Using carbon in hang on back filters

[Jakec96]

I am driving my parents crazy as well. I have a 5 gal betta tank, a cracked 15 gal I got for free that I plan on breeding kribensis in. And then my 70 with 2 African knives, featherfin cat and pink tail chalceus.
I need to redo and decorate my 70, as well as drop the pink tail and get more knives, hopefully

Nice sounds cool I was going to get a beta for my 10 gallon but with all the fish I have someone is always in need for a hospital tank lol I currently have 2 fish in there a red zebra and a red jewel they actually look really good together but it's only temporary

 

[Hendre]

I would prefer a bigger tank for him, but i want kribs for my 15, and i might use the 5 to raise fry when the betta passes on

 

[skjl47]

but it still provides surface area for good bacteria to colonize.

hello; I agree with this. Carbon makes a fairly cheap biomedia surface. (At least it use to be cheap. Been a while since I bought any in bulk.)

I use to bake the used carbon in a home oven thinking that I could recharge it that way. I have ben told on this forum that a home oven does not get hot enough to recharge. The home baking does cook out some of the organic stuff that clogs up the openings. This makes it still useful as a surface for bacteria to colonize.

Another item I have used in layers in a large HOB is glass marbles. I would make the layers of marbles on the bottom then covered with some sort of media floss. I get that the marbles are not as porous as other surfaces. Layers of them allow plenty of flow and do have a decent amount of surface area. Easy to clean and reuse. You also can get a game of marbles up.

Good luck

 

[Jakec96]

I would prefer a bigger tank for him, but i want kribs for my 15, and i might use the 5 to raise fry when the betta passes on

Good idea I love Kribs I've never kept them before but I definitely will in the future they are awesome

 

[Hendre]

Good idea I love Kribs I've never kept them before but I definitely will in the future they are awesome

My little brother is going to get some for his 15gal comm, then when i have this tank running i am going to keep them there so he can get more community orientated fish