using old carbon/charcoal filter in soil

[maxwell murder]

does anyone know if mixing in the carbon from old filters is the same as adding bio char to soil for the bennies? i hate paying to get rid of these heavy damn filters....

 

[Seamaiden]

I honestly don't know if it's the same, but I would absolutely do it. In fact, we just bought a bunch of Cowboy (or whatever the brand is now) charcoal to add some char to my new planting bed. DO IT!

 

[ZONER]

I honestly don't know if it's the same, but I would absolutely do it. In fact, we just bought a bunch of Cowboy (or whatever the brand is now) charcoal to add some char to my new planting bed. DO IT!

Cowboy charcoal is made up of scrap everything even treated lumber, please use royal oak it's a whole lot better.
I smoke a lot of meats and when I do my Tri-Tip I grill, always used the naked whiz data base to fing real good charcoal.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm

 

[mcpuffin]

Cowboy charcoal is made up of scrap everything even treated lumber

Yikes...

 

[fishwhistle]

Cowboy charcoal is made up of scrap everything even treated lumber, please use royal oak it's a whole lot better.
I smoke a lot of meats and when I do my Tri-Tip I grill, always used the naked whiz data base to fing real good charcoal.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm

Tri-Tip=red oak for me;),My neighbor owns a transfer and goes to santa maria alot so i have him backhaul me a cord once a year!Cool link,ill bookmark it.

 

[ZONER]

Gotta lotta oak but limited red oak on my property, just don't want to drop them and split em up. Guess I'll wait for my neighbor to start clearing more of his land and see if he has some.

 

[Cort]

Once at a campsite in NorCal, I took the motorcycle down to the store and picked up some good steaks, a disposable grill grate and stopped by some roadside guy who had oak firewood for campers.

I created a nice windbreak with stones and wood in the fire pit, made a stand for the grate and covered it with more wood. I simi-open pit smoked 3 great steaks upwind from everyone in the camp. Boy were they mad. Someone even came over to see if we needed help getting our fire going, till I showed them my DIY smoker/low fire grill.

No idea about using old carbon in a garden setting.

 

[Seamaiden]

Old carbon, if it's really really good quality, is usually made from coconut husk and I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't serve as a home for microbes and wouldn't still adsorb/absorb some nutrients, especially since it was never used in something like saltwater. And since the goal of using char is to create high density microbial housing developments, as well as sequestering nutrients, seems like the old air filtration carbon would work great.

People my age and older may recall when terrariums were popular, there was even furniture made to build terrariums in. One trick the best terrarium gardeners would use was some aquarium filter carbon (or charcoal) in the soil mix. The idea was that it would keep things fresh, but I don't think that's what was happening.

Cowboy charcoal is made up of scrap everything even treated lumber, please use royal oak it's a whole lot better.
I smoke a lot of meats and when I do my Tri-Tip I grill, always used the naked whiz data base to fing real good charcoal.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm

:omToo late! What we put down looked like natural pieces of wood, so I guess all I can do is hope it's not bad. We also made the bed a kind of hugelkulture bed. Even though it's raised and contained by wood sides, I went ahead and put pine logs in at the bottom, on their ends, to help sequester water. Of course, as they decompose I'm going to have to add in more soil, OR if my cover cropping scheme/idea works, then I'll be literally building UP the soil naturally.

 

[ZONER]

Old carbon, if it's really really good quality, is usually made from coconut husk and I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't serve as a home for microbes and wouldn't still adsorb/absorb some nutrients, especially since it was never used in something like saltwater. And since the goal of using char is to create high density microbial housing developments, as well as sequestering nutrients, seems like the old air filtration carbon would work great.

People my age and older may recall when terrariums were popular, there was even furniture made to build terrariums in. One trick the best terrarium gardeners would use was some aquarium filter carbon (or charcoal) in the soil mix. The idea was that it would keep things fresh, but I don't think that's what was happening.

:eek:mToo late! What we put down looked like natural pieces of wood, so I guess all I can do is hope it's not bad. We also made the bed a kind of hugelkulture bed. Even though it's raised and contained by wood sides, I went ahead and put pine logs in at the bottom, on their ends, to help sequester water. Of course, as they decompose I'm going to have to add in more soil, OR if my cover cropping scheme/idea works, then I'll be literally building UP the soil naturally.

As I follow your grows and posts I am quite sure you will have zero problems with anything in your garden Sea.... You have way too much knowledge regarding growing.

 

[Seamaiden]

Aw... shucks. Thank you, ZONER.

 

[Protaide]

ye, activated carbon WILL host bacteria in very high densities as well. At least nitrosoma and nitrobacter colonize readily in carbon; or any other aerobic species. Activated carbon will have a higher adsorption capacity and porosity than will charcoal. In cases when using carbon for a biological medium, then activated is preferred. When I had a marine store, we had a couple systems (400g ea) where the only biological medium in the whole system was activated carbon (50lbs though heh) and all tanks were bare. For similar biological density; 1200lbs of "live rock" would have been required in place. Granted this is from a biological perspective versus microbes; however they are still aerobic.

 

[Seamaiden]

You know that activated carbon has been linked directly to HLLES (head & lateral line erosion syndrome), especially in Pomacanthids and surgeonfishes, yes? Just a few years ago, Jay Hemdal put out the first study, IIRC. Also, did you know that Martin Moe has put out another book? So flippin' cool!

 

[Protaide]

Ye we always added Lugol's to these systems and of course traces with regular water changes. Since we used the carbon for biological too, it was not changed as activity was lost. We fed frozen foods fortified with vitamins also. We never had any lateral appear in any of these systems; however we did "rescue" several fish with it. One wholesaler sent us a huge (10") sailfin tang that came in with lateral line and should not have been pulled from ocean in the first place. For treatments of any disease and including lateral line; we used homeopathic remedies.
I've not read the new Moe book yet, so I will have to put it on the list.

P.S - We only ran the carbon systems for fish too. though we didn't have issues with the carbon I would not go so far as to use that type of system for corals. Any coral systems were natural with live rock, pumps and lights (nothing else).

 

[Funkadelic]

ye, activated carbon WILL host bacteria in very high densities as well. At least nitrosoma and nitrobacter colonize readily in carbon; or any other aerobic species. Activated carbon will have a higher adsorption capacity and porosity than will charcoal. In cases when using carbon for a biological medium, then activated is preferred. When I had a marine store, we had a couple systems (400g ea) where the only biological medium in the whole system was activated carbon (50lbs though heh) and all tanks were bare. For similar biological density; 1200lbs of "live rock" would have been required in place. Granted this is from a biological perspective versus microbes; however they are still aerobic.

This informs my reefkeeping. Anthony Calfo is a huge fan of carbon filtering.

 

[Seamaiden]

You know Anthony Calfo?