Question about filtration (esp with ich).
 

Hey guys,

My little 10 gallon tank with my baby platies and mollies (and 1 guppy) (about 15-20 platies)(about 10-15 balloon mollies) might have ich! :(

2 of my fish have one ich white spot on them, so should I treat it? Or what do you guys recommend?

Also, I have some questions about filtration:

Is it necessary to have activated carbon as part of your filter system? If I took the carbon out of the sponge cartridge, would it work the same?

Since the filter is kinda breaking/broken I don't think it pumps as much water as it says. So the decreased flow makes the bio-wheel not spin, so I'm afraid to take the filter cartridge out to treat the ich because all the beneficial bacteria will die, so I'm considering taking out the activated carbon.

Carbon is not necessary. You'd have to dispose it after 4-6 weeks prior to using it.

Use salt for ich. 3 teaspoons per gallon will do it. Start with a teaspoon per gallon first and add each set every 12 hours until you have the total dosage of 3 teaspoons. Redose salt per water volume changed when you make water changes daily. Be sure to vacuum substrate thoroughly during water changes to remove cysts out of the tank and if you have other tanks, use separate equipments or sterilize your equipments instead.

and make sure u use aquarium salt and not table salt. table salt will kill everything in the tank.

You can use table salt. Aquarium salt is just table salt but it's not iodized and costs a lot. The iodine concentration in iodized table salt isn't enough to harm your fish.

Yep. The only additive to avoid is ferrous cyanide or yellow prussiate.

It still gets to me how the salt myth about iodine being harmful remains circulated around.:roll:

Well, I have aquarium salt so it's not a worry. Last time I checked it was veryyyy cheap though.

Yeah, I always had trouble finding the ready to use carbon in the local landfill after the 4 weeks.

Should they raise the temperature as well? Otherwise, you'll have to treat for a much longer time.

So long as you don't clean, remove ,Biowheel you can remove carbon cartridge.;-)
Biowheeel also holds quite a bit of beneficial bacteria.

The problem is the filter is likeeee broken kinda and the biowheel stopped spinning :/