lousieg55

Well i thought i would be smart and take the filter media from the old tank and rub my filter with it.... Well i was an idiot: and broke the filter open and about 20 little pellets of the black charchoal stuff came out and went all over my tank along with a bunch of other stuff from the filter, Tank its cloudy cloudy cloudy lol.

What should i do will the charchoal harm the fish or will they eat it.

Yea LOL

Llama

The charcoal is 'activated carbon'

It adsorbs poisons, smells and colourants from the water.

However after 4 weeks or so, it stops working and then it may start to leech out whatever it had adsorbed.

So I think its best if you remove it. Before it starts leeching out stuff.

pepetj

Remove as much as you can but don't worry if some remain in there. A few cylinders of charcoal in the substrate won't harm no one. Your filter should clear your water in an hour or so.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

lousieg55

okay, im about to leave right now for a Birthday party already late so it will have to wait till tomorrow, I guess what ever benificatial bacteria that i got from this filter is in there or not lol.

Shawnie

"rubbing" media onto another unestablished media, isnt going to transfer it ..its not like a bug ...it needs to be in the continuously to help...try to vacuum up what you can...its going to be very hard if the subtrate is dark tho....but I hope things work out ok!

lousieg55

ya will it really harm my fish in any way or should i be fine. I dont think ill really be able to get much out kinda all over.

aquarist48

Truckguy I think everything will be fine. I had a bag of carbon to burst in my tide pool of the filter box years ago...I'm sure some is still in there. It hasn't caused any problems.

lousieg55

Yea i hope so lol, I cant realyl get any of it out, but we will see lol. Lesson learend that they break really easy.

Ill keep you guys updated, Im about to head home from my GFs house and see if it still cloudy and how my fish are doing.

Also going to go pick up a nitrate test kit since mine does not come with one.