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will the fert be effective in the presence of activated carbon???

Hi,

I'm curious: do you want to know this just for the heck of it, or do you actually want to run carbon to clear up your planted tank, but you're not sure if it'll harm the plants?

If it's the latter, then I see no problem running th efilter with some carbon in it for a few days to clear things up, then removing it. I feel that there's enough uncertainty about the matter that you can use it for a bit without really harming the plants. I think Untitled runs a planted tank with activated carbon and has seen no ill effects. Personally, I don't know chemically how activated carbon removes nutrients from the water, but there's enough talk out there to dissuade me from using it.. better to be on the safe side. Plus I like tannin-tinged water. It's up to you. Just don't be afraid that it's going to nuke your plants because it won't.

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Back in the saddle!

Activated carbon removes a small amount of fertilizer over days. Some people don't have a problem with that on their planted tanks and some people see small deficiencies. It can be run safely for awhile to clean up the water and after that it depends on your tank. All you can do is try it and see how it affects your plants.

thank you...at least i know now that not all the fert will be reomved rendering it useless...i shall observe the plants on how they react..

"Untitled runs a planted tank with activated carbon and has seen no ill effects."

Did run. I checked it at the time, and if the source of my information was correct (web, after all) activated carbon removes only very little of the nutrients it even removes. I had no problems with it and I had it in my filter for quite a while and even changed it regularly. There was also a poll at the time where about 50% of us did use carbon, some only occasionally

I stopped using it because I'm now trying Seachem's Purigen. They claim it does a better job in polishing your water without removing fertilisers, AND also renewable, so I'm up for the challenge.

I was thinking of trying seachems renew. Its not as strong as purigen and has less cautions on it. It says not to use any products with slime coat added with purigen. Some water conditioners will either make it toxic or render it useless. Seachem also mentiones using ph buffers for softwater if you use purigen so it sounds like it can mess with ph. The downside of renew is that it can't be regenerated like purigen.

Last edited by sham at 15-May-2005 13:57

This is what I gathered about Purigen before actually buying it:
1. Amine based slime coat products will change the product in such a way that it will be impossible to "recharge" it. It's a bit silly to anyone using slime coat products, as they never tell you what's in there and whether they're amine-based. Well, at least Seachem say that none of their products are amine-based. It's not a problem to me though, as I use no slime coat products or any water conditioners.

2. As far as I can understand what they're saying about the pH buffer (and I've read a lot about it) is that after you renew it in bleach solution, you need to soak it in a pH down buffer (unless you use it for a marine tank) as bleach has a high pH and can affect Purigen which then might affect your tank. As I've just started using purigen, I think I have several months before I have to renew it, so I'll see how it goes when I get there.

In the meantime I'm monitoring the situation.

as a general rule carbon is used to absorb polymeric material. that basically just means molecules of a decent size, generally larger than 8 carbons long for those who know what that actually means. conceivably if the carbon has nothing else to absorb then it may absorb small amounts of nutrients.
i have had some succes in mopping up MnO2 impurites in the lab but not a lot.
really the best way is to experiment.