Carbon vs other media

[Toby_H]

so stay away from Carbon?

Carbon has it's advantages...

It "soaks up" chemical pollution. This includes the oils that commonly collect at the surface from fish food. This layer of oil can affect oxygen exchange at the surface.

It works wonders at absorbing an array of organic 'pollutants'. If your fish tank has any foul odor carbon helps a lot at removing it.


The downside to it is it needs to be removed and replaced frequently. Most say every week. Some manufacturers suggest theirs lasts 2~4 weeks but I am convinced that this is a marketing ploy and basically carbon is carbon...

if your going to waste your money on carbon, use seachem purigen. its rechargable and it works wonders.

I do not use Purigen... but I've done my research on the stuff. Like most of Seachems products, it seems to be pretty darn good stuff.

While it is costly to get up front, the fact it lasts a while and is (almost) endlessly rechargable, it ends up being a practially priced media.



I would never suggest to anyone that they should not use Carbon... but all things considered, I do not use Carbon...

 

[dskrpncs]

My tank will be a 55 gallon with an AC110 and a powerjet with a sponge attached to the intake

 

[tcarswell]

x2 . . . I put a bag of Purigen on top of the sponge(s) in my ACs . . .

Same here. 500 ml of that stuff and it helps Love the purigen.

 

[dskrpncs]

so this is what you recommend?

Bottom layer - Sponge
Middle layer - Matrix or Purigen
Top Layer - ???????

Do you guys use Matrix and Purigen or just stick to one or the other? What is best for the top layer? I read somewhere that having the sponge at the top is best so that it doesnt float everything else up.

 

[dannyboiiii]

in my ac 300 i got a sponge on bottom and currently using my left over carbon soon to switch to purigen because this thread and i have 2 bags of bio max cylinders on top taking up the whole water surface area of the filter and then continuing down the water shoot into the tank