DIY Carbon Tube Filtration System

Turn on your tank and allowed it to run with the carbon tubes. Begin acclimating 1-3 fish that you are going to place in the tank by using the airline drip method. That is, siphoning the water from the tank to the bucket where the fish are at a drip, drip, drip rate. You'll want to add some AmQuel or other type of ammonia buffer to the bucket water to insure the fish do not get ammonia burn. This usually takes an hour. The fish acclimate slowly to the water change. Turn off any skimmers or UV filters that you have in the tank. Remove the cartridge from the mechanical filter. Five minutes before introducing the fish, add water from your tank to the bottle of Right Now, shake up, and pour in. Rinse the bottle of any remaining bacteria. Then put your LIGHT LOAD of 1-3 fish in your tank and let it run. Your tank will cloud for the first 24 hours, then it will be crystal clear. After 24 hours, put the cartridge back in the mechanical filter. The next day, the readings should be "0", "0", "0". You can add another fish every 5-7 days until your tank is where you want it.

If you want to "tweak" your tank, add another tube to the chain and put Hiatt's pH Adjustment Rock and Metal Gone (MG) in it. MGis used to eliminate or avoid any hair-micro algae problems. To learn more about these and other Hiatt Products, read our Hiatt Distributors Limited Products Review.

Carbon Tube Maintenance & Tank Cleaning
Maintenance is a breeze. Clean or change your mechanical filter cartridge once a week (more if needed) and vacuum siphon and clean your substrate once a week. The Magnum brand filter has an attachable Power Kleen Gravel Washer specifically for this purpose. Just unhook the Magnum intake hose, attach the gravel washer and "vacuum" the bottom of the tank. Shut off the Magnum, replace the cartridge (keep two, one for in the filter and one for rotating), hook the intake hose back up and turn it on again. Takes all of 10 minutes. Clean the extra cartridge and hang it out to dry until the next "maintenance" spat.

After a period of time the carbon can start to compact. It needs to be loosened up so that the proper water flow through the carbon is allowed. If the carbon becomes compacted and clogged, this may allow for anaerobic bacteria to grow, which you do not want! At least once a month during a routine water change just back flush the carbon tubes. Hiatt strongly recommends back flushing the carbon tubes for NO MORE than 10 - 15 seconds. Go to the DIY Back Flush Filter Set-Up article to see how you can add this simple set up to your system.

The greatest benefit of this system is that it is so easy and inexpensive to modify, add on to, reduce your filtration system and you finally have the complete Nitrogen Cycle. No need to buy skimmers or any other "do-holly's" to get an effect, unless you choose to add them. No doubt you already have the pump and a bunch of extra tube laying around. Just mix and match to your heart's content.

I think one of the greatest things about this hobby is that everyone can be a "research scientist", doing their own experiments, using their imaginations to attempt proving a theory. And, make sure that you keep a tank log. Use the Aquarium Manager Program, or a similar computer program. You can find some FREE downloads on our Aquarium Software page.

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