Use of Eheim Liberty 100

[Irn-Bru]

i have been using this model of hangon filter for quite sometime now. it comes with a carbonized cartridge and a foam cartridge.

think i have read somewhere that the carbonized cartridge can actually remove nutrients for the plants, wonder how true is this?

if not, then how often should i change the carbonized & foam cartridges?

thanks

[Vican]

It's true. Carbon removes the nutrients from the water.
Also the liberty, being a hangon type filter, increases CO2 loss.

So, you've got to raise the water level high and also remove the carbon

[Irn-Bru]

but carbon also takes care of the water odour right? what can i do to get rid of that if i remove my carbon?

[vinz]

Is there a bad odour? The only time the water has an obvious nasty smell to me is when there are a lot of dead fishes in it, water quality is extremely bad (i.e no water change for a long time), or when you get gas bubbles from a rotting substrate. Don't worry about odour if its a healthy planted tank.

The Liberty also has a very limited bio-filtration capacity. It's constructed to be a mechanical and chemical(if you used the carbon inserts) filter only.

[Irn-Bru]

no bad odour currently, but wonder if taking out the carbon might cause it to have...
i have no dead fishes and the plants are okay...

[markyen]

You can convert to use it with Biohome and normal filter wool only. The Biohome goes into the bottom layer and the filter wool place on top. My friends and I always have very good filtration. Try it.