[APD] Re: carbon/plants

[BoiseBobD at aol_com]

Lief writes:

>Can anyone tell me wether the information I was given is right or wrong? 
Someone told a >while back that if you have a planted tank then all you need in 
your filter is sponges or a >place for the bacteria to live. You don't need 
carbon or anything else. Is this true??

Dude!!!- call me cheap, but I haven't used carbon in over 15 years, except to 
cleanse medications out of q-tanks before draining them.  I keep fish loads 
fairly low except in rearing tanks, where water changes are daily.  Regular 
tanks also get weekly partial water changes.  DOCs do not become a problem and 
neither does water color.  The fish apper healthy and I pretty much can't keep 
them from spawning.

Oh.  And in my DI unit as a pollutant trap/prefilter.  I don't know as it 
catches much in the way of pollutants,  The water here is pretty clean.

I experimented with an air-powered rugf a few years ago.   My design ended up 
on the krib.  One of the problems I had with it was that yellow stains 
developed on the wall behind the tank where each filter up-tube vented through the 
tank lid.  I made catcher cups and set them in place.  The DOCs fractionated 
out, though not like it will in a saltwater tank because my bubblles were too 
big.  There were definitely DOCs present in the water but they didn't hurt 
anything and they always stay in control with the water changes.

Bob Dixon
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