carbon again

i use carbon but not regular basis. carbon has limited abilty to absorb organics and it will not absorb nitrates. water changes is a good way to keep organics under control. if the ph out of your tap isnt close to that of your tank i do not recomend changing 60% of your water at one time. as far as the hole in the head caused by carbon i dont know one way or the other.

I rarely use carbon anymore. I think my tanks are fine without it. If I'm having troubles I may through carbon in a corner filter and run it for a week or more. I have two tanks with wally world poly filters and its been a year and counting without any trouble. P.S. I work in Winsted.

The only time I use carbon is when I add new peat to my filter. That is so it will remove the tannin that the peat bleeds out. The only other time I use it is to remove meds from the tank that I was treating.

yes i know this and have read the same books but my tanks are not the same ph as my tap so a 50% water change is very stressfull to my fish. i do 15-20% every other day. you can change 90% of the water if your tank and your tap water chem. is the same. it is not good for your fish to rapidly change your water chem. the difference between 7.0 and 7.1 is ten fold to a fish.
a far as hole in the head 11 months ago i bought an 8" female midas that had hole in the head when i got her. not only did i stop the hole in the head but all of her sores have completely healed over so i think im doing some thing right.

i also soaked pellets and other foods in vitamins that seemed to help a good bit. any way you can destress the fishes life is going to help. and more h20 changes also helps. depending on how old the fish is the sores may never fully heal. as far as meds. i didn't use any. i also noticed a big change when i put her in a larger tank(180 gal) . so lots of water changes, good quality foods, low stress level, and having a big tank is what worked for me. this is her now at 10.5"