Carbon filtration with ACFs

[Kent]

Hello! I keep reading that you shouldn't use activated carbon with ACFs, then i hear of people that use it. Is it safe or not? Thanks, Kent

[mpmistr]

It's not necessary and becomes inert after a few months anyways.

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF Kent . Carbon (it's dust) is an irritant if not rinsed well before using. Also, carbon is very agressive removing chemicals from water and can remove good stuff too. Finally, once saturated with chemicals, stuff can leach out of it into water.

Only time when I recommend using it in an aquarium (fish, frogs, whatever) is when required to remove medications for 24 to 48 hours and then discard it. Having said that, will tell you there are many hobbyists that swear by it's use, and would never set a filter without it.

[Kent]

Thanks for the help. I have 2 small albino ACFs in a 10 gallon with a Whisper hob filter and i just leave the carbon out of the bio bags. Next month getting 20 long. Any suggestions for filtration?

[mpmistr]

I have used Whisper internal filters with these frogs and it is fine. The carbon in those 'bio bags' becomes inert rather quickly and will do no harm either way.

A 20 gallon long is a good choice for two adults, I prefer Eheim canister filters personally but I think a Whisper 40i would work fine as well. Some people like sponge filters but I have no hands on experience with them.

I use internal Whispers on some of my tanks, never had an issue with them. Marineland filters I flat out hate and I found they were noisy and didn't work well for me (I use sand which they sucked up, became clogged, and stopped working).

I haven't used any other filters but really can't go wrong so long as you have enough filtration for the frogs.. I would suggest 2X what the box says.. so if the filter is "Up to 20 gallons" I would get one rated for 40 gallons, or more.

Additional Information on Carbon:
Carlos is right about Carbon, it does remove some things from the water, it will aid in the removal of chlorine, chloramines, tannins, ect.. it will also nullify medications you may add to the water such as the ones used to kill 'Ich', or what have you (so if you must medicate a tank with active carbon, it must be removed).

I have personally never heard of active carbon causing any irritation to frogs nor have I experienced this in my own aquariums which used carbon (and many HOB filter media contain it). Also never heard of carbon killing off anything beneficial in your tank either.

That being said, carbon is in my opinion, something used religiously back on the stone age of aquarium keeping. I see no purpose for it for modern aquarium unless you are trying to remove a chemical (medicine) or tannins (the stuff driftwood leeches and turns your water a tea color). It must be replaced every 6 months and it becomes inert and does basically nothing past that point. I do not use carbon media in my canister filters.

I think the biggest downside to carbon is that a lot of HOB filter media uses it and it quite frankly could be replaced with something more useful because it seriously becomes a bag of useless pebbles after a short span of time.

This is why I have a strong preference for canisters, because you can more or customize the media to what you know is best for your tanks filtration. It's more expensive but I don't think I could go back to HOB filters.

[Kent]

Thanks Michael