To carbon, or not to carbon.

**domjd05** · 11-23-2009, 02:41 AM

As some of you know, I built a wet dry system for my 125g... It has 3 gallons of bioballs in it for biological filtration, at 700gph.. I'm feeling like I should still add some additional filtration, especially since I plan for this tank to be a discus tank. It will be planted also.

I recently read an article that said a low-grade carbon will leech phosphorus into the water..which would IMO explain the algae outbreak in my 46g, I dealt with a while ago... (long story)

Is using a higher-grade carbon really going to make a bigger difference?

Honestly, I'd like to avoid carbon all-together, but I'm not sure what else to use for filtration.. more biological? lol.. (yes I have fine mesh in wet/dry drip plate for mechanical..)

I seem to be lacking ideas on what to use for chemical... I don't want to use nitrate removing media.. because my tank will be planted and I will be doing frequent water changes anyway... So far all I have is some phosphorus removing media, that I may use.. still undecided.. ugh, any ideas?

**rich311k** · 11-23-2009, 03:02 AM

I have never found a reason to use any of that kind of media. Mechanical and biological should keep the tank nice and healthy.

**MCHRKiller** · 11-23-2009, 07:12 AM

There are only 2 chemical filter medias I have ever found worth bothering with. 1 is Purigen and the other is a PolyFilter. Polyfilters remove heavy metals, copper, phosphate, etc as well as provide some nice mechanical filtration and dependant on what color they turn what theyre removing. Purigen does about what any chemical media would do but they do it much much much more efficiently, they have the added benefit of potentially raising Redox which can help prevent HITH. Not to mention the fact Purigen can be recharged which in the long haul will save you tons of cash.

**domjd05** · 11-23-2009, 10:42 AM

Thanks for the responses! I was thinking along the same lines as you two: Mechanical and Biological should take care of it, chemical is more of an alternative if something is going wrong...

I've seen the polyfilters advertised, the seemed cheap, and I didn't know how effective they were, maybe I'll give them a shot, thanks!