why would you not use carbon in the filter? every filter that you purchase comes with some sort of activated carbon. i was always led to believe that it removed all the impurities in the water.
carbon is used to clean up chemicals that could be in the water. Its the actual bacteria that lives on the filter media that runs the nitrate cycle. This helps make ammonium, nitrate and nitrite stay at reasonable levels. To remove those compounds completely, you have to do water changes often.
carbon is very good at taking out many chemicals in the water
(I heard it doesn't take out copper, which I did not know until recently)
but
in my opinion
carbon not only takes out bad chemicals
but also good chemicals
for example
we sometimes have wierd skin issues with some South American cichlids
in aquariums filtered with carbon
so
in the store
we normally only use carbon for a week here and there
if we think we have a chemical contamination problem
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Ned
unclenedsfishfactory@gmail.com
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