Carbon Substrates

[hquar]

Hi,
I'm not sure if this was discussed, or ever been discussed, i'm lost on this account and am not sure who to ask,

my question is , Can we use unactivated carbon as a substrate/gravel....

idealy speaking i use a home made filter made out of a bottle and i use activated carbon between 2 layers of spoung, and it hase served me well, ideally speaking the carbon is the cleansizing agent for water, and i can afford to buy 5 kg of it here in India, even if it means it's unactivated it's cheaper for me...

and i'm planning to have a 4ftx1ftx1ft planted tank thats about 28-29 gallon, and use carbon gravel will this help grow dwarf hair grass

much appreciate the help from every one...thanks in advance.

[|squee|]

Imho theoretically it shouldn't affect things. But isn't normal gravel a better choice? Using carbon, activated or not, will introduce another ambiguous variable in the tank conditions imho.

[hquar]

Looking for a more elaborate answer ?....for example, we are looking for 3 things in a planted tank, Stability of O2 and Co2, If I look at the statical view of the tank we are always trying to use activated carbon to keep the water clean and grow healty bacteria by introducing Carbon as the element for both growth of plants as well as keeping the water clean, it is also a solid form of substrate that would help in accumilating the fish waste, since earth's gravity pulls more debre towards the bottom of the tank which is easier and faster than using a motor filter that only does 1 of the 3 things I've mentioned. Isn't activated/inactivated carbon better than normal substrate, also as a 4 pointer carbon doesnt dissolve the minerals, instead it binds them together for ample of fertilizers for plants nourishment ? so my question again is, is there any theoretical debate of carbon substrate damaging my fish, and/or hamper the growth of my plants ?

Ps, my tank is waiting for the answer.

[Blue Whale]

Bear in mind some fish medicine does not work well with activated carbon. If you use activated carbon, do remember to remove them when doing your dosing. You should be able to get the directions off the fish medicine bottle. Usually they will indicate so. Only when the medicine has been remove via intensive water change can you put back the activated carbon thereafter.

[hquar]

This makes alot of sense, excluding that does it affect plant growth in anyway ?

[Blue Whale]

Well now, a lot of tanks do not use activated carbon as a filter media, the plants still grow right? So idea is to make your observation but how do you make your observation if you yourself do not have such a setup?

1. Visit LFS
2. Ask people
3. Visit Fish Farms
4. Visit other people's home aquarium setup
5. Search the internet.
6. Watch youtube.

Conclusion, it is not a die die must have kinda thing. Good to have sometimes and you need to know the limits. Example is that if you have gravel which lowers ph slowly but you able to counter that with your water change cycle then it is balance; if you veered off the water change cycle then something serious will happen. Luckily most gravel used by prestige brand are very stable hence we do not have such issue very often. You pay for what you get. Remember it. Basically our forumers are not all rich people although you do see some of them buying quality stuffs. They also save for those equipment and most of the time feel the pinch of their pockets. hee.

[stevenlau]

From what I know is that activated carbon has absorption ability of chemical substances.

From what I know peoples use activated carbon to absorb NH4 or NO2/NO3 etc (harmful substances) first to second week prior to using soil substrate.

From what I know peoples use activated carbon to absorb medical residue after medication.

From what I know too activated carbon has what so called limit to its absorption ability until it can't absorb anymore, it will leaches all the things that it has absorbed before (into the water column in this case).

So, if you are using activated carbon as substrate and IMO, you are risking your tank to suddenly unnoticed chemical substances leaching to namely ammonia spikes.

So to answer your question and IMO, NO, I don't think AC will affect plant growth since most plants can grow in inert sand, why not AC?

But at the end, don't listen to me as I might be wrong .

[Blue Whale]

Steven is not exactly wrong. Now the activated carbon needs to be "maintain" to stay useful. AQ have other threads that have discussion on this already. End of the day, it's a matter of choice.