Charcoal in a planted tank?? Why or Why not?

[Dwarfnut]

I've seen this mentioned a few times in other posts, but never given any reasoning behind it. Is it bad to use charcoal in a planted tank? I wonder because several of my tanks have the Emperor filters and the replacable filter pad things have the charcoal sealed inside them. Should I remove the charcoal form the new filter pads whenever I replace them? Will leaving the charcoal in there hurt the plants?

Thanks,
Bill C.

 

[carpguy]

Charcoal is only active as a chemical filter for a short time. Unless you're using it for a specific chemical filtration goal, you don't really need it. After a few days its basically just an expensive floss. If you can't avoid using it because your locked into a specific filter pad, after a few days its just expensive floss. I've read concerns that while it is active it can strip important nutrients and trace elements out of the water –– not good for the plants.

 

[Skippy]

In my emporers I bought a couple extra of the "fillable media baskets" and I fill them with a cut piece of filter floss you can buy seperate.

I use that for my mechanical on all my planted tanks.

 

[Tim Bo]

I generally agree with carpguy.

For interests sake, there is a study by Shawn Keslar, a chemist at WVU NRCCE Analytical Laboratory who performed an experiment on the effectiveness of activated carbon on some trace elements
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/keslar-carbon.html

 

[wetmanNY]

Tim Hovanec's Aquarium Fish articles about granular activated carbon are archived at the Marineland site www.marineland.com

But no one seems to have looked recently at the table Hovanec originally published in AF showing just what carbon adsorbs well, fairly, or none at all: http://world.std.com/~enjolras/carbon.html

Copper and Fe(III) the metals most mentioned as eliminated by carbon, are only very mildly adsorbed. Perhaps this is just a typhoon in a betta bowl after all...

 

[Dwarfnut]

Thanks guys... looks like pretty convincing evidence that carbon may not be good for the planted tank... although it may not hurt it too much.

I like the Idea Skippy, I think I'll try that real soon.

Thanks again,
Bill C.

 

[Tim Bo]

Thanks for the links Wetman