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yea thats the problem, im turning my tank into a planted one and im going to use liquid fertilizers.

the carbon would just remove the ferts :| which isnt good.. at all

dangit i wish i found out more about this before i bought the new pads :#(

carbon removes sulphur gas?! I have a problem with that cause some sulphur compund reacts with the water heater rod and makes my water smell like rotten eggs. We may have to change the order of our house filtration system.
I know alot of people have found ways to attach mechanical filtration to their penguin pads after removing the blue part and carbon. I still just use them with carbon and replace them every month or so. The only deficiency I've seen is potassium and it was fixed by adding leaf zone. My plants seem fine with carbon so I'm not gonna fix what isn't broke. Since your tank is only on the way to being planted and probably doesn't need ferts yet I'd run the carbon cartridges then use the frame for making your own pad when it runs out in a few weeks. I forgot what I heard someone uses but they just rubberband material to the frame then replace the material and rubberbands every month. I don't think marineland makes carbonless cartridges. It is useful to keep a container or cartridges of carbon on hand.

lol i dont think i have a volcano here in new york city

ill just keep the pads till i need em since i dont feel like shipping the things back to big al's.

right now im running an old pad with carbon cut off and a media container with floss.
thanks for help

If you have a choice, buy some pads without carbon but keep the carbon ones aside for when you might need them, like babel said.

Times when you need them could include: to remove meds after treatment, to remove tanins that have been leached from wood, or when your local volcano blows up and spreads poisonous sulphur gas everywhere (or is that just a New Zealand thing? )

Either return them as was mentioned, or keep them till they are needed .
Even though I don't run carbon on a regular basis I always keep some on hand since I havent the time to run to the store if something should come up and I do need it. Your filter might be the ones (*prods brain cells*) that only sell the pads with carbon. If you cant return them and or still need a new pad they can be slit open, and the carbon removed.

^_^ [hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"

Azn,

Use the pads that you purchased or if they are in an opened container, return them for store credit. A caution for anyone when they use carbon or charcoal in their filters, is that the product has a limited life. That is, the media does absorb/collect impurities but after a period of two or three weeks, it is no longer effective. Beyond that period, it can begin to release what it has absorbed or collected.

I realize that you would like to use ferts in your tank. I wouldn't bother until the plants display a need for ferts. Until that time, you may be cultivating algae. This is just a caution.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I want through the same thing a couple months ago. I have Penguin 125 filters and I didn't want to use carbon.
What I decided to do was cut off the floss from the black plastic frame of the Penguin cartridge. Then I use Whisper filter bags, secured against the Penguin's plastic frame. The Whisper bags are less expensive and give you the choice to use(or not) any filter media.

too bad theres no way to figure measure how much of a trace element is in your water...

ill probably just keep the carbon in for a week or so. then try it with out carbon, see if theres a difference at all.

Carbon definately has it's uses. It's open to debate as to whether or not it removes significant trace elements for plants. Won't get into that. It will also become useless after a week or two.

I have a heavily planted tank and have run with carbon and without. As far as plant health goes never seen any significant difference with either method. I do find though that with a lot of wood and plants in tank that if I don't use carbon the water will get a yellow tint after a few weeks. I now run carbon for about a week every month or so to get rid of the yellow and give back that sparkle to the water. I pay a little bit extra and use a very high grade carbon (it claims not to remove trace elements !?). I like that sparkle

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

what happens if i run my tank without carbon? i found out that i need to remove carbon from my filters if i want to use liquid plant ferts and now im afraid of what might happen if i do remove the carbon.

wouldnt the tank get a lil dirtier? or have an odor? cause i thought carbon was to remove discoloration and odors.

They arent useless because they have carbon. I think what everyone meant is that carbon isnt important. Thats not to say its bad The only time it may have ill effects is if the tank is planted, but carbon only works for about a week(I think).

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

ok now im sorta pissed :| i just got 4 new pads for my emperor last week and now theyre useless cause they have carbon

i guess ill just run my tank with the old cartridge that had the carbon part cut off because the carbon was too old. ill also use some filter floss with the media container that came with the filter.

i might consider going to a magnum, since it can be used with a bio wheel and i can take out the carbon with out taking out the included mechanical filtering.

thanks for the help guys.

As everyone else has said you don't need carbon. The only times I use it in my 300 gallons worth of fish tanks is to remove meds or if their is a foul odor. The odor should never really be an issue as long as you keep up on your water changes. My filtration consists of several eheims a magnum, several emp. 400's and several AC's. You'll be fine with no carbon.

I havent run carbon in my AC's for a few years. Mainly for the reasons that have been mentioned about plants. Carbon cant know what you want in the tank and what you don't want in the tank.

However for unplanted tanks I'd reccomend running it @least once every few months. It does add that sparkle to the water :88). For planted tanks you can run it for a day after a water change then add extra ferts back in. IMO a bit of a waste, but to each their own.

^_^ [hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"

Carbon isn't necessary at all. I've also been told it can remove trace elements from the water that plants need so it's sometimes good to avoid it. It does help remove chemicals and various things but alot of tap water and even my well water has already been run through activated carbon. Often the water is filtered through many types of chemical filtration before it reaches your tap. It can help especially in some cases where your water isn't filtered well before it reaches you but it isn't always needed.

I've had my S.A. setup on my 46gallon without carbon for almost two years now. The water is crystal clear without any odor. The carbon is only necessary during the initial setup because it removes things in the tap water, etc. Once the biological filter is established it is not recommended.

I use an eheim canister filter and eheim even recommends discarding the carbon pad after two weeks.

My Scapes

I've been running the canister filter on my 45 with no carbon for a couple of weeks now. I switched to a canister from an HOB and decided to give it a try without the carbon. No harm, no foul (odor that is) so far. My daughter's been running the internal filter in her 5 gal betta tank without carbon for months now and the water is clear and has no odor.

I'm no expert by any means but I've read here and also been told if you are doing regular maintenance and feeding properly it's really not necessary unless you are removing residual medications from your tank.

Last edited by fish479 at 16-Feb-2005 17:34

I could be wrong about this...

But I think that a lot of people run their AquaClear filters with multiple sponges, or sponges and a different type of media. Some people don't use carbon in their filters, and I don't think there's many ill effects...



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