WHERE TO BUY/ORDER BULK ACTIVATED CARBON?

[Mmathis]

The spring rains have again pulled "tannins" a from my turtle fencing and it's back to cola-colored! After a quickie visit to PetSmart today, I came home with about 4 lbs. of AC for about $20.00 (or so it seemed). Surely it's not really THAT expensive! Any ideas where I can buy some in bulk?

 

[JohnHuff]

Try Amazon.com. You can buy 3lbs there for $6 or 52lb for $46.

 

[capewind]

I cant imagine using carbon in a pond. I buy the API carbon for the fish tanks ... instructions are half cup per 10 gallons ... Not too bad in a small tank, but even for my 55 gallon tank it's supposed to be 2 3/4 cups .... I have 4 filters on the 55, and cant get that amount in there.

 

[Dave 54]

I used to bulk buy here in the UK, I found it best to approach the company's that make the activated carbon rather than buy from a fish shop who nines out of ten bulk buy theirs then bag it up in differebt weights to maximise their profits ,
So in effect you are cutting out the middle man buy going to the company's that make it
Here is a link to a number of US sites :-

http://www.thomasnet.com/products/activated-carbon-10660207-1.html

Hope it helps if you cant afford the asking price then a number of you could get together to buy a sack

rgrds

Dave

 

[sissy]

I buy from petmountain .com acurel economy bag 3 lbs under 5 dollars

 

[sissy]

farm store here used to sell it and asked several times for them to bring it back 25 lb bag was 12 dollars and they would have it on sale and you could get it for 9 dollars

 

[Mmathis]

I cant imagine using carbon in a pond. I buy the API carbon for the fish tanks ... instructions are half cup per 10 gallons ... Not too bad in a small tank, but even for my 55 gallon tank it's supposed to be 2 3/4 cups .... I have 4 filters on the 55, and cant get that amount in there.

CW -- found this out last year with my brand new pond when my water turned cola-colored, presumably from the tannins in the cedar fence pickets I use to fence in my box turtles. The fencing usually doesn't come in contact with the water, but after a hard, soaking rain, there is enough contact to leech the tannins from the wood. The activated carbon [I guess] binds with the chemical and pulls it out of the water. I put the AC in a laundry lingere bag and put it in my Skippy for a few weeks, or until the water looks better. This is only the 2nd time it's happened, but I hate having to grab up all this over-priced AC that's packaged for aquarium use.

And to everyone else, thanks for the suggestions!

 

[capewind]

This is only the 2nd time it's happened, but I hate having to grab up all this over-priced AC that's packaged for aquarium use.

AC is great in a fish tank, just thinking of the volume needed in a pond LOL.

How big is your pond? and how much are you using just to pull the tannin out?

 

[HTH]

Generally we try to keep run off from draining into the pond. Fix that and it will not happen again.

 

[ntscott]

I have had a very good experience with activated carbon. Like John Huff said, Amazon.com is the place. The price per pound of small packages of AC is RIDICULOUS!. The 52lb of Loving Pets carbon is the best deal that I have found. I received my carbon 2 weeks ago. My pond water is crystal clear. I havent tried to price the bulk carbon from the mfr like Dave 54 suggests. I'm sure I will when I run out though. Thanks Dave 54.

 

[anitapond]

It's been awhile, but I bought it from eBay the last time.

 

[Catfishnut]

Just for the sake of discussion and interest:

One gram of activated carbon (or charcoal) may have anywhere from 500 to 1,000 square meters of surface area available to absorb specific elements, chemicals or compounds.
This works out to 2,441,255 to 4,882,510 square feet per pound! Unfortunately, once used, it is done.

Natural Zeolite has roughly 25 square meters of surface area per gram (equivalent to 122,063 square feet per pound) but zeolite costs about $0.10 per pound and with a simple salt brine soak and then a clean water rinse, it is rejuvinated and ready to be used again.

Catfishnut

 

[sissy]

zeolite you can buy at tractor supply as it is used as a horse stall refresher .They call it PDZ .Same thing and cheap .Any farm store will carry it .I buy the big bag also for my pond .I don't refresh it after using I throw it in my veggie garden .

 

[Catfishnut]

zeolite you can buy at tractor supply as it is used as a horse stall refresher .They call it PDZ .Same thing and cheap .Any farm store will carry it .I buy the big bag also for my pond .I don't refresh it after using I throw it in my veggie garden .

That is what I would buy instead of Activated Carbon or charcoal. Zeolite has a strong affinity for absorbing ammonia ions, so it is really good for polishing post the bio-conversion process. It does just about everything that AC does, maybe more, and it can be rejuvenated if desired. Since it is so cheap and readily available in bulk, it beats out activated carbon in my thinking. I bought my zeolite direct from the mine (Bear River Mine in Preston, Idaho). Thanks Sissy for the TSC reference, now I know where to go to just get a bag! WooHoo!

Catfishnut

 

[Mmathis]

I have some zeolite. I'll have to give it a try. Water was JUST starting to look better, before we got another 2 days of rain....