potency of carbon

[kenneth_kpe]

i have a carbon bag in the filter thats almost 2-3 months old now... and i actually forgot that it was there im now fertilizing with liquid fertz and i was wondering if i should remove the carbon or just leave it there since its all used up already or not ?

btw im hesitant to remove it because the carbon bag makes up about 40% of the filter media inside my HOB

 

[jimboliana]

I used to have a Eheim canister filter which was supplied with a carbon bag which you were supposed to change after a couple of months, like you say it is prob used up and i dont think it will have any impact on your ferts. The only reason you should really remove it is so that you can change it for a media that will grow more bacteria and thus be more efficient, in some ways the carbon bag you have is just dead space. The other thing you could do is replace it with another carbon bag

 

[George Farmer]

Carbon filtration in a successful planted tank is more or less useless (if not a hinderance).

Growing plants will use up harmful toxins and other compounds that the carbon normally does. If your tank is planted heavily enough then carbon is definitely unecessary and may actually deprive your plants of beneficial nutrients.

If you do use carbon then generally one should change it after 3 to 4 weeks as the toxins that the carbon has adsorbed may leech out causing water quality problems.

Personally I would swap your carbon with biological/mechanical media.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

yeah, i used the carbon to remove the tanin that leeched out from my driftwood before and i kinda forgot about the carbon haha il remove it tom and replace it with wool or 4 mini bio balls or something bye bye carbon bag