Where do I put carbon?

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KidFish

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
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Location
St. Cloud MN
I bought 3 pounds of activated carbon for my wet dry filter, but I don't know where to put it.
I have filter floss in my top drawer and pot scrubbers in my second drawer the third drawer is left open as that's where the water level sits
Any suggestions?
 
Most people are of the opinion that carbon is unnecessary unless you are trying to remove chemicals from your aquarium. I have no knowledge about it though. That being said, bb will grow on it. In my HOB the order is, water in->fiberfill(polyester) , carbon, filterfloss, out-> don't know if that helps.
 
Yup, or bio-beads or something like that. But really, if you have the carbon, and already have a lot of bio you can still use it, it's not going to hurt anything, and you can still colonize bb on it, it's just not that useful, and bio media is BETTER.
 
I use carbon between two pieces of blue bonded filter pads, I know a lot of folks say it is a waste but after not using for a over year while stacking additional bio media I went back to using it. The cost is negligible and the water clarity far better
 
I just put it at the bottom of my biomedia layer, it's about half an inch deep over a 1 1/2 foot by 1 foot area. Should be fine:)
 
My favorite fish reference points out that nothing has the surface area carbon does, for bacteria to live on, so put it in but then don't throw it away without recognizing you're taking out huge amounts of bb.
 
My favorite fish reference points out that nothing has the surface area carbon does, for bacteria to live on, so put it in but then don't throw it away without recognizing you're taking out huge amounts of bb.


That's all well and good but my issue with that is the average lifespan of activated carbon is about 30 days if it's used just for water clarity. And that depends on how clean your water is to begin with. After that time period, it's actually fairly useless and biomedia in it's place, IMO is a far better choice. If your using carbon to remove meds, then all it's good for is about 24-48 hours.
 
Well, they DO put it in drinking water filters....:D


They do :) It's kind of weird that ours is meant to be just for improving taste but it lasts for an entire year!

I still like carbon but think it's for when you have spare filter capacity. Purigen I keep meaning to get and try as the cost of carbon gets a bit much.
 
That's all well and good but my issue with that is the average lifespan of activated carbon is about 30 days if it's used just for water clarity. And that depends on how clean your water is to begin with. After that time period, it's actually fairly useless and biomedia in it's place, IMO is a far better choice. If your using carbon to remove meds, then all it's good for is about 24-48 hours.


Yep. This resource pretty much says the same. Except that carbon is the best biomedia because it has the greatest surface area for the amount of space it takes up. So, it only clarifies and cleans for a month but afterward it's hosting more bacteria than anything else could host in the same amount of space.

Lifespan as cleaner ... Short. Lifespan as biomedia ... Long.

I have a 6 week old carbon and floss cartridge in my HOB Filter, and it certainly isn't cleaning anymore, but I don't intend to remove it. I just cut a square of water polishing pad meant for a canister filter and rubber banded it around the carbon cartridge. Seems to be working really well.
 
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