Do I need activated carbon all the time in my filters? I've read many posts that indicate that it loses it's 'activity' rather quickly. Most of my filters have activated carbon in the replacement cartridges, which would lead me to believe that activated carbon is a continuously necessary thing. I've read many posts that indicate that activated carbon is removed during medication to keep medicines from being removed or added to remove medications. In my Aquaclear 200, I'd rather just place a bag of ceramic media over the sponge and have have that much more area for bacteria colonization and biological filtration. I do not seem to have that choice with my Penguin and Tetra filters b/c all the cartridges come with activated carbon. But that Aquaclear has a huge bag of carbon that takes up space that could be used for something else.