which is better

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Torrean

The Hairy Potter
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I was at Wall-mart the other day to buy some replacement carbon for a filter and I saw some stuff called ammo-carb beside the activated carbon. It's supposed to remove ammonia from the water along with everything that activated carbon is supposed to do. There was more of it in the package and it cost less so i bought it. Is it better or worse. I haven't used it yet because I was waiting for some of your opinions.
 
Well first I would like to know if you have live plants or not.
As for the carbon/ammo it is just carbon mixed with white 'stones'. The white stones are suppose to help remove ammonia but I don't think that they are any better than the good bacteria that you find in the filter sponge/floss.
 
ok, well then if I were you I would not buy carbon anymore-it removes all the good minerals from getting to your plants and cancels the effect of putting 'plant grow'(or what ever) in your tank.
All I have in my tanks with plants are filter floss and sponges and everything is fine. All you really need is a place for lots of bacteria to grow.
 
ok thanks. What if i don't add anything to my tank for the plants would the carbon still be bad. I assume it would

BTW the plants are growing from bulbs and have not established themselves yet. Can I keep in the carbon till they get bigger?
 
The only reason you might realy need carbon is for after medicating the tank if you want to quickly remove the medicines. However, even then it isn't necessary as most meds are biodegradeable and break down within a short time. Otherwise, the remnants are removed during water changes anyway. If you still need carbon for whatever reason, I'd just go for the cheaper or more practical of the two as they aren't realy important for your fish' well being. As for getting rid of ammonia, if it realy does this, it will destroy your biological filtration as the good bacteria use ammonia as food. Carbon eventualy stops working - if this were to occur and you forgot to replace it, you would have a major ammonia spike and re-cycle as you'd have no biological filtration (good bacteria) to convert the ammonia to nitrIte to nitrAte. You are better off with no carbon or similar products at all.
 
Oh I do have a use for your ammonia-removing carbon though. If it works, it would be good for emergency quarantine or hospital/isolation tanks. It might work (short-term) for a fry tank as well - just until you can get an established filter into the tank.
 
thanks I think I will be taking it back tommorow. I am going to get some activated carbon for medicine removal and incase of emergencies.
 

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