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when adding melafix it says to remove any active carbon from the filter, wat is the reason for this and will it be affective if i left the carbon in

The carbon will filter all the melafix since carbon clears water from harmful substances (included meds)

Gee

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

BigGee168's got it. Carbon is put in the filter to remove additives and pollutants. It doesnt know the difference between things you want in the water like meds or in this case melafix, and things you dont want in the water. Which is why any time you dose meds you should always remove the carbon. After you've finished treating the tank place fresh carbon in the filte to remove it.

^_^
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As good as Activated Carbon is in adsorbing various substances, it has its limits...

It will not absorb or practically not absorb:

Alkalinity
Ammonia
Barium
Beryllium
Cadmium
Carbon Dioxide
Copper
Hardness
Iron (as Fe2+)
Lime
Manganese
Molybdenum
Nitrates
Selenium
Tungsten
Zinc

There's a good chance the 5% solution of Melafix would be absorbed by new Activated Carbon but not by a filter cartridge that's over a month old.

--garyroland.







Last edited by garyroland at 19-Jan-2005 16:29

There's a good chance the 5% solution of Melafix would be absorbed by new Activated Carbon but not by a filter cartridge that's over a month old.

Very interesting I didn't know that Gary Thx!

Gee

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

Some of those things you listed, Gary... I'd be very scared to find concentrations of them in my tank!

Barium - Reacts with water, unlikely to be found in your tank unless barium oxide.
Beryllium - Again, not found naturally occuring in this form, so unlikely to be found in your tank.
Cadmium - Ooooh. yukky. Rather like Mercury, in it's characteristics. "Breathing high levels of cadmium severely damages the lungs and can cause death. Eating food or drinking water with very high levels severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea. Long-term exposure to lower levels of cadmium in air, food, or water leads to a buildup of cadmium in the kidneys and possible kidney disease. Other long-term effects are lung damage and fragile bones." Not something that your fish would live through...
Hardness - i take it you mean calcium and lime?
Manganese - used in glass to remove some of the green colouration caused by iron, so i guess it will be in our tanks... in small quantities.
Selenium - in hydrolise (H2) form, it resembles arsenic in its effect on your body (and that of your fish). In elemental form, it's considered a trace element, and relatively safe in small quantities.

Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity for a fishy chemistry lesson...

To be honest, I've treated my fish with Melafix without removing the carbon. I assumed it's not going to absorb all the Melafix at once, but slowly over time, so the Melafix will have some time to do it's stuff before being completely absorbed. Following the instructions on the bottle, it did work and the water did smell of tea tree oil for the duration of the treatment. The carbon, by the way, was less than a month old.