Activated Carbon

[Beginer]

Hello,
I have a planted aquarium with bio-wheel filter, I add liquid fertilizer every week but I'm afraid activated carbon in the filter will remove ions such as Fe, Zn, ..etc..
Any ideas ? Thanks.

 

[Bearfan]

It won't. Without getting into the chemistry, it won't. It has to do with their specific gravities being greater than that of water. Will you loose some, yep, but is it worse not to have activated carbon to polish you water and remove odor and fine particulate, yep. Make sure you are using a phosphate free liquid fertilizer to avoid algae blooms.

 

[emorrison33]

The carbon filtration will remove some of the heavy metals. I personally only use activated carbon intermittantly. I use it once a week for 24 hours at a time. This reduces the loss from the carbon while adding my liquid fertilizer. I have heard of many others using the intermittant carbon schedule. I have also heard of people only using it when the water becomes cloudy or when an odor is present. Read the following article for exactly what activated carbon "takes out" of your water.
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/carbon.html

 

[emorrison33]

Just as a side note. Activated carbon ALWAYS leaches some amount of phosphate into the aquarium (although very minimal in better brands). This is another reason for using your carbon occasionally. Seachem has a product called "Renew" which is an alternative to activated carbon, that serves the same purpose. They also sell a product called PhosGuard to remove phophates in your tank. It is important to know that live plants do require some amounts of phosphates to survive, although you should keep them to less than 1.0 mg/L or algae blooms will occur.
http://www.seachem.com/seachemframeset.html

 

[targaboy78]

I can't remember where I read it but I have heard that activated carbon is only really "activated" for 2 or 3 days, then afterwards it is pretty much just a good media that supplies surface area for beneficial bacteria.

Don't quote me on this, yet... I will followup with this post if I can find the source of my original info.