Angel1020 0 Posted August 9, 2010 I have carbon in some of my filters... do I need to remove that? Including the carbon in my blue flossy filter media cartridges when I'm treating with prazi? 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Iheartfishies1172 0 Posted August 9, 2010 (edited) Yeah, I think you do. You don't need carbon any way though. I don't think it even makes a great place for good bacteria to grow. I just cut slits in my floss cartridges that had carbon and dumped it out. (Read shook/picked/swished and cursed til it came out) After you get the carbon out you can put spare filter padding or media in the cartridges to increase your surface area for the bugs! Edited August 9, 2010 by Iheartfishies1172 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cynders 0 Posted August 9, 2010 Yes most definitely. It'll just absorb all of the medicine and then leech it back out later on which is very bad. It's best not to use any carbon at all. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Angel1020 0 Posted August 9, 2010 Ok, the problem is after removing all my carbon my water gets full of particles and looks bad. I hate that. Will the extra sponge (or whatever) help with that? Is there any other way to keep my water clean without using carbon? 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cynders 0 Posted August 9, 2010 As much filter media as possible such as filter floss. I think Koko uses just filter floss and some ceramic bio stars to give the bbs more surface area. How many gallons per hour does your tank turnover? Like Iheartfishies said I would add some more filter media in your filters such as filter floss. It really works. Carbon is really inefficient for goldie tanks since you have to replace it quite often. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Iheartfishies1172 0 Posted August 9, 2010 (edited) I bought this stuff and stuck it in in place of filter floss that uses carbon. I think it's finer and more dense than the dark blue floss on the one sided plastic squares that I had had in one of my three filters, so it may do your particle catching job for you. I've never had big particles to catch though, so I can't say for sure. I stuffed some in the cartridges that I removed the carbon from even made three filter pads out of it. I bought the small sheet and STILL have left overs. Edited August 9, 2010 by Iheartfishies1172 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sakura 500 Posted August 9, 2010 I find filter floss to be too expensive, so I bought a huge bag of polyester quilt padding. It is the same stuff, just not marketed for specialty aquarium use, so it's a lot cheaper! Just a little tip 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Angel1020 0 Posted August 10, 2010 Yeah I was wondering if you had to get stuff specially made for aquariums or if you could get creative. Do you do anything special with the quilt padding before putting it in the tank? How do you keep it rigid enough to stand up in the filters? The fliter floss I have now of course has black plastic backing with slits in it to allow water to pass thru. On my emperor 400 dual bio-wheel there are two slots on each side, 4 total, for filter media. One slot on each side is for the filter floss and the other slot on each side is for the plastic filter media container that you can fill with whatever you want. Oh, one more question... Is prazi-pro like salt in regards to adding more after water changes? If I remove 20 gallons of water then I add 60tsps of salt back in to match what I took out to keep the tank at .3%. Do I need to do that with prazi-too? If I take out 20gal then do I need to add one more tsp of prazi? Oh and right now my tank is only at 600gph because I'm down a filter. I ordered an AquaClear 300 yesterday so that should be here in a few days. Until then I might have to do frequent water changes though... that's why I need to know about the prazi and if I have to add more after each water change. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Findus Goldfish 272 Posted August 10, 2010 When I do water changes (I usually do 50-80percent) I usually just add the prazi back full dose. It is very hard to overdose Prazi, so I figure if you have a bit more it can't hurt. Clearly if you only take out 10% maybe adding the full dose is a bit excessive, in that case I would only add 50% of the dose. 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sakura 500 Posted August 10, 2010 Yeah I was wondering if you had to get stuff specially made for aquariums or if you could get creative. Do you do anything special with the quilt padding before putting it in the tank? How do you keep it rigid enough to stand up in the filters? The fliter floss I have now of course has black plastic backing with slits in it to allow water to pass thru. I don't even try to keep the filter floss rigid, I just kind of pack it in to the filter compartment 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites