Can you over cabonate the water?

Thanx to every one that help me with my cichlid problem,i did find out that they are a hibrid of two species of african cichlids.(Oh an i donated them to the roodekrans botanicle gardens were i found out what they were)

But now ive got anothere question,is it possible to over carbonate an aquarium.you see i put charcoal in the part were the water travels out and theirs no algae and this is my second tank my first doesnt have a charcoal ending.

Thank you....

Enjoy your day

 

Hi DS DSG,

Firstly, I want to clarify the names that you are using here. If you say "over carbonate" you are using the wrong term to describe what you mean here. Carbonate has to do with CO3 content but it does not have anything to do with the addition of charcoal, or "activated charcoal" as it should be correctly called. What you are asking is if you can add too much activate charcoal.

Activated charcoal is inert and removes many toxins and medications from the water. If you have a lot of it in the filter it means you can remove a lot of toxins if you have only a little you can only remove a little of the toxins. What I also want to say is that the charcoal that is sold in SA is of a very poor quality and will be saturated with toxins in a very short time, by that I mean within a week or even less. Unless you specifically want to remove the remains of some of other medication treatment, I would in any case not add it to any of my filters. I have about 25 tanks and none have activated charcoal and I have not used this, other than for medication removal for a short period, for as long as I have kept fish which is since 1968!.

As a result, I would not advise the use of charcoal in tanks routinely, you are wasting your money.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Amen! Totally agree :blink1::bigsmile:

 

A quick one. Why is it that when you go to a LFS and buy a small tank with one of those small corner filters they give you cotton wool and that charcoal? Is there a difference between that charcoal and the one you are talking about or is it just another sales pitch? Was always curious.

Regards
Steve

 

What you get with those corner filters is activated carbon - same thing as the Prof is talking about.

 

Because the wool costs R5, and the carbon R 15?

 

lol true Roger.

 

And then they give you chemicals to "treat" the water -and be absorbed by the Activated Carbon! What a total waste of money.