Activated carbon can do harm?

[krazeeboy]

is this true about activated carbon?

fishyou.com aquarium information

mainly the part where it says carbon removes all ammonia and therefore beneficial bacteria cannot develop and when the carbon loses its effectiveness ammonia will shoot up? basically creating an uncycled aquarium?

i am wondering because i have an aquaclear 70 filter that came with carbon. also all my friends use carbon in their filters. is it that bad? i thought everyone uses carbon

 

[mgamer20o0]

i dont believe it is true. carbon is only active for a week or two. it removes oder meds and other stuff. i dont run carbon on my tanks but thats another store. you should be fun with it once its no longer active it does make a ok bio media.

 

[krazeeboy]

wow really so it is only active for about a week? what does it do for the tank after the week? it doesn't do anything that the manufacturers say it does?

 

[mgamer20o0]

it soaks up everything it can once it soaked up all that it can its no longer active. it doesnt do anything other the give good bacteria a place to grow.

 

[krap101]

It doesn't really make sense to me how it would uncycle your tank as carbon doesn't really remove nitrogen, hence all the stuff they sell to remove ammonia... Ammo-carb... Ammonia remover.. I guess it could remove ferts if you have a planted tank though.

 

[Rikesh]

I've never heard about that before. I know Activated carbon will only remove organic stuff from the tank water. There's no effect on Ammonia,etc...
I might be wrong

 

[Innovator]

Activated carbon removes organics and through active filtration should last up to 1 month, not 1 week, nor does it release anything once expired. I believe the 1 week carbon rule came from inferior carbons.

 

[Rikesh]

Are you sure the carbon does not release anything?? I've never read about that before...

 

[CaptainAhab]

Leaching of phosphates has always been a downside of using carbon/activated carbon. Choosing the proper brand that has proper labeling (porosity, density, ash and phosphate content, etc) is key. As is choosing an acid washed AC.\

Soaking in RO/DI water for a few days prior to use is also a way to remove alot/most/the remainder of the inherent phosphate in activated carbon.

 

[Innovator]

Technically no. It would take an organic to displace/replace an organic so all that would happen is the carbon being bypassed. It would be as if the carbon was no longer there once it has reached its capacity.

 

[melosu58]

Aquarium Frontiers On-Line: July 1997: Product Review

 

[DragonFish71]

The only thing carbon releases into the tank is dust if you don't rinse it before use.

I run carbon in all my filters, only AFTER a new tank has cycled. Each tank has an under gravel filter with ammo-carb refillable heads in the center tubes, regular power heads on the end tubes and power filters with ammo-carb pouches that I make myself. Like I said, only after the tank has cycled do I use the carbon. If I'm treating a tank with meds I remove the carbon heads/filter pouches. I use liquid ferts and my plants grow just fine. I'm sure it must take in some of the stuff in the ferts, but not enough to make that much of a difference. I use API Ammo-Carb, I change out everything once a month. I've never had any issues with anything being released into the water.

I've heard the rumors of carbon releasing agents into the water as well. I researched at the library (wayyyyyyyyyyyy before internet days) and never found one thing to back that up. Maybe as is said above it depends on the quality but I have used cheap brands, back when Hartz brand carbon was the big thing, and still never had problems. My dad even went so far as to take a water sample to a friend of his the teaches chemistry (to ease my pre-adolescent worries) and he couldn't find anything.

I would suggest if it is still something that makes you worry, if our answers aren't enough,call your local university chemistry department, do more reasearch, use the internet. (Geeeesh wish I had had internet back in the day. Those books were friggin' heavy) Find out everything you can before making a decision.

Personally I recommend using carbon or ammo-carb in freshwater tanks, but milage may vary.

 

[krazeeboy]

from what i have gathered from here and another forum, i have come to the conclusion that carbon is not as bad as the article makes it to be. i will continue using carbon in my tank then. thanks for all the good advice on this since i was so confused by this article! also i never took out my carbon while the tank was cycling and seem to have still fully cycled the tank. would it have cycled faster without the carbon?

 

[Rikesh]

(wayyyyyyyyyyyy before internet days)

OMG, there was life before the internet era????

Anyway, I've had same carbon cartridge in some tanks for more than 6 months without losing fish..

 

[atomiclord]

Anyway, I've had same carbon cartridge in some tanks for more than 6 months without losing fish..

I've no great experience with carbon cartridges, but I will point out that there's a difference between happy healthy fish and not losing fish. I'm not saying you're a bad aquarist at all Just pointing out that there are shades of grey (pun intended). Would a carbon filter affect different fish more than others? Would some fish prefer one? Etc etc. I'm sure, as with every other aspect of water quality, that different fish will thrive under different circumstances.

 

[Rikesh]

I understand what you're talking about... Thriving and surviving are both called living... By alive I meant to say that they were appearing fine, with no symptom of illness and still breeding

 

[atomiclord]

And crystal clear water I presume.

 

[Rikesh]

Yeah. One thing that's pretty impressive is the amount of time that carbon takes to aDsorb(its not aBsorb) the tannins...

I'm a fan of tannins indian almond leaves, coconut, and banana leaves

 

[DragonFish71]

Yeah. One thing that's pretty impressive is the amount of time that carbon takes to aDsorb(its not aBsorb) the tannins...

I'm a fan of tannins indian almond leaves, coconut, and banana leaves

I use the Black Water Extract for the one tank I don't have wood in. My tetras love it! I've heard the indian almond leaves are great for Bettas, do you have any thoughts on that?

 

[Rikesh]

That's true. Indian almond leaves are good for all fish that love tannins(tetra too). I collected them from a guy's yard. Just imagine someone waving at you and asking you if he can collect some of the dry leaves from your yard for free. rofl.

Use coconut to get some DIY caves or to hold java fern. I used banana leaves for some little tank outside. Now I use only Indian Almond leaves.