Vals and carbon

[Harpsandfish]

I’m thinking of trying some carbon to help get rid of some BBA, but my vals are doing great, getting tall and putting out little shoots. The tank is maintaining good parameters; it’s a newish 20g. I read that carbon isn’t good for vals, so I’d appreciate ideas. Thanks!

[StephenP2003]

You can acclimate them to it. I did a very very slow acclimation of easy carbon dosing once a week for a couple weeks, then twice a week, working up to daily over a period of a couple months, without harming my corkscrew, italian, or gigantea vals. Despite acclimation, it is still very unkind to moss.

What I've found is that it's not as useful for getting rid of existing algae (it's better at preventing further growth) unless you directly dose the algae with it (syringe). Easier to do in larger tanks that have outbreaks in specific spots (so you can dose daily with an amount less than the typical water column dose).

[Harpsandfish]

Thanks, @StephenP2003