brace yourself for another dumb newbie question.

[BigDaddy420]

carbon.
ok, i know what it is, charcoal looking stuff, ive always had hang on back filters that had the cartridges with the carbon already in them, never really bothered much with them once they were in the filter besides rinsing them off every now and then. well when i bought my 55, they gave me a double hob filter and a box of cartridges with carbon already in them, but they also gave me a small jug of loose charcoal/carbon, i kinda basically know that carbon is used for some sort of filtration/water cleaning, but can someone give me a better idea? ive looked around here a bit, did a search for carbon but didnt come up with much. do i need this stuff? it doesnt look like they used much of it, but then again, everything i got from them was virtually brand new.

 

[rhoymand]

activated carbon has microscopic pores that filter the water. theyll trap a wide assortment of things (even medication). when most of the pores are filled, its time to replace them. once the carbon inside the cartridges are used up in about a month or so, just throw out the old carbon and fill it up w/ the loose carbon you have. dont forget to rinse as new carbon is pretty dusty.

 

[TLH]

I've never used Carbon but understand it's good for cleaning water.If you medicate you should remove it while you treat your water or it will absorb the medication before it works.I found this site on the net which tells you alot about the other uses for it which are non-aquarium,
http://www.activated-carbon.com/carbon.html
This site'll tell you a bit about aquarium use,
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/carbon.html

 

[BigDaddy420]

thanks, i have a little bit better understanding now. the cutting the carbon out of the filter helped most of all, ive never heard of having to do that before.

 

[FroggyFox]

...I'm not sure what you mean that you didn't find much on MFT about this...as we've had lots of discussions. Here is one: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28747&highlight=carbon+filter

There are over 500 threads that mention carbon because its a common topic. (I think the search feature will only bring back the first 500)...probably searching for 'activated+carbon' would get you more directed results.

 

[BigDaddy420]

yeah i read most of that, i was more asking about the loose carbon v/s whats in the cartridge already, i didnt know you needed to change out the carbon out of those, like maybe the loose carbon was for cannister filters or something besides HOB.

 

[TLM4x4]

I buy "loose" carbon and make my own filter pads for my tanks. It is somewhat cheaper than buying the ready made ones. Thats the only reason I thought one would buy the loose carbon...and yes you DO need to change out the carbon in your filter system..the pores get full of the stuff it filters from the water.

 

[f8fan]

I don't use carbon. I have it on hand in case I ever need to use it to get rid of medication, or whatnot, but my filters are all filled with polyester batting/Marineland "cut to size" foam pads.
I have formed the opinion on my own from posts here that carbon is not necessary. All I do is give the foam pads a good squeeze/dunking in aquarium water from water changes about once a month, and replace them like twice a year or so.
There are a ton of posts about carbon uses and the debate as to whether it is useful or not. My tanks stay happy, healthy, and clean from weekly water changes and good bacteria colonies on my foam pads.

 

[JWright]

Yeah, same here, I have a small jar of activated charcoal handy in case of a chemical spill in the tank, or medication removel, or whatever, but I don't run carbon long-term.

~JW