carbon?

[Ktw020]

What are the effects of carbon in a filter on a planted tank?

 

[james77]

If your using liquid fertilizers the carbon will remove the fertilizer. I take the carbon out of my filters in my planted tank.

 

[Mijo51380]

What do you replace it with?

 

[james77]

I don't. I have penguin hob filters so the cartridges have the carbon already in them. I cut it out and double up on the filter cartridges. The penguins have room for 2 cartridges per side so that's what I put in them. So each of my penguin 350s I have running on my tank have 4 filter cartridges a piece in them with no carbon.

 

[wildroseofky]

I have two filters that use cartridge type filter media. I just slit the filter material open and dumped out the carbon. I then sewed a piece of white filter cloth I got from Dr. Fosters and Smith onto it. It is 30 micron filter padding I think. It catches smaller particles than the stuff on those cartridges. I used fishing line to sew it on. I have also made a bag out of it for the Whisper filter. That way I can just slide it onto the plastic grid thing that came with the filter. You can use whatever type of filter media you want to attach to the plastic frame work.

 

[Rivercats]

Honestly this is such a highly debatable subject that you'll get answers on both sides. That being said I've used Carbon in large amounts in canister filters in planted tanks before for months on end just to see if there was any difference in plants showing any type of nutrient deficiency and can say there was no difference in the tanks as far as plants were concerned. So that being said IMO you can use it without worry if you want or not use it. If you have an HOB cartridge then there is such a small amount of carbon in them it really isn't going to hurt plus carbon lasts generally 2-4 weeks before the pores are filled up at which time the carbon then becomes another media for BB to grow on. So use it if you want or don't use it.

 

[aqua_chem]

There is debate about whether or not fresh carbon will pull out certain nutrients from a tank. If it's old carbon (or if you're not going to regularly replace it), it's a complete non-issue.

 

[Delapool]

Would this also be true for liquid co2?

I'm running about half a cup of carbon in a backup internal filter to see if it improves water clarity.

 

[Rivercats]

Activated Carbon used in filters does not remove liquid carbons. I use liquid carbon in a lot of my tanks that I also have used carbon in.

 

[Mijo51380]

So what are the benefits of a carbon filter?

 

[Rivercats]

Activated carbon adsorbs a number of dissolved contaminants such as, chloramines and chlorine, tannins (which color the water) and phenols (which cause odors) among other things. This article might be helpful: Carbon Filtration In Freshwater Aquariums.

 

[Delapool]

Activated Carbon used in filters does not remove liquid carbons. I use liquid carbon in a lot of my tanks that I also have used carbon in.

Thank-you, much appreciated on the information.