charcoal removal

[tropicfishman]

ok, every where i go every one says that charcoal is only used to remove meds, odors and tannins. thats easy enough to understand. I use a regent HOB type filter, works fine for my application, but I usea different filter cartridge brand than whats intended. I found that like most cartridges you can't actually remove the carbon without cutting the bag open, but I found that whisper makes cartridges that can be unclipped and filled with whatever you desire. I like this alot. Only problem...they stick up heigher than whats intended and make the lid not lay down correctly, no big deal though. anyways i was going to remove the carbon from the pack and put in the ammonia dissolving chips instead of using the c 100 ammonia bags. Well would this be a smart idea? I don't want any coloring or odors obviously and i don't use any driftwood just fake plants and ornaments. So would it be ok to just run the floss by itself or with the ammonia chips in it? and is there any other way to remove odors and colors with out the side effect of removing meds? one last question, by meds, does this include dechloirinators, stress coat, stress zyme, things of this nature? thanks agian for any help

 

[YuccaPatrol]

If you are doing regular water changes, you probably don't need the ammonia removing chips.

I have a regent filter (same manufacturer as Penguin) for my 29 gallon and I cut the backs off of the filter inserts and remove the carbon.

I am going to be adding more filter floss though as soon as I get some after reading more posts here about the benefits of using it to remove very small particles.

 

[rich311k]

Dechlors do thier work instantly and are gone, so the AC has no effect on them. Stress Zyme is supposed to be bacteria so the AC would have no effect on that either.

 

[tropicfishman]

coolness, so its more for removing ick mand fungal meds then

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Also, for the cycle purposes, you don't want to use anything that removes ammonia. You can use the floss alone, or if you want a little more filtration, add some floss inside it. You can get floss cheap at Walmart. I've never got it myself, so others in here can tell you exactly what to get. Just take a bit of floss and add it inside the filter cartrige and put the top back on it. Or if you want to use media in it, use something like ceramic rings or lava granules.

 

[tropicfishman]

so the floss alone will doa good job of filtering out anything like food, waste, small debris, etc.??? I was thinking when it came time to change my filter media i was going to put the couple bio balls inside the bag along with one of those C- 100 ammonia remover bags, what do you all think, does that sound like a good idea?

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I personally don't like ammonia removers. They are good when medicating the tank incase the meds kill off your bacterial colonies.. but other then that they hinder more then help.

I Use floss and Biological only.. Resins are a pain. The only one I'd recommend is a 100g seachem Purigen sack. It removes discolouration, Dissolved organics, and effectively reduces Nitrates (Dissolved organics = Nitrates). It can be regenerated up to 20 times and doesn't leach anything into the water.

The biological filter will reduce ammonia->nitrite->nitrate and water changes removes the nitrate. Removing the ammonia with Ammo-chips can effectively throw your biological filtration into dormancy. (making you dependant on Ammo-chips to keep your ammonia level down.)

 

[tropicfishman]

I never would have expected that it would throw my biological filtration into dormacy, I'm going to rethink my filtering

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I'm just going on logical premise here. Ammonia is required to cycle a tank, and to maintain the bacterial colonies (that's why you need to keep adding ammonia for a fishless cycle). If you remove all the ammonia, there is nothing for the nitrifying bacteria to work with, so they go dormant. Without nitrites the nitrafying bacteria would have produced, the nitrafying bacteria never have anything to work with...

 

[cJw]

What's the advantage of using ceramic rings or lava granules as opposed to two cartridges with floss in them?

 

[rich311k]

The rings etc. have a lot of surface are for bacterial growth. They never have to replaced and they almost never need rinsed unless the filter really gets mucked up.

 

[cJw]

But the substrate is plenty of bio filtration, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better for water clarity to have more particulate filtration?

 

[tropicfishman]

I have 3 bio balls in my filter already, ones brand new, the other two came from a friends tank that was a few years old nad they had bacteria all over them, I'm just scared that if cease using ammonia detox and the ammonia removing bags that i'll have a sudden peak in ammonia levels and it will kill my fish

 

[Guest]

But the substrate is plenty of bio filtration, isn't it? Wouldn't it be better for water clarity to have more particulate filtration?

As long as you don't mind rising and replacing all the time probably.