Carbon filter

[Creationistkillr]

I am toying with the idea of placing my 1st ever discus order. Before I do I am doing a once over on my water system. I have been doing my research for months now, and I keep coming across different information. It makes it really hard to lock down my methods for husbandry.
With that said, the town/area I live in has REALLY hard water that has a ton of sediment in it ( this is a brand new house/area to me, we moved in a few months ago)
So I have a water softener (running Potassium Chloride) and a whole house sediment filter. So talking to the water treatment specialist that installed my system (I called him back to check up and tune up the system) he was really pushing me to get a carbon filter because I guess there is a ton of chlorine in the water. He claims that its the only real chemical we have. He was attempting to talk me out of an R/O system for my fish room claiming it would be overkill and too expensive. When I explained to him that a type of fish I was getting into could not have carbon in their water due to it being toxic potentionally to the fish, he countered my concern by saying our water softner acts as a filter its self and any traces of carbon in the water would be filtered out before it ever got to the fish.
The Skeptic in me has a hard time believing this. He seemed to be the type of person with a bias towards his methods and shut down most of my ideas without giving them much consideration. Needless to say, I wanted second and third opinions. So here are my questions (finally, sorry)
1. Does a softener filter out carbon?
2. Would a whole house carbon filter be toxic or would there be too little carbon in the water to make a difference?
3. Can I filter out the carbon in the water? I do plan on adding more stages to my house filters.

My end goal is to have a very easy maintenance routine as I own/run 2 different companies. One doing labor all day long. I have little time for my hobbies and even less energy.

Any advice and suggestions would be welcome. Oh and I should also mention I have not locked down filtration methods yet, but I am leaning towards sponge filters or matten filtration

Thank you in advance for any time and consideration you gave this post, I appreciate it.

[Adam S]

I am toying with the idea of placing my 1st ever discus order. Before I do I am doing a once over on my water system. I have been doing my research for months now, and I keep coming across different information. It makes it really hard to lock down my methods for husbandry.

The method that works 99.9% of the time is daily water changes and food. Things get significantly more complicated after that.

With that said, the town/area I live in has REALLY hard water that has a ton of sediment in it ( this is a brand new house/area to me, we moved in a few months ago)

Really doubt it's too hard for discus. City water reports are available online and usually include info like total dissolved solids and chlorine.

So I have a water softener (running Potassium Chloride) and a whole house sediment filter. So talking to the water treatment specialist that installed my system (I called him back to check up and tune up the system) he was really pushing me to get a carbon filter because I guess there is a ton of chlorine in the water. He claims that its the only real chemical we have. He was attempting to talk me out of an R/O system for my fish room claiming it would be overkill and too expensive. When I explained to him that a type of fish I was getting into could not have carbon in their water due to it being toxic potentionally to the fish, he countered my concern by saying our water softner acts as a filter its self and any traces of carbon in the water would be filtered out before it ever got to the fish.
The Skeptic in me has a hard time believing this. He seemed to be the type of person with a bias towards his methods and shut down most of my ideas without giving them much consideration. Needless to say, I wanted second and third opinions. So here are my questions (finally, sorry)

I have a softener with sodium chloride and carbon filter. Doesn't hurt the fish, but I use a diverter valve to get plain tap. The few times a year I forget to switch the valve, the fish never react. Strongly recommend not using RO unless your water report has something egregious.

What's the issue with carbon? If you use RO, the water will be running through a carbon filter or two. Never heard of "carbon toxicity" before.

1. Does a softener filter out carbon?
2. Would a whole house carbon filter be toxic or would there be too little carbon in the water to make a difference?
3. Can I filter out the carbon in the water? I do plan on adding more stages to my house filters.

1. Don't think so, but I don't think there's much carbon in the water to begin with (even with a carbon filter).
2. Not sure. Potassium from the softener would be a bigger concern, not carbon. Never tried potassium chloride, so can't speak to its safety.
3. RO probably, but again...

My end goal is to have a very easy maintenance routine as I own/run 2 different companies. One doing labor all day long. I have little time for my hobbies and even less energy.

Unless you can buy adults, maybe discus are a poor choice. Juvenile fish, especially discus juvies, are not low maintenance. Not worth keeping discus if they become a chore.

Any advice and suggestions would be welcome. Oh and I should also mention I have not locked down filtration methods yet, but I am leaning towards sponge filters or matten filtration

I love sponges and Mattenfilters, but sponges are not a low maintenance option. They need frequent siphon duty to remove matter from the bottom of the tank. Mattenfilters are expensive and ugly but represent a tremendous value for the performance and time savings they allow.

[Creationistkillr]

What's the issue with carbon? If you use RO, the water will be running through a carbon filter or two. Never heard of "carbon toxicity" before.


I believe I got that info right from the getting started section of simply discus. If it is not true, that is a huge win for my set up.

[Creationistkillr]

Oh and thank you for the info. That really helps.

[bluelagoon]

I think one of the reasons we don't use carbon is because it also removes minerals from the water that discus need.

[Adam S]

I'm pretty skeptical about that claim. Carbon in aquarium filters is a big waste of money (most of the time), but it's frequently used to treat water before using it in an aquarium. Never heard of an issue with minerals being stripped.

[bluelagoon]

I'm pretty skeptical about that claim. Carbon in aquarium filters is a big waste of money (most of the time), but it's frequently used to treat water before using it in an aquarium. Never heard of an issue with minerals being stripped.

Ok,I think it is a skeptical claim.Just found this and it says it does not remove minerals and salts.http://www.mne.psu.edu/cimbala/me433...al_Filters.pdf