Description
Pet Worx Premium Activated Carbon is chemical filter media that sits in your existing aquarium filter and strips impurities out of the water as it passes through.
Mechanical media catches solids and biological media hosts the bacteria that process ammonia, but neither touches the dissolved organic compounds that build up between water changes. Those are what turn aquarium water faintly yellow or tea coloured and give a tank that stale smell when you lift the lid. Activated carbon deals with them by adsorption: the granules are riddled with microscopic pores that give an enormous internal surface area, and dissolved molecules stick to those surfaces as water flows past. The result is clearer, brighter water and a tank that smells like nothing at all.
Use it as a polishing stage alongside your mechanical and biological media, not instead of them, and put it downstream of the foam so it is not clogged by solids. Carbon has a finite capacity and stops working once its pores are full, so it needs replacing periodically rather than rinsing. One important caveat: carbon adsorbs many fish medications as efficiently as it adsorbs waste, so take it out of the filter before treating a tank and only put fresh carbon back once the course is finished.
Key details
- Chemical filter media for use in an existing aquarium filter
- Adsorbs dissolved organics, discolouration and odours
- Polishes water between water changes
- Fit downstream of mechanical foam media
- Replace rather than rinse once exhausted
Not a replacement for water changes or biological filtration, and it should be removed while medicating. See other filter media and aquarium supplies.