Carbon filter

[Sombat]

I recently purchased a Fluval Flex 9 gallon for my betta. It came with Bio media and carbon. I was watching a video from KGTropicals on his review of the Fluval Flex. He mentioned that because he has a planted aquarium he will not be using the carbon filter. I too have a planted tank so I wanted to verify if the carbon filter should be removed. 

[Ragnarok12]

It's up to you. Cory has a couple of videos about this that you might go look for. The main point, though, is that carbon should be used for a specific, targeted reason. It essentially is a mechanism to chemically strip things from your water that you don't want in it. If you don't have anything in the water that you specifically want to remove (tannins from driftwood, medication, impurities in your tap water, etc.), then there is no reason to run it. You can also put in carbon for like a month after dosing meds if you want to remove it, and then go back to biological filtration media. I'm not sure, but I think carbon will also strip fertilizers that you add to the tank, but double check that one.

I run extra biological filtration in all of my tanks because I want to maximize bacterial cleaning in my tank to remove nitrites and ammonium. This would allow you to have fewer changes or increase the bio-load in your tank, if you want. This is extra true in a planted tank, because plants are already nature's chemical filtration. Keep the carbon filter lying around in case you need it for something, but I vote for removing it from your current setup

[darkG]

I agree, I think activated carbon isn't routinely helpful but not harmful either. Some people leave it to age and become a biofilter. There are suggestions that some toxic stuff it does pick up may be released eventually.

[Sombat]

Thank you all very much. I shall remove the carbon and add another bag of Biomax media. 

[lefty o]

the deal with carbon is it is excellent at absorbing stuff, but it only actively absorbs things for a very short time. if one does use carbon, just give it a couple days before fertilizing etc. after a day or three, it has absorbed all it can.

Edited April 14, 2021 by lefty o