What Wrong With Carbon?

[Gooose]

When i recently bought my discus, i was told to take out the carbon in the filter, Firstly, what is it about carbon that you cant use it with discus, secondly is it sooo bad if you do bc one week after taking it out and puting my discus in , my fish tank became disgusting, it has dirt, i mean dirt not algae, all over the glass and everything in the tank, it just makes the tank look horrible, thirdly, if carbon is a problem does anyone have any suggestions on any substitues that i can use or how i can prevent this from getting so bad. i change the water about three times a week now at 50%, and i have a fluval 305 with two slots of biomedia on the bottom, two slots of cotton or floss in the middle and two slots of the aquaclear sponge on top, oh yeah i have a 55 gal tank, anyhelp will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Proteus]

Carbon is fine however it only has a very limited lifespan, often only days to a week or so.

Carbon has its uses but if you have these other issues you need to look deeper into the cause. Perhaps you dont have enough mechanical filtration? or the mechanical filtration is being bypassed somehow?

[FishLover]

You need to put some fine fiber floss in the Fluval 305 to catch the small things floating in the tank. Your floss is letting things through.

Buy one of the pads that has the smallest opennings and cut to the size, put it in the 305 and in a day or two everything will be clean.

[endless]

I use carbon all the time. I reckon its great and does a great job in removing organic pollutants.

[paulibius]

I would use purigen or a similar product instead of carbon. They are much better products and can be regenerated for long lifespans. They clear disscolouation very well. That is my opinion.

Cheers Paul