Is it true? Activated Carbon removes essential plant nutrients from the water?

[Ezekielz]

Hey guys, I just bought an Aqua Clear 50 Powerfilter for my 28 gallon bowfront tank. And I was wondering (since I like clear/clean water) is it true that activated carbon that comes with this filter removes plant nutrients from the water? I dose with dry ferts I purchased from Aquariumfertilizers.com aswell as Flourish Excel. I have seachem black sand substrate and a 55w light kit I purchased from AH supply. Would it be okay to have carbon in the filter? Thanks.

[vampie]

Yep, carbon can remove them.

[DGalt]

don't run carbon in your filter unless you need to remove medication or some toxin or something like that.

[Mgamer20o0]

its debatable at best. if your adding them i dont think it could suck them all up if you did. there are many good reasons why to use carbon.

[Riiz]

the best chemical filtration is free or close to it..... waterchanges

[James0816]

I've been told yes and no. I didn't even think about when I setup my canister. I put the charcoal pad in it. Just started dosing the PMDD as well.

So...bumpers to the top to get other answers.

[rich311k]

I do not think so. It will not remove nitrates so that is at least one that will be safe. The people who have seen say no are the experts I would trust.

[Penfan66]

http://www.barrreport.com/general-plant-topics/4382-active-carbon-yes-no.html?highlight=Activated+Carbon

See what Plantbrain et,al. have to say about it here.

[H3D]

When someone can prove carbon removes the "mystery trace elements" I'll believe it.

[bazil323]

I can believe it, although it is really only useful for a short time. It quickly loses it's maximum efficiency and then really just becomes a place for beneficial bacteria to grow. That's why it is recommended that you buy only a small amount of activated carbon at a time as, once it is exposed to air, water, etc, it so quickly becomes useless (except as a place for bb to grow.)

I thought that I'd add that activated carbon is used in hospitals, etc, to remove excess medications, etc, when someone overdoses, accidentally or intentionally. I work in a hospital. Shocked me the first time I transcribed that! :)

So, yeah, it definitely will soak up some things very well, but I'm not sure what other than meds.

[plantbrain]

I never have seen any noted issues with dosing and using carbon, neither has Amano. So it does remove things, mostly organics, but I've not seen any evidence that using it is anyway detrimental to a planted tanks.

It really does not last long as a chemical remover, maybe 1-2 months or so.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[pinkertd]

Glad you stopped by and replied Tom! I agree 100%. I use top grade activated charcoal in all of my low tech planted tanks and dose ferts very infrequently without issue. I only change the activated carbon once in a blue moon. Once it is incapable of adsorbing any more organic pollutants, it does act as more biological filter media. The proof of no harm to plants and fish is in the tanks.

[jpappy789]

Never noticed anything wrong either...unless someone can scientifically prove that carbon is detrimental to plants I chalk it up as another myth.

[The Zigman]

I dont run carbon in any of my tanks simply because I dont think its needed...
Unless you are removing meds, it is really unnecessary, and like tom said, it is only good for about a month or so anyway..

[plantbrain]

Some use it to remove long term tannins from driftwood in planted tanks or for shorter term things like new tank start ups, and then some add it for ADA As which leaches a lot of tannins as well. I use it for removing color/tannins and that's about all.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[plantbrain]

Oh, BTW, acrivated carbon is what is used to remove the allelopathic chemicals in all the control studies on the topic for plant biology(plant- plant, or for us, as some have claimed, algae=plant internactions).

So if you buy into allelopathy, using activated carbon should induce algae if alleopathy is causing any effect on aquatic plants releasing alleopathic chemicals.

Yet..........we sure do not see it.

Simple easy test any planted aquarist can do to falsify the entire hypothesis and move on to real issue with algae and plant growth:thm:

Instead folks speculate, not test. You can figure out a lot more and resolve many things without getting lost in all that monkey business.

And activated carbon can help give you a control to test against for organics.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Mgamer20o0]

Simple easy test any planted aquarist can do to falsify the entire hypothesis and move on to real issue with algae and plant growth:thm:

Instead folks speculate, not test. You can figure out a lot more and resolve many things without getting lost in all that monkey business.

And activated carbon can help give you a control to test against for organics.

Regards,
Tom Barr
sadly less and less people seem to do this. same with will this plant grow in this tank. try it and see. mess around with the light more light less light longer shorter ferts no ferts see how they change for their own tank. this is one of the reasons why i love fish so much there isnt one answer for everything. even with 24 tanks set up they are all different.