What's so bad about activated carbon?

Yuri De Lima

Yuri De Lima

AC Members
Nov 2, 2005
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Alexandria,VA
I've read in books and even here on the forum that activated carbon takes impurities (bad things) from the water, but it alse will take away good things, such as nutrients for plants and fish remedies. Will activated carbon take away water conditioners, stress coating products and such?
 
Do you have a planted tank and do you dose nutrients for the plants?
If you don't dose nutrients, carbon in the filter will have no negative on your tank.
Many people however, believe that it has little positive effect on any aquaria. I stopped using it years ago.

Len
 
I've read that activated carbons lock up chelated minerals such as iron and other mineral suppliments making them unavailable to plants. But what about old carbon? Each granual has a finite surface area and can only soak up so many molecules. It seems to me it would still be useful as a cheap reusable mechanical filter. But probably easier to just replace it with a quality floss.
 
djlen said:
Do you have a planted tank and do you dose nutrients for the plants?
If you don't dose nutrients, carbon in the filter will have no negative on your tank.
Many people however, believe that it has little positive effect on any aquaria. I stopped using it years ago.

Len
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Yes I do have (trying to have) a planted tank. It's a 10G with a couple of fishes in it. The pants don't seem to grow, they grow and stop and die. I wonder if i should remove the activated carbon?
 
I run activated carbon in my planted tank. I change the carbon every 3 months or so. It agressively scavenges minerals/organics from the water for about 1 week after that, it becomes a good mechanical/biofilter. My plants grow like crazy and my tank is clear and doing well. Your poor plant growth probably has to do with other factors like light or water compatibility.
 
djlen said:
What kind of light are you supplying? Nutrients?

Len
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Well it's obe of those Satellite Fixture, it's 20" in length. http://www.current-usa.com/products/satellite.html It's got 40 watts , so if i'm not wrong, that's abou 4 watts per gallon of water. Isn't that enough? The only nutrient that I've been supplying is Natrafin's Plant Gro Iron Enriched.
 
OK, the reason that they 'grow and stop and die' is that they are hungry.
Excellent lighting for your tank, but hopefully you have enough plants in there to balance that much light.
And you will need to start dosing more nutrients if you want the plants to stay healthy. They are not dieing from lack of light.
Are you experiencing any algae issues? I'm amazed if your not!!!!!:):):)
What kind of plants and how many are in the tank.
CO2 injection would be of great benefit, and you definitely need to lose the charcoal in the filter.

Len
 
There are 7 plants in the tank, I don't actually know what they are, except one, an amazon sword and a red looking one. The Substrate that I have is a mixture of Seachem's Fluorite and black sand (Tropic Isle Tahitian Moon Sand). Most of the sand is on top. Could the sand be the problem also? Should I use gravel instead?
There is not a lot of algae problems, except a lil bit on the inside of the glass, which i clean often and some on the plant's leaves...that's when they start to die, when they get that algae.
What kind of nutrients am i supposed to "feed " them?


CO2, home made kits or one of those hagen kits?
 
From the sounds of it, the sand should not be a problem. Many of us mix other material with Flourite.
I know this is a PITA, but can you reply with all the elements/ingredients that are included in your 'PlantGrow'?
If you are not experiencing heavy algae problems, the solution might be to buy some floating plants to shade the tank a bit and up the dosage of what you're already feeding with.
I would suggest some type of DIY CO2 or buy the Hagen Kit and then pick up some Yeast and Sugar at the supermarket rather than buying their replacement packages which are on the expensive side. I'm not real familiar with those kits, but if the Hagen one is the one that comes with a 'ladder', that's the one I'd get. Those ladders are very effective at getting the gas into the water.

Len
 
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