To carbon or not to carbon?

Hello,

I was wondering if I should use carbon filter media in my HOB filter or if there are circumstances in which I should remove the carbon?

--Eric

 

Some may disagree with me,but i say "why wouldn't you want to run a media that removes toxins,contaminants and water yellowing organics?"

 

+1 110%!

38 years in the hobby, and I've yet to find a valid reason to stop using carbon.

 

These ole' mind's think alike

 

Yep, absolutely.

Once upon a time, carbon was the only media we had, and we used lots of it with no ill effect. Boggles the mind when someone tries to push the idea that it can be harmful.

 

To be fair,I have read about carbon fines being associated with lateral line disease in fish,but if rinsed thoughly and ran passively,i've never had an issue in 25 years.Running carbon in a reactor should be packed and not allowed to tumble for this very reason.It is soft and will crumble away releasing said fines.So i still stand behind my original post,why would you not want to run carbon?lol.

 

Thank you all for the input. I was just curious if anyone had good reason as to why I shouldn't use carbon. I've heard some people recommending to remove it but I was a bit unsure why so I figured there would be pros and cons...seems like everyone so far is pro carbon so that is good enough for m,

 

All good thing come in moderation; carbon included. Don't overdo it and it will be agreat addition to the toolbox.

 

Only been seen in commercial aquariums which use large quantities of coal based US made carbon.
Most of the aquarium carbon available to consumers is Coconut Shell from Asia.
It is thought that the Bituminous Carbon has some impurities from the coal that affects the fish.
I have not seen a link in hobbyists tanks.

 

I have heard this too, but I get HLLE on one of my tang and didn't run crabon in my tanks for YEARS. Selcon stops it, heals it, and keeps it from developing for me.

I just started running carbon again because why not?