Those of you who are the "Dyed In The Wool" Jaubert/Plenum or Berlin method aficionados need read no further. You are artisans who have the driving desire to recreate a small piece of the ocean in your tank. You don't want to use any method that does not occur in nature and your tank spends most of its time hanging on the hairy edge between "perfection" and "total annihilation". You are artists and I applaud you, but for those of us who elect to simply and basically get the most out of our system, with hardly any effort, we want to have the latitude to be able to add a couple more critters to our tanks without having to sacrifice the next 30 nights of sleep in order to accomplish this feat.
The concept of the Carbon Tube Filtration System is really quite simple. The Tri Base Pelletized Carbon (TBPC) is put into a PVC tube through which a HIGH VOLUME of tank water is pumped, after it has been mechanically filtered. Right Now Bacteria (RN) is an AEROBIC bacterial compound, which means it "lives by oxygen supply". When picking your mechanical filter and pump, you want water flow through the carbon tubes that will turn over the tank water at minimum rate of 6-10 times per hour! Don't forget to take into factor that the flow rate will be slower than what the filter instructions say due to the water flow through the carbon tubes. Once the aquarium water passes through the canister filter and the carbon tubes, the water is returned to the tank free of Nitrogen wastes.
For smaller aquariums under 55 gallons a Magnum 350, Eheim, Fluval, or similar pump works well. These canister filters act as both your mechanical pre-filter and water pump in one unit. For tanks that are in the range of about 75 gallons, you can choose to use 2 - Magnum 350's (for example), each one with one carbon tube attached.
If your tank is over 75 gallons you will want to go to a larger capacity water pump with a separate canister filter to use as a mechanical pre-filter to help remove debris that can clog the TBPC making it less efficient. The Mag Drive, Little Giant, Iwaki and Rainbow make pumps in the range of 1000 - 1800 gph. There are a number of mechanical filters, like Ocean Clear[/link], on the market which can be used as a pre-filter. If you want a really low maintenance tank, stop by and visit the Specialty Pool Products site. They have a terrific selection of canister filters that work very well with saltwater tanks.
The following is my interpretation of Dave's "Theory of Carbon Tube Filtration", with a couple of extra features with associated benefits Dave never got around to putting on paper.
The PVC tubes can be of any diameter you wish. Keep in mind 10 pounds of TBPC occupies .35 cubic feet. 87 inches of three inch PVC or 49 inches of four inch PVC will hold 10 pounds of TBPC. Hiatt Distributors Limited recommends .1667 pounds of TBPC for each gallon of tank water for best results. My customers have great results with somewhat less, but then again, more TBPC means faster cycle time and more fish in your tank - to a point.
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