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I was posting on another thread about plant fert. w/ Carbon filter media.

At any rate, it was brought up, and I wanted to ask opinions here. Is it ok or safe to not use Carbon in your well eshtablished tanks? She says she does not use it. I wanted to know if this was a normal practice or not?

My main concern was because I use liquid plant fertilizer in 2 of my tanks, but I also use Carbon in the filter, but was curious as to if the carbon would remove the good stuff I'm adding in from the fert.

Thanks.

It is perfectly safe to not use carbon in your filter,and yes if you do use it there is a distinct possibility it will absorb some or all of your plant fetilizer.Carbon is best used when you have a need imo.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

Hi,
The use of activated Carbon goes back over 30 years
and is kinda entrenched in aquarium use. It will
remove fish urea, and tannins (from driftwood), as
well as other chemical compounds (such as parts of
the plant ferts). Additionally, very nearly every
medication used in an aquarium says specifically,
to remove Carbon from the filter during its
administration.
The life of activated charcoal, or Carbon is limited
to a couple of weeks, after which it becomes just
another part of the mechanical filtration process
that removes the larger pieces of debris.
At one time with true, bone, activated charcoal,
you could "reactivate it" by baking it in an oven
for a couple of hours.

With todays technology, and filter systems, it is
no longer needed, save to remove tannic acid (tannins)
from the tank.

IMO, I'd throw the stuff away, and maybe add a sponge
in its place, or perhaps some more of another kind
of filter media.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Carbon causes much debate on this site, and not a few thread closures. If you're adding ferts to the tank, well it's silly to also be running carbon as that's what carbon does, remove things (including the ferts) from the water. However there are those that swear by using it for any number of reasons (seems the most popular is mistrust of the american water supply ).
One thing I have seen suggested is following a water change, run the carbon for two days, then do a double dose of ferts. Personally I only run carbon when I need to remove meds from the tank.

^_^

Thanks guys. I think from now on I will only use carbon if I am needing it to get rid of some medication in the tank, this is what I figured I would wind up doing a while back.

Though unfortunatly it will be a pain to get filter media for my smaller filters such as my penguin biowheel and Millenium 1000. All of the filter cartrages they sell come with carbon IN them :/

Carbon wont remove a conditioner will it?

By the time it would do, the conditioner will have removed the chlorine already, so no worries on that front. Unless you mean something other than chlorine remover, like Stress Coat, in which case yes, probably, but hey - that stuff just clogs gills in the long run anyway.

-Molly
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