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i would love to rid myself of carbon in my fluvals and magnums. can i get away with bio stars and ceramics only? and with ammonia chips that i can recharge? i know its possible to recharge carbon but im not wanting to. any thoughts?

I seldom use carbon in my filters and it worked out fine for me.

I use carbon only in my fry-tanks, breeding tanks and quarantaine tanks, but not in any showtank (unless I have been fooling around with chemicals), or any 'pheromone-setup-tanks'.*

it's handyfor getting rid of medicine-residu or stuff that colors the water too much, but nitrates and such are not affected from charcoal, so you still end up doing waterchanges.

and I've learned in time that constant use of carbon filters out any spore-elements wich are benificial for fish, plants and the bacteria living in the filter.

*ask Dinyar about me and my g habits

i never use carbon, unless after some treatments (been years) and have never had any smell problem or clarity problem....ditch the carbon


doug

Carbon certainly isn't essential. We use it periodically to keep DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) down.

And definitely don't use ammo-chips (except perhaps in an emergency). Let biological filtration take care of your ammonia.

/D

Dinyar wrote:And definitely don't use ammo-chips (except perhaps in an emergency). Let biological filtration take care of your ammonia.

I'm with Dinyar on the ammo-chips. Effective biological filtration coupled with regular water changes should make these completely redundant in anything but the direst of circumstances.

The only time i ever use carbon in any of my filters is when removing any medication from the tank and i have never had any quality or clarity problems with water.

Mark