all hail carbon!! why?

[Snappy]

Doug,
Good point, I never thought of that as I've never had yellow water.
The socks help keep the bubbles down as well and gets rid of all the little "floaties."
I doubt I'd bother with carbon if I only kept sps.

Mark,
I use about 3 cups worth and change it once a month.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Snappy

I doubt I'd bother with carbon if I only kept sps.

Hmm, thats interesting, as mentioned, I have read several sps aquarists saying that also.

I wonder if its our use of larger skimmers and/or other filtration methods, as compared with filtration many moons ago, when carbon was a mainstay of the canister filters.

I,ve been using it for so long, I would be scared not to but who knows what its doing related to the amounts we use?

[fishface]

Originally Posted by Doug

I,ve been using it for so long, I would be scared not to but who knows what its doing related to the amounts we use?

well i never used it for the first couple years i kept sps and never had any issues with yellow water or chemical warfare or whatever and that was in a 25g tank.

that's why i originally posted this question...because i really don't see any tangible benefit. with regular water changes, i never got yellow water anyhow. so am i just wasting time and money by the adding carbon?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by fishface

because i really don't see any tangible benefit. with regular water changes,

I would say thats the most important factors in this discussion.

[LAReefer]

I stopped using carbon in my tank for about 4 months now and wow my softies love it!

I also do regular water changes and have not had to add any supplements, nor have I noticed any yellowing.

[Delphinus]

I wouldn't say I notice yellowing without carbon, but I do notice an improvement in water quality if I put in new carbon. I'm not sure how long the effect lasts though. It's not really that long, maybe a couple of days tops.

However I would say that it's probably useless to just have carbon passively - you need to drive flow through it. Ie., even having it in a baffle isn't probably good enough because water will just flow around it instead of through it. It has to be in a filter, either a phosban reactor or an aquaclear or a cannister filter.

[fishface]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I wouldn't say I notice yellowing without carbon, but I do notice an improvement in water quality if I put in new carbon.

what improvements do you notice?