About these carbon filter Cartridges

[gn3ranger]

^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm wondering If you can Open these to replace the carbon Inside them. I'm currently Still running At least 1 Under gravel filter In my 10 gallon,because I bought a sponge filter for the other air tube to go in.

So again I'm just wondering If I can Actually open these things Up and replace their carbon I mean I've been trying to but It Doesn't even budge. My friend bought me some carbon for it,But I cant even Open the Cartridge.If I'm not mistaken Its a Penn-plax cartridge.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture I just Uploaded what ever looked like the ones I was using

[athenr3134]

umm the best thing to do is go to your local store and buy a package of them... you need to replace them completely. according to my tank it says i can run it under water to clean it but when you do that it adds chemicals back on it so i suggest to discard it. actually what it said was to do that when you put it into the fish tank. im not sure when i need to change mine if its once a month great but i'll change my water once a week to be on safe side.

[gn3ranger]

Yeah I have about 5 cartridges left I'm only using one of the filter tubes atm. Was just wondering If you could replace the carbon guess not.

[athenr3134]

Just a b on the safe side I wouldn't try to change the carbon I would just replace it just in case there is back to your left behind whatever reason the unseen n you wanna make sure fish is safe. Don't do anything that would be risky or possibly harm your fish. Sorry.

[Meggie6347]

If it were me, I would change the carbon media to a sponge media. Every time you replace that filter cartridge it messes up the cycle because it takes the good bacteria out. With sponge filters, you don't change them until they are literally falling apart...and even when you need to rinse them, you do so in old tank water so as to not lose any bacteria...

Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, you really only need to use carbon if you're removing a medication from the tank..I'm pretty sure that carbon sucks some of the good things out of the water (again, someone correct me if I'm wrong).

[Perseusmom]

Yeah to be on safe side I would leave it alone. I believe The Old Fish said you really do not need carbon so you might want to pm her and ask about it. I believe its suppose to help keep the water clearer and cleaner and yes you do take it out when you use medicine for your fish.

[goldfishyman]

Carbon is not necessary. You use it to remove meds after treatment or you dont like your fish smell, odor eaters in shoes use carbon. They can remove trace elements from the water can have been found to cause lateral line disease in salt water fish. I have noticed in my fresh water tanks more occurrences of disease when I run carbon. Also like was mention you do lose beneficial bacteria when every you change them out.

Under certain conditions that are rare the absorbed contaminants can be reintroduced back into the tank making water worse than it was. eSpring Water Filter | Amway So leaving them in the tank to create a home for beneficial bacteria is not a good idea either.