# carbon insert necessary?



## killfishykill (Jan 13, 2004)

i hear some people dont use carbon, whereas i believe carbon is the way of life for my tank. for people that dont use it how do they keep the water from getting cloudy? if i take the carbon out for a day my water begins to cloud up again. and it clouds badly


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

With a good mechanical and biological filter, you do not need activated carbon to keep your water crystal clear. Carbon is basically used to pull meds/toxins from the water. It also does a good job in removing dyes such as methylene blue, malachite green, and tannins from drifwood/peat/blackwater extract.

What you are experiencing is probably the loss of biological filtration when you remove your activated carbon. Even though the chemical filtering capabilities of carbon is used in a month or so, the surface area provides a good place for nitrifiers to colonize when left in the filter long enough. Removing it afterwards might result in cloudy water as the system tries to stabilize itself once again.


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## Genin (Feb 4, 2003)

DonH said:


> With a good mechanical and biological filter, you do not need activated carbon to keep your water crystal clear. Carbon is basically used to pull meds/toxins from the water. It also does a good job in removing dyes such as methylene blue, malachite green, and tannins from drifwood/peat/blackwater extract.
> 
> What you are experiencing is probably the loss of biological filtration when you remove your activated carbon. Even though the chemical filtering capabilities of carbon is used in a month or so, the surface area provides a good place for nitrifiers to colonize when left in the filter long enough. Removing it afterwards might result in cloudy water as the system tries to stabilize itself once again.


 oh you always take all the good answers :laugh: .

i was going to say that to







, no seriously :nod: .


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

Right now I am using carbon inserts and I filled my media inserts with the gravel that I have on the bottom of my tank in my emperor 400. 
Would there be any harm in not replacing the carbon inserts? I know that the carbon would be uneffective after a while but the inserts would provide good surface area for biological filtration.
If I must change the carbon inserts then would I need to change the gravel in my media inserts after a while, if so how often? 
Lots of questions, thanks!


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## smithgrind_who (Mar 26, 2004)

When my 55 US gallon tanks starts to really stink carbon does a good job of removing the smell.



BigChuckP said:


> Would there be any harm in not replacing the carbon inserts? I know that the carbon would be uneffective after a while but the inserts would provide good surface area for biological filtration.
> If I must change the carbon inserts then would I need to change the gravel in my media inserts after a while, if so how often?
> Lots of questions, thanks!


Since you are not worried about chemical filtration, the mechanical filter should be cleaned to remove the build up of waste. After time if you don't clean the mechanical media, solid waste will create heterotrophic bacteria which might lead to problems in the future. As gravel for media, it's not a bad idea because the nitrifying bacteria grows on surfaces. I not sure how long you could use the gravel for biological filter. A more porous material would work better than gravel.


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## ShaneN. (Mar 8, 2004)

off topic but are those angel eyes in your avatar? what kind of car do you drive?


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## killfishykill (Jan 13, 2004)

is their a way i can change the way of using carbon to not using carbon and still maintain clear water? cuz from my knowledge carbon is always used in fish tanks, but i've learned from this site that it isnt. so im thinking why spend that extra money if i dont have too. since ive had teh tank ive been replacing carbon inserts on my ac500 every month, but the water still gets cloudy. im thinking b/c i clean the carbon and teh sponge too well to the point that bacteria is lacking. am i right?


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## chiefkyle (May 3, 2004)

killfishykill said:


> is their a way i can change the way of using carbon to not using carbon and still maintain clear water? cuz from my knowledge carbon is always used in fish tanks, but i've learned from this site that it isnt. so im thinking why spend that extra money if i dont have too. since ive had teh tank ive been replacing carbon inserts on my ac500 every month, but the water still gets cloudy. im thinking b/c i clean the carbon and teh sponge too well to the point that bacteria is lacking. am i right?


 From what I can make of the bateria/cycle proccess, I would say that if you never replace or clean your carbon, good bacteria would grow on it, thus making an even better chemical filter than the carbon itself.

Only problem with carbon filters are that most of them (as in the Penguin 330's case), the back of the carbon filter *IS* the mechanical filter as well. So you have to clean them, in the proccess killing benificial bacteria off.

On the other hand, if you use the extra filter baskets (again example is the Penguin 330) to hold carbon, instead a bag, then you would solve the bag-filter cleaning problem.

Hope that makes some sence.


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## killfishykill (Jan 13, 2004)

after having 4 rbp for almost a year. all hell broke loose lately whereas my tank has been way cloudy and the ammonia was a problem. the only thing i can think of is that i added a cichlid and another filter (took the cichlid and filter from a different cycled tank) and added it all to my 80 gallon in hope that it would save my fishes. my tank only got cloudier again and again and they got cloudy eyes. 1 of my biggest rbp died and im afraid im doing somthing wrong lately. ive kept fishes for over a year and only lately ive lost 1 due to unknown reasons. the rbp that died had cloudy eyes and they havent been eating for a month. i fixed the ammonia problem but the water is still cloudy. i guess im on a breakdown of giving up fishes!?!







iono if i wantt o keep fishes anymore after that one died, they were my babies! i guess it was due to cleaning the carbon and sponge every week or that im hexed? b/c ive done this routine forever and only lately the waters been unstable and cloudy


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

On the angel eyes question.. that looks like a 94-00 Integra.


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## killfishygo (Jan 13, 2004)

doctorvtec said:


> On the angel eyes question.. that looks like a 94-00 Integra.


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