Ever since I began keeping fish, I always had the understanding that it was vital to change out your carbon every single month, or else bad, bad things would happen. I would spend on average about 5-6 dollars per month on cartridges from Marineland for my Penguin 200 filter. I did this for several months until I found out that the cartridges at Wal-Mart are EXACTLY the same as the ones made by Marineland, only much cheaper. I could buy 6 cartridges for the price of one! While this really seemed like a much better deal, I was sick and tired of having to throw money out the window on carbon AND lose beneficial bacteria at the same time.

Sergeant Major recently pointed out to me that he had been using 100% polyester quilt batting that he had bought at Wal-Mart for quite some time. He had spent around $2.00 and got so much that he could practically keep his filters stuffed with the batting for a lifetime.

Carbon is used to remove 'fish urine' and other wastes that create odor and discoloration. They are also used to remove medications after the treatment process is finished. If you have a properly cycled aquarium and have the quilt batting in your filter, you should have a surplus of beneficial bacteria. With a fully cycled aquarium, the bacteria should be able to handle all the fish waste that is produced and process it into it's less toxic forms.

After doing quite a bit of research, I learned that most aquarium keepers ONLY use carbon to remove medications from their tanks. The only carbon in their homes is what they have in their 'storage' in case of emergencies.

For $2.00, you can have a great bio media for your filters. You only have to add a bit more every month or so as the bacteria will cause the batting to dissolve.

Also, for those of you who use AquaClear filters, you might find this little bit of information quite interesting.

When I first bought the filter, I was very disappointed to know that the carbon had to be replaced monthly, the foam every two months, and the biomax every 3. And I thought the CARTRIDGES had cost me a ton per month! Again, after talking with some other aquarium keepers, I quickly found out that the foam block can be reused and just needs to be rinsed every few months or so. The carbon can be replaced with the filter batting that I talked about above. The biomax should never need to be completely replaced. Therefore, you should have a relatively maintenance free filtration system.

Of course, I'm doing my own testing at the moment, and all seems to be going VERY well. I haven't had any spikes, the fish are doing great, and the water is crystal clear!

Carbon can also be used as a soil amendment in the garden to make some of the most fertile soil. I especially like using used carbon for this, since it has a chance to soak up even more nutrients even before it hits the soil.