Clutching to a security blanket...

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know how long the carbon stays, well, active? I change my media out maybe every 2 months. The only time new carbon gets added is on that media change. From what I've heard elsewhere - it doesn't even stay effective for that length of time.

The only benefit I see is that my water clarity seems to be increased and the natural soil-like tank smell reduced. Other than that, I only really use it because it comes with my filter refills.
 
in my aquamaster i have the carbon floss you get in sheets and have to cut. in my whisper 30-60 i have the plan bags and carbon. in my whisper 20-40 i have two of the bio sponges that they come with. I did this this morning to test the waters of less carbon.

I dont check my levles to offton and i only have a ph and amonia kit could this be a problem?
 
Says it stays active about a month
 
Carbon in your filter has no impact on the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate pollution in your tank. I don't believe it affects PH either.
 
what does it do then?
 
removes unseemly smells, probably strains out some solid wastes
 
from a post by rrkss...

I sometimes like to add fresh carbon to the filter to ultra polish the water. This ultra polished water helps the new fish adjust to the tank after the stress of moving and also by reducing organics, decreases the workload on the biofilter allowing it to cope with higher fishload. The insurance reason is rather simple. You can't always watch every guest during a social gathering so the carbon takes care of any mishaps that might occur with your guests and the fish tank.

and by TKOS...

Will it hurt to use carbon, not at all. But it will hurt the pocket book if you want to use carbon to its full advantage as that would mean new carbon each week.


Though I have used it since my first tanks back in the mid 70's. Mainly to polish and remove some organics.
 
I also thought some big disaster would befall my tank when I went carbonless in 2002 - when I learned right here on AC it wasn't necessary. But of course no such disaster happened. If you decide to take the plunge, do what I didn't do (but should have). Put the money you save not buying carbon into a piggy bank. 4 years later, I could have had a nice chunk of change!
 
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