, and its ability to filter various molecules in our coral reef aquariums.
I want to find out if there are any activated carbon products that remove pigments, but leave trace minerals (ions).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVpRGzerJFIAccording to the experiment in this video, ROX 0.8 seems to be the most effective at removing both the pigment (large molecules) and the methylene blue (medium molecules). Literite seems to be as effective as ROX 0.8 in removing the pigment, but not as effective in removing methylene blue (where it plateaus when it has reached its capacity).
I want to find out how much trace elements are being removed by the Literite carbon, in comparison with the ROX 0.8.
In the reef hobby people use activated carbon for removing tannins (pigments), odor (aromates) and various medications. The problem is that an increasingly growing group of users have experienced ill effect on their corals, from what they believe is the consequence of using activated carbon and stripping their system of trace elements, especially iodine.
After some searching around the internet I found that:
"Tannins (pigments commonly found in aquariums) have molecular weights ranging from 500 to over 3,000[3] (gallic acid esters) and up to 20,000 (proanthocyanidins)."
Methylene Blue has a molecular weight of 319,85.
The trace elements that are important to keep a healthy coral reef aquarium includes e.g. Strontium (Sr
2+), Potassium (K
+), Iodine (I
-) and Iron (Fe
3+).
Considering the experiment conducted in the video linked above, what can be said about those different activated carbon products' abilities to adsorb tannins and trace elements?
ChemBuddy | 
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Topic: Activated carbon and its ability to filter differently sized molecules (Read 2684 times)