Carbon In A Planted Tank

[Fish Breath]

Just a quick question. I have a 90 Gal tank with a aquaclear 300 and a Fluval 404 on it. It is a community Tank but has lots of plants in it as well I add fertilizer to the tank for the plants on every water change. The question I have is I have 1 bag of carbon in one of the chambers in my Fluval.A friend had mentioned to me that I shouldn't have carbon in the filter for a planted tank as the Carbon will filter out the nutrients that I have been adding as fertilizer.Is this true ? if so what should i put in that chamber for filtering
thanks

 

[malkore]

This is much debated...but I can tell you from my experience on plant forums, at least 75% of us run no carbon in our planted tanks. Frankly there's no real need to in most situations. Carbon filters out toxins, like what saltwater corals can produce, as well as odors, and medications. Carbon only gets used in my freshwater tanks to remove meds after treating fish (which after a year back in the hobby, doing it the 'right way' I've not had to medicate any of my freshwater tanks).

Instead of carbon...you could add some filter floss, another filter pad, or some ceramic bio rings.

 

[TankGirl]

Carbon will remove certain things from your water for a short period, but the pores become quickly clogged and then it becomes biomedia, so it is great for short-term fixes.

That said, what you need in your filter is a bunch of mechanical and biomedia, which means ceramic rings or the like, coarse pads, and filter floss. If there is a slot left empty by something I don't use, I generally put more floss in its place.

 

[marcus russo]

I do not run carbon but from what a rep told me carbon has a very short life in ability to absorb stuff. After 7 days is is just leaching stuff back into the water!

 

[djlen3]

It is a popular myth that carbon will 'leach stuff' back into the aquarium.
It does however, become useless in a very short period of time, and if you are dosing nutrients, especially micros, it is actually counter productive as it removes some of them, Fe for example, from the water table.
It's really not necessary at all, except after medicating as stated above.

Len

 

[malkore]

actually, very cheap, low grade carbon will leach phosphates back in to the water if left in the filter after it's lifespan is over (which is indeed about 7 days).
most of the stuff you see out there is just fine though, and if you change it weekly you'd not have to worry about anything leeching back in.
but as we've noted, a lot of people use carbon when it's unnecessary...simply adding to the cost of maintenance.

 

[Guest]

The only filtration needed in a planted tank is mechanical. Toss the carbon in the trash and learn the basics of water chemistry. (Unless you want to use the spent carbon to gather useful bachteria)

If you have a sick or unhealth fish. Remove it from the tank and QT it. Treat only the ill fish.

Treating an entire tank for one or two sick fish is flirting with desaster. 8O

 

[aquazen]

Always take the minimalist approach. The less the better. Zen is the art of O.

 

[knashash]

I use Peat now in place of carbon. Since my water is on the hard side someone told me this would be better for the plants.