Carbon filter in a planted tank

karjean

karjean

Sorry, i meant to remove the carbon filter.

Angel079

Take the carbon out. With having Carbon in there you're extracting nutrition's from the water you plants will need in order to thrive well.

Byron

Agree. The purpose of carbon filtration is to remove substances from the water by adsorption, that is, the substances bind to the carbon. Carbon filtration is unnecessary in a planted tank because the plants perform this task themselves, and it is generally held that some nutrients are also removed by the carbon. Carbon is useful when removing medications after treatment.

Byron.

stephanieleah

But the OP only has four plants? Just probing here because I've been wondering what plant capacity is according to the level of "heavily planted". Could four plants handle the bioload of a ten gallon tank?

I still agree that carbon is not necessary although out of laziness I run it in my puffer tank (I'm transitioning out of that now). It's medium heavily planted. With carbon, nitrates run around 5-10 ppm.

xxabc

Sorry to barge but -

Well I have a carbon cartridge in the HOB right now. It's possible for a HOB to run without a filter cartridge, right? (The good bacteria is housed somewhere else in the HOB so it will be unaffected).

stephanieleah

Well the hob will still provide flow but i usually take the carbon out of the cartridge before putting it in the filter. bb will be in the tank, on decor, etc. but personally i like some mechanical filtration, too.

xxabc

I'll probably just have to deal with mechanical filtration then, since my dad bought carbon-cartridges for me and didn't want to return them. Guess I could do that though, thank you.

stephanieleah

i'll pm you so we stop hijacking this thread : )

karjean

Thanks for the suggestion, i will remove the carbon out.