Chemical Filtration

so what's with the big debate over chemical filtration? its almost a 50-50 mix on weather to use it or not. in my opinion why wouldnt you use it? its just helping that much more. I get AC has a short life and all that but there are other products now that seem to be a really good replacement to normal AC. I haven't done tons of research on products but I still wonder why so many people are against it!

 

I'm not really against it but I see little if any difference not using it. So why waiste the money on something that doesn't make difference. I know its not expensive but it would add up in the 20 years I have had fish and I used to have lots of tanks.

 

I happen to like using carbon. I know a lot of people don't but I find it useful with no negatives on my tanks health. I find it especially useful in my goldfish & cichlid tanks due to their being messy little buggers.
It can be helpful just to have on hand in case of needing to remove meds as well. It also works well for removing tannins from driftwood or cholla from your water.
I've also use Bio-Chem Zorb which is like uber-carbon. I think it works very well.
Some people say that it removes essential nutrients from water that plants need but all my tanks are planted & have suffered no ill effects. Although it's been mentioned for decades, it does NOT leach "toxins" back into the water when it's exhausted, it just doesn't adsorb anymore. I've also tried Purigen but I didn't think that did much in my tanks. Chemi-Pure is another one but I don't have any experience with it although many people love it. I usually only use zeolite in hospital or quarantine tanks to help with ammonia in case I don't have a spare sponge filter handy.
I do find biological & mechanical filtration to be the most important but chemical can be useful as well.

I forgot to add, supposedly carbon contributes to HLLE but I don't think there have been any definitive studies on this.

 

What's HLLE? I've never heard of it before.
I'm also not really on either side of the debate, it doesn't make a noticeable difference to me so why should I spend extra money, but I do also keep a few spare cartridges lying around in the event I need them to remove meds or something

 

What's HLLE? I've never heard of it before.
I'm also not really on either side of the debate, it doesn't make a noticeable difference to me so why should I spend extra money, but I do also keep a few spare cartridges lying around in the event I need them to remove meds or something

Head and Lateral Line Erosion also known as Hole in the Head disease.

 

Yikes, that's scary stuff! Hopefully there's no link to that and carbon then

 

Isn't hlle more of a marine thing?

 

Isn't hlle more of a marine thing?

It's also a freshwater thing.

 

I rarely use activated carbon anymore.

I used to, but then stopped when I ran out and my tanks were fine. I haven't used in the last year and my tanks look the same. It just seemed like an unnecessary expense to change the carbon on 4 tanks (117 gallons total) each month.

I'll put it in temporarily if I'm paranoid someone sprayed something into the air that got into my tank, or someone put their hands in the tank with lotion or something.

My water does have a tannin tint to it now that I don't use carbon, but I actually think it looks nice. I go for the "natural creek" look and only use wood, rocks, sand, and plants to decorate. The tint compliments the scape and makes it look even more natural.

 

Wow lots of feedback thanks everyone! Not going to try and quote all of you haha. For all those that say they don't see the difference, I don't think your supposed to see the trace elements that it's taking out of the water lol. And ystrout what is tannin? And MatildaLjungberg thank you for the info! I have been drawn to chemipure from hearing lots about it. And everyone says the chemipure works for like 6 months! But is there really silicate in the fish tank? That's one of the things it says it removes. How did it get in there

Oh yea and I was gonna say 2 of my chiclids got hole in the head! Seperate tanks and separate times. But yea it's happened to me and the 1st time it happened it was a convict cichlid about 8" in length... The hole got so big and I didn't know there was fish medication at all at that time. This was years ago tho! Didn't know anything back then

 

Tannin is what leeches off of driftwood and some plants, it gives the water a little brown tint. Kinda like watered down tea

 

Actived carbon doesn't remove trace elements... It removes orgranic and inorganic compounds like tannins, chlorine, odor causing ones, etc. Tannins aren't bad and are actually preferred by most people since they're good for the fish and look natural. Chlorine should be removed with Prime. And if you don't have odor causing compounds present in your tank because you do regular maintenance, I don't see a need for it.

 

Actived carbon doesn't remove trace elements... It removes orgranic and inorganic compounds like tannins, chlorine, odor causing ones, etc. Tannins aren't bad and are actually preferred by most people since they're good for the fish and look natural. Chlorine should be removed with Prime. And if you don't have odor causing compounds present in your tank because you do regular maintenance, I don't see a need for it.

Haha ok that's great thanks. And my goal it to definitely keep up on the maintenance as much as possible! So unless I start having some whacky problems that may require carbon to help fix the issue. I won't use it! But I don't even know if there will be a situation like that haha. I guess if I need to use medicine.

 

Haha ok that's great thanks. And my goal it to definitely keep up on the maintenance as much as possible! So unless I start having some whacky problems that may require carbon to help fix the issue. I won't use it! But I don't even know if there will be a situation like that haha. I guess if I need to use medicine.

Go ahead and use it, but if you run out, don't stress about it since it's not necessary by any means. It will keep the tank clear and from smelling, but an established and well maintained tank shouldn't have these issues to begin with.

Good luck!

 

Go ahead and use it, but if you run out, don't stress about it since it's not necessary by any means. It will keep the tank clear and from smelling, but an established and well maintained tank shouldn't have these issues to begin with.

Good luck!

Right on man thanks a bunch!