So I took the carbon out of my filter...?

Question

I read that it also takes out essential nutrients that my plants need. But this leaves me with only a empty filter(No carbon inserted into regular filter cartridge) and the Biofilter in front of that.

Am I going to have enough filter medium to house my good bacteria in?

Answer 1

First, I agree with llriffel. The voice of experience, I guess.

IMO, the main usefulness of carbon would be to remove medication from the water after a treatment is finished. Also, it can be useful if you have an emergency where you need to extra-clean the water as fast as possible, besides doing a massive water change.

Perhaps if you are keeping Discus fish it might give that extra edge so that they stay alive & healthy, and breeding. I don't keep Discus.  ;-)

Besides that, in an established tank with plants & gravel, and most kinds of fish, the main benefit of carbon In the filter is for the manufacturers & sellers of the carbon!

Plants get their necessary carbon from CO2 dissolved in the water. They don't benefit from the carbon in the filter.

Years ago, I started NOT replacing the carbon in the filter, and it didn't make any difference as far as I could see.

If you have an under-gravel filter, the gravel provides excellent biological filtration because of the large numbers of nitrifying bacteria living on the gravel.

If you don't use the gravel for your biological filtration, you can enhance the effectiveness of your filter in other ways. My favourite is to take as large a chunk/piece of  coarse filter sponge as you can reasonably use, cut a hole in one side into near the centre, and slip this over the end of the intake tube of your filter. In effect, this becomes a pre-filter. It becomes clogged way faster than the one on the inside of the filter. When it seems to be getting clogged (the water isn't returning as fast as before) I slide it off, squeeze it out in lukewarm or cool water from the tap until no more mud is coming out of it, give it a shake, and slide it back on the intake tube. Some of the bacteria will still be alive, and anyway, you still have all the bacteria in the inside cartridge/sponge, which will quickly re-colonize the cleaned sponge. Just don't clean the inside one until a few days have passed.after cleaning the outer one. What I like about this method is that it is easy to get at the outer one, and you can go a much longer time before you have to clean the inner one.

I first started using this method as a way of preventing the filter from sucking up babies,  then realized that it was also enhancing my biological filtration.

Answer 2

ok let me get some thumbs down here you do not need the activated carbon at all it is the filter pad that has the bacteria in it in the filter but wait thats not all this is where I get my thumbs down

the truth is the majority of the good bacteria is in the gravel not in the filter and for those that do not beleive this explain this to me then what good does all that bacteria in the filter really do when the excess food and fish waste is on and in the gravel and never even gets near the filter hmmm theres a complex thought sorry for my rant on this I have been chalanged by book readers that don't understand the eco system

yes you will have enough good bacteria and what I said about the gravel is 100 percent true another way I can prove it is we advise useing gravel to seed tanks or water from the gravel

the carbon in filters is to remove very small particals in a well established tank the carbon isn't needed and most people eventualy stop useing it at some point

edit :got to love thease anwsers where is the carbon in the oceans and lakes heck where are the filters in thease bodies of water where fish live and thrive

Answer 3

It is important you maximize cleaning the water you can not over clean it there are enough pollutants

carbon is essential element in filtration

i suggest you should leave it intact

Answer 4

If you want to experiment with eliminating the carbon from the filter, there are other biological filtration media (bioballs, ceramic rings, porous stones) that you can use in the filter box.  Although the carbon may be removing nutrients needed by plants, the carbon also removes harmful products from the biological breakdown of wastes.

Answer 5

While the carbon will be home to a considerable amount of bacteria, as it has an EXTREMELY high surface area (that's what makes it so effective), the displaced bacteria will find other surfaces to colonize.  As Saffrone said, porous stones, or even sand, can be put in the cartridges to create a semi-fluidized bacterial colony.  Carbon will remove some of the minerals your plants need, but unless you are adding fertilizers very rich in iron, magnesium, potassium, or other ionic metals, the chances of it doing any harm to the plants are almost none.  Carbon does NOT remove waste products of fish (ammonia>nitrite>nitrite), just to clear that up.

Contrary to one answer, the majority of the bacterial colony is in the filter, assuming you have the proper media.  Here is a complex answer to the very basic question that user asked: the waste itself is not broken down by said bacteria-- it decomposes (the responsibility of a far different bacteria) into ammonia, which diffuses evenly into the water column.  If you were to test ammonia in your filter, at the surface of the water, in the middle of the tank, and at the bottom of your gravel bed, all the tests would come back the same.  It doesn't matter where the visible waste is, as the ammonia produced by it is spread evenly throughout the tank.  Also, much of the substrate contains far too little oxygen for the AEROBIC bacteria to function properly, while a filter is EXTREMELY well aerated.  If you were to look at the amount of potential space in the substrate and the filter, you would find far more surface area in a filter with any kind of floss, foam, or ceramic than a gravel substrate.  As if that alone didn't speak to the quality of that answer, activated carbon is NOT to remove small particles, but impurities in the water, like metals, organic compounds, and medications!  The amount of bacteria used to seed a new tank is irrelevant, as long as there is some, which is why gravel works, but putting a ceramic ring in the filter is far more effective.  This is also why bare-bottom tanks are also extremely healthy with proper filtration.  To compare a tank to an ocean or river is just about as ignorant as you can get.  Natural bodies of water are millions of times greater than any normal fish tank, providing FAR more dilution, and a natural purification system call the WATER CYCLE.

EDIT: I made several slight additions to the last paragraph and I would appreciate it if you would reread at least the last half.  Adding more filter floss or sponge would work very well, as would some pool filter sand (EXTREMELY high surface area for bacteria!) or crushed lava rock.  It would slow the water flow just enough, especially if you add the prefilter Margaret mentioned, to allow the CO2 to dissolve enough.  And it all comes together!  ;^]  You are also very right about rinsing the prefilter in tank water.