Activated Carbon with Plants and Medicine

[Winston191]

So I have the Aqueon quietflow filter for my 29 gallon tank and just discovered the cartridges have activated carbon in them and I have live plants in my tank and also medicated once a month with pimafix and melafix. Now I'm worried that the filter has just been cleaning up those products and taking away all my fertilizer for my plants. Any thoughts?

 

[A201]

Switch out the cartridge with a sponge.
Cut the dirty fiber mesh off the cartridge and stuff it into the media box. Discard the plastic frame & carbon. Next add a Fluval foam replacement sponge into the media box.
Petsmart & Petco sell Fluval replacement sponges. They come in various sizes & can be cut to size.
Maintenance is easy; squeeze out the sponge once a month & reuse. No more buying replacement cartridges.

 

[Nickguy5467]

i use the quietflow 30 and 50. after a while when i first started using them like a year ago i stopped using cartridges and put in a couple sponges, bio media(those rock things) in a net on top. those blue sponge like things for more bacteria to live. those cartridges are kinda trash. they work but when you need to change them out you're just throwing out all or your bacteria(which is why i got two in the beginning to alternate)

 

[JB92668]

the carbon will remove meads from the tank i would take it out when treating fish with meads other wise u will be useing meads for nothing carbon isnt really needed in fresh water tanks if u used it in a saltwater that would be bad as it would wreak a salt water set up

 

[PNWBettas]

Carbon removes meds but not ferts. Why are you dosing those meds once a month though? Meds should not be used for prevention, only for treatments of illness. They can lead to resistances and do more damage in the long run. Same reason using antibiotics in people is harmful if you don't actually have something bacterial going on.

 

[Winston191]

Carbon removes meds but not ferts. Why are you dosing those meds once a month though? Meds should not be used for prevention, only for treatments of illness. They can lead to resistances and do more damage in the long run. Same reason using antibiotics in people is harmful if you don't actually have something bacterial going on.

This is why:

24:05-28:37 ,31:25

the carbon will remove meads from the tank i would take it out when treating fish with meads other wise u will be useing meads for nothing carbon isnt really needed in fresh water tanks if u used it in a saltwater that would be bad as it would wreak a salt water set up

How long would you leave it for before adding it back into the filter?

 

[PNWBettas]

Gosh that’s a big big no no for me. I never treat with meds unless I need to. Idk, I wouldn’t take advice from someone keeping tropical fish with a goldfish in the same tank....

 

[MacZ]

This is why:

24:05-28:37 ,31:25

That person has a. not much knowledge about how things actually work and b. is propagating dangerously misleading information. I couldn't bear more than 15 min of listening and already knew that this person has only watched a lot of other youtubers and doesn't seem to have checked on their information. I also presume he didn't listen all the time while watching and misunderstood many things.
I'm once again shocked what one can find on YT these days.

How long would you leave it for before adding it back into the filter?

I would leave carbon out completely. Except to get out meds after a necessary treatment or an accidental introduction of a toxin - for both of which big volume waterchanges should be done first - I wouldn't use carbon at all.

 

[DoubleDutch]

He must have a sales job hahaha. Talking 5 quarters in an hour.

A clear case of Dunning Kruger effect

Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia

 

[Winston191]

Thank you all I will see what I can grab at Petco and PetSmart tomorrow

 

[JB92668]

goldfish shouldnt be keept with tropical fish its a big no no people who do that blows my mind in a bad way