# Carbon From Filter In Tank---Dangerous?



## rae3988 (Jan 22, 2008)

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons) 19
2. Is your aquarium setup freshwater or brackish water? Freshwater
3. How long the aquarium has been set up? 1.5-2 Months?
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know) 1 Calico Goldfish
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium? No
6. What temperature is the tank water currently? 68 F
7. What make/model filter are you using? Tetra Whisper Filter
8. Are you using a CO2 unit? No
9. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? No
10. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed? Sunday, roughly 2 gallons?
11. How often do you perform water changes? 3-4 days
12. How often and what foods do you feed your fish? 2x a day (used to be 3x) with flakes, small amt
13. What type of lighting are you using and how long is it kept on? none

15. What are your water parameters? Test your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. pH: 6.6, ammonia: 0ppm, nitrite: 0ppm, nitrate: 5.0ppm BUT then added something I forget the name so it went to 0ppm
16. What test kit are you using and is it liquid or test strips? liquid
17. When was the last time you bought a fish and how did they behave while in the pet store tank? 1/17, didn't see it in store for long

14. What specific concerns bring you here at this time? 
Alright, so about a week or two ago I changed the filter (the insert, not filter itself) because it was so disgusting. I didn't realize I had to rinse it with warm water beforehand to get the carbon dust off of it, so i saw a very light amt of carbon floating at the top that I cleared off mostly. WhenI did the water change yesterday, I noticed lots of little black particles (like teh carbon) being stirred up from the bottom of the tank; and my fish's poop has gotten much darker (perhaps my imagination). He's been doing perfectly well, until this morning when I realized he was very listless and hardly swimming at all. Could this be related to the carbon? Should I do something--and what?


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

What did you add that made the nitrate go to 0? Nitrate shouldn't ever be 0 in a cycles tank. there should alway be a reading. Anything under 20 if just fine.

Chemicals should never be added to remove nitrate/amonia/change ph etc. Water changes is the only way to go really. But with a reading of only 5 there was never cause for concern.


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## okiemavis (Nov 10, 2007)

I doubt it is dangerous, although I can't say I know for sure. It's likely that he ate some of it, which is why his poop is darker, but I don't think it would do any actual harm.

Nitrates are really hard to get a reading on, you've got to shake the bottles like crazy. It's possible you were getting a false low reading before, and after the water change it was even lower, not enough to show up on the test. Also, I use Prime to condition my water, and it says it "detoxifies" nitrates, so if you used a water conditioner that might be why it's not showing on the test.


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