removing carbon from penguin filter?

having read about how much carbon sucks in aquariums and planted aquariums in particular I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to remove the carbon from pengiun filter packs? I recall seeing this somewhere (maybe on this page) but cannot find how to do it now. do I just cut the pacakge and dump it out? or is there another way?

 

I've never had a Penguin filter, so I cannot tell you about it in particular. But in my filter - Aqua Clear - there are 3 separate filter media: a sponge, bio-cubes, and activated carbon/charcoal. Since the a.c./charcoal is a separate pouch, I simply remove the pouch and throw it away.

Now, in my Whisper Tetra filter (which I don't have anymore), the filter media looked very differently. There was a separate sponge, and there was a separate pouch into which I inserted the carbon. To get rid of this carbon, I simply threw it out of the pouch and rinsed the pouch in tank water to get all of the carbon out of the pouch. Then I inserted the pouch back into the filter, and that's it.

Which of the 2 above filters is your Penguin filter more like?

 

I made a slice along the top of the filter pack and then dumped the carbon out...

 

the filter cartridge is a single piece that has blue foam/mesh on one side and a black plastic grid on the other side - inside are the lil bits of carbon...



when you cut open the filter did you do anything to hold it back in place or did you just leave it?

 

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