Microbial Marine REDUCE DOC / ORGANICS

Coconut-Shell Activated Carbon + Macroporous Organic-Scavenger Resin

Concept:
REDUCE DOC/ORGANICS combines a premium low-dust, steam-activated coconut-shell carbon with a macroporous acrylic anion resin engineered specifically to scavenge dissolved organic matter.

No single filter media captures every organic compound in a reef aquarium. Coconut-shell carbon has an extremely fine pore structure that is excellent at trapping smaller organic molecules, but many larger organics are simply too big to reach most of its surface. Organic-scavenger resin fills that gap: its large open pores and charged surface capture bigger, negatively charged organics, including the humic-type compounds that tint aquarium water yellow. Together, the two media remove a broader range of dissolved organics than carbon alone.

The carbon removes odor-causing compounds, pesticides, herbicides, and many medications and dyes after treatment. It is also commonly used to help reduce chemical compounds released by corals and nuisance organisms.

The resin targets the color-causing organics that yellow water and absorb the UV and blue light corals rely on. Clearer water lets more of your lighting reach your corals.

Keeping dissolved organics under control is a cornerstone of stable reef water quality, and REDUCE DOC/ORGANICS works best alongside protein skimming and other export methods. 

Instructions:

Use the online calculator below to calculate your dosage. Rinse the media in RODI water before use. Place it in the included fine-mesh bag in an area of steady flow. Reactors are not recommended at the start: removing organics quickly can cause a sudden increase in light intensity reaching corals. Think of it like GFO for organics and go low and slow.

Dosage (volume of blend):

• Maintenance: up to 10 mL per 10 gallons
• Corrective: up to 100 mL per 10 gallon

If your system shows elevated organics (yellow water in a white bucket test, a high SAC254 reading, or high TOC/TON on Triton N-DOC), use the corrective dosage and replace every 1–4 weeks until levels improve. Then switch to the maintenance dosage and replace monthly. Tanks with heavy feeding or bioload may need a higher dose to reach a monthly schedule.

In internal testing, 1 mL of blend per gallon reduced SAC254 by 0.5 m⁻¹ over 1 week. Results vary with the type and amount of organics in each system.

Using with ozone: place a carbon-only stage directly after your ozone source, with REDUCE DOC/ORGANICS downstream. Do not expose the resin directly to ozonated water.

Technical (carbon):

• Surface Area (BET) = 1050 m2/g
• Ash Content = 4% (max)
• Iodine Number = 1000 mg/g (min)
• CTC Adsorption = 50% (min)
• Moisture Content = 5% (max)
• Ball-pan Hardness = 98% (min)
• Density = 430 - 540 kg/m3

Technical (resin):

• TOC Capacity = 5 - 20 grams per liter of resin (min)
• Total Capacity = 0.8 eq/L 7.5 Kgr/ft3 (min)
• Particle Size Range = 300 - 1200 µm
• Uniformity Coefficient = 1.7 (max)