Is carbon necessary

[maderuyck@excite.com]

I have run across several people saying that carbon is not necessary and can even be detrimental to a planted tank. I have a 90 gal with three green sandriana and two catfish. (new tank). The filter is canister style and right now I have carbon in two of the media baskets and bio media in the other two. The lighting is a single 48 inch full spectrum bulb 31 watt I think. Should I get rid of the carbon?

 

[Lotus]

It's really not necessary to run the carbon all the time. It doesn't really increase water quality significantly. The only time you really need to run it is to remove medication from the water. Most of the time, carbon is just an unnecessary added expense.

In planted tanks, carbon will remove trace elements that the plants use.

 

[Avalon]

Yes, remove the carbon and replace it with a good quality biomedia. Proper biological filtration is critical for the success of a planted tank. If your biofilter is inadequate, algae will run rampant and you will encounter problem after problem. If you want carbon, get CO2.

 

[TabMorte]

I was thinking about this as I have an Aquaclear filter. If I put an extra sponge in instead of carbon will that be better? Or would it be better to go with a large bag of biomax in there?

 

[Avalon]

Either would be of more help than the carbon, although the biomax would be the preferred route.

 

[TabMorte]

I'll totally keep that in mind. Biomax only had to be changed every 3 months which is way cheaper then doing carbon once a month!

 

[Avalon]

You should use a dedicated biomedia...you never have to replace it (well, maybe every decade or so). Simply clean it 4x a year. Even cheaper. The Eheim biomedia is good stuff. Be sure to keep the oxygen levels high in your tank via a surface ripple from your filter. The better the bacteria can perform, the better everything else in the tank will fare.

 

[Airborneguy]

In my planted tank, I have a Penguin bio-wheel with this as my media:

Aquarium Biological Filtration Media: Cell-Pore BioMedia

I am very happy with it and every week my readings are 0,0,20.

 

[maderuyck@excite.com]

Thanks for all the advice. I will ditch the carbon. I do have biomedia in the cannister filter. As far as oxygen, a surface ripple is all that is needed even with a cover on the tank?