Carbon Bag In The Filter- Yes Or No?

[BeezerGeezer]

I have been running my Aquamanta filter with a bag of carbon in since starting my tank in March, changing them every 4-6 weeks per the manufacturers instructions. However, I recently bought an EX1200 in preparation for my new tank and was reading through the blurb. In the Tetratec booklet it says only to add the carbon bag for limited periods for a specific reason, for instance if you have dosed with meds and you want to remove their traces form the tank. Confused? I am now! Obviously they are 2 different brands of kit, but surely the principle is the same? What do people think?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Well, its true that carbon is really only needed to remove medications.

 

[dbanner]

I waited over a year before changing any media in my filters. There is no need to change every 4-6 weeks. Manufacturers will say to change it just to make money.

I run my 2 tetratec ex1200's without carbon. I only use carbon if I have to dose the tank with things like protozin for ich and so on after some advise from other members here

 

[BeezerGeezer]

Hmmmm. I've pulled mine out today during a water change and filter clean to make room for some media from the EX to allow it to be seeded with bacteria. The first obvious benefit is an increase in the output from the filter. Another benefit will be not spending £9.00 every month on carbon bags.

 

[dbanner]

Carbon will last waaay more than a month even if you were to use it every day. Plus I only rinse my filter media around once every 3-4 months in old tank water. No need to do it any more than that

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah, I was told you only put the carbon bag in to remove medications and then you just need to bin it afterwards.

 

[dbanner]

Yeah, I was told you only put the carbon bag in to remove medications and then you just need to bin it afterwards.

Before I was told when to use carbon and when not to I kept my carbon in the filter every day. As it was when I bought the filter. I dosed with meds too and continued to run the filter with all the media it came with. The filter was set up around a year, I didnt change any of the media in the whole time it was running. I had no fish deaths, crystal clear warer, and perfect readings and all seemed fine

Since knowing when to use the carbon iv now removed it from my filter. No noticeable difference really. I just heard carbon can leak toxins back into the tank?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I recently learned that that isn't true actually! Obviously a very common misconception

The thing is it just stops removing chemicals and eventually is just another sponge filter. Which is why they say to just put them in to remove medications/chemicals because after a couple of days their ability to remove anything is gone, pretty interesting

 

[dbanner]

Good to know

 

[Bugdozer]

Carbon will adsorb (not absorb) a variety of chemicals, including medications and tannins from bogwood etc but eventually it reaches saturation with this and ceases to do anything. However, it still acts as a surface for good bacteria to grow on in your filter so it does no harm to leave it there once it has stopped doing anything else.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I use carbon sometimes and not others. It is entirely a personal choice. If my water seems murky one week, I toss in some carbon. Then next filter maintenance, I just chuck it and put in an extra sponge. There's no LAW on carbon.

 

[Essjay]

Carbon can release toxins back into the tank, albeit only a tiny amount. I'll leave it up to bignose to explain things:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/250164-activated-carbon/

 

[ian]

this isn't entirely true, it will only release back into the water in cases of massive Ph swings, ph swings you won't see in an aquarium as your fish will be dead long before any toxins will do any harm. Just think about the carbon used in hospital water systems, these go for about a year before being changed and if there was any chance of the carbon leaching back into the water systems they wouldn't be used as it would be to dangerous. There is some thought that the old school charcoal might have released some tiny amounts back, but the high grade carbons won't.


my take on carbon...I love the stuff!