Re: Silence!!
Chris Howe (c_howe at med.su.oz.au)
Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:19:31 +1000
At 10:26 AM 6/08/96 -0400, you wrote:
> Concerning the use of carbon that has come up, a few days ago. I don't
>use the stuff as I have found it to be a waste of money, except to remove
>any medications I may venture to use in my hospital tank.
> Anyways, does carbon absorp pheremones? (the stuff that fish give
>off that causes stunting of growth). If it does it may be a good idea to
>use it in fry tanks. One breeder of fish I talked to swears by carbon
>use in fry tanks, tho I have not bought into it yet this may convince me.
It might well absorb stunting pheromones/factors. (Can anyone tell
us all precisely what sort of chemicals these are?). I use charcoal in
controlled biochemical procedures to absorb anything from steroids
(reasonably small) up to smallish proteins including some hormones, though
not great big proteins like antibodies.
The trouble with things like charcoal is that (1) if you suddenly put it in
your filter circuit you are abruptly altering water quality, and (2)they
have a set capacity per gram and once they're full they start to ooze the
stuff they've absorbed out again. Once it gets to that stage it's just
another biofilter. I'd don't think we'd be inclined to use it for fry for
that reason. We'd keep using frequent water changes to keep the water up to
scratch for fry.
Cheers
Chris and Effie Howe