COBettaCouple

Well, given Dino's degree and experience in fish keeping, I'd go with his information. Carbon has been studied and tested in the scientific field.

But, running AC all the time in a filter is really an unnecessary step. It does dump what it captured back into the water and can be replaced with more efficient and neutral media, as SDS pointed out.

We've been running without carbon since last August, and our tanks have been healthier without it than they were with it. Plus, I'm saving money on buying AC over & over and time changing it out weekly.

Everyone is free to chose how/if/when they use carbon as we're each responsible for the aquatic life in our care.

Oh.. and I'm so offended about jelly on toast!

LetDiceFly

If you are talking "science" then most of those Webster definitions don't apply except maybe the second one. What you are actually throwing out are hypothesizes. A theory is a hypothesis that has gone through rigorous controlled testing and no one has been able to prove false. My hypothesis is that carbon works for about a week and is essentially inert for the rest of a month than starts feeding pollutants back into the tank. But it has been shown to remove the nutrients that people put into their tank to grow plants. This is a test that is easily verifiable.

sirdarksol

There is a difference, however.
I am responding to specific notes regarding your theory with knowledge of my own, based on an understanding of science, the amount of carbon we're putting in our filters, etc.
The responses that were given were "this person and that person said that carbon lasts longer."
This is why I responded the way I did.
Anyway, as I said, I will be doing an experiment to test this, as I'm curious about the potential results.

vin

Sirdarksol - Please take no offense - So if I haven't said much - then what is it that you've said? I gave you information that has been given to me by a person who actually studied Marine Bio, is a Marine Biologist and that's not good enough? To dismiss it as 'just doing what they've been doing' is a little off base don't you think? They obviously do it for a reason and the reasons I've provided are based on that same information. If it didn't do anything, they wouldn't use it, know?

Something else for you to chew on - Those who employ water filters in their homes whose main water supply is from an underground well filter more than just "impurities in tapwater".....Those "impurities" come from all sources such as decayed plant matter, disolved minerals, heavy metals and such, much in the same way the filters in the aquarium do....The reason the carbon is added to your aquarium is to filter away these same impurities. Which is exactly another reason why they tell you to add fresh carbon when removing meds and to remove it altogether when treating illness.

And I wish I could find the article that I found a while back...It would answer a lot of your questions.....And not for nothing, but If I'm unsure about something, I usually ask the expert.....Sorry, I just don't like being dismissed like I felt I was.....

lew2000

Here is a site i visit and an old write-up about the use of AC. As with any tank of course, the variables of bio-load and other filtration being utilized. If you google AC and marine filtration, you will find articles that reference longer life times than 3-4wks, based upon water flow, quality/quantity of AC, and other factors.

Sirdarksol - this article also mentions a method for measuring AC performance in a tank.

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com...ed_carbon.html