Activated Carbon, When Is It Exhausted?

[Alm0stAwesome]

Hello folks, today I added a first dose of medication to my tank. I didn't remove the carbon from my filters because I figure it's used up by now and won't do any harm. The carbon in one filter is about 1.5 years old but the other is only 6-7 weeks old - what do you think? Stop being lazy and take it out? Another thing to think about is that across two large filters, that's a lot of mature media to remove.

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi AA, nice to see you back around recently.
 
Definitely the older filter will be exhausted. The younger one will probably be done, too, all the manufacturers say to replace every 4-6 weeks, and it's just about older than that. You should be fine.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thanks lock man, I've enjoyed doing some posting again

That's good to hear because I really can't be bothered opening the canisters up lol. Even if it does remove some medication, I'm treating for flukes which apparently exist in your tank all the time but only become a problem if their population gets too large or if the fish are weakened for another reason. So as long as I manage to kill off a decent portion of them I should be fine - that's my theory anyway!

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

I've never had a canister filter... do you never replace the media?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Only when it's falling to bits which only happens with sponges after several years. Ceramic media and bioballs, etc last practically forever

The same goes for media in other types of filters as well - there's really no need to replace any media unless it's no longer fit for purpose.

There are some specialist types of media like seachem purigen which, like carbon, get exhausted eventually but you can recharge it, replace it or just leave it there as a biological media like ceramic rings. Carbon media, once it's adsorbed all it can, will still be a great source for mechanical and biological filtration so there's no need to replace it unless you need to remove chemicals from the water, like medication - but even that can be done with water changes.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually carbon will not become good mech media. Once its full to capacity, just like anything else, it clogs and becomes only a surface where bacteria can live.
 
If you run fine type filter pads or filter floss in a canister, it also clogs and gets nasty looking eventually and needs to be replaced. I have had a pair of Eheim Pro IIs running for about 10 years. I tend to clean then every 5-6 months.
 
When I need to run carbon on tanks with yhe canisters, I do so in a hang on filter for the time needed to clear meds etc. from the water. This is much easier plus I can get the flow down which makes the carbon more effective- contact time counts.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I was thinking more about carbon sponges. Of course it clogs up, that's what filter maintenance is for

Yeah, I did forget about floss, I change mine every 8-10 weeks.

I'd never thought of using an internal or HOB for carbon, that's a great tip!