# Will Activated Carbon Remove Growth Reducing Pheromones ?



## nagukush (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi Friends !

Hope all is well and great !

Someone told me that Activated Carbon can adsorb and remove the Growth Reducing (Stunting) Pheromones excreted by the fish. Just wanted to know if this is really true and effective. Even if it is, then wont regular partial water changes remove them too ?

Actually I have 3 bags of activated carbon in one of my Filter baskets and I'm not even sure if its a good brand (its a brand called Boyu - any ideas ?) I basically want to prevent the stunting of my Frontosas (as they're a little overstocked)

If its really not worth it, then I plan to remove the carbon and fill the basket with some Ceramic Rings for mechanical filtration or Eheim Substrat Pro for Bio-Filtration.

Will be a great help if you can kindly guide me if I should continue to use the Carbon or should I use the basket for ceramic rings or substrat pro ?

Kindly help me Friends...
Thanks and Regards
Kush


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## Veloth (Jun 25, 2008)

I've never heard anything about the Pheromone and I'm not tying to be rude but why not put them in a larger tank or get rid of some of them so stunting is not an issue.


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## bradac56 (May 9, 2007)

nagukush said:


> Hi Friends !
> 
> Hope all is well and great !
> 
> Someone told me that Activated Carbon can adsorb and remove the Growth Reducing (Stunting) Pheromones excreted by the fish. Just wanted to know if this is really true and effective. Even if it is, then wont regular partial water changes remove them too ?


That's just hogwash, no carbon can't do that. I agree with Veloth ether transfer them to a bigger tank or get rid of a few.

As for the carbon, carbon is carbon yours should be fine tho I would run some ceramic rings and a filter pad along with the carbon (unless it's a planted tank then ditch the carbon).

- Brad


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## Supercoley1 (May 28, 2007)

> 3 bags of activated carbon


How old are they?

I have carbon in my filters and it doesn't cause any problems as it only adsorbs for so long and then is exhausted at which time it is just standard media. Therefore may as well leave it in and use it as standard media rather than replacing it with something else. Still has high surface area even after being exhausted.

I have to second the poster above though. Trying to get fish to grow larger in too small / overstocked tank isn't very good. Why not just put the fish in suitable tanks and/or get fish that are suitable for the tank you have.

AC


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## jasa73 (Jun 18, 2007)

I guess my question would be...how do you know you have these pheromones? I have read that some fish my emit these, but i havent seen any proof of what kind of impact they actually have or if they even exist. I would focus on the overall health of your fish, feeding and good water.


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## nickman (Feb 25, 2008)

water changes will, to a certain degree, help with keeping heavily stocked tanks healthy. Carbon is best used for removing dissolved substances from your water such as medications, tannins, ect. i have heard of growth limiting substances being excreted by fish but have never seen proof that they exist. I prefer to keep lightly stocked tanks because they are much less work in my opinion and i like to avoid water changes.  

how "overstocked" are we talking?

some fish seem to behave a little better when more heavily stocked but this can be a delicate balance to achieve and is better gauged by the adult size of the fish. attempting to grow out a group of juvenile fish to mature size in an under sized tank is usually a losing battle not to mention cruel.

not trying to preach, just trying to help.

-nick


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I wonder what exactly causes fish to stunt. Does anyone know the physiological reason why fish stunt?

Is it a waste build up (NO3 etc...) that causes stress or something else?


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## Karebear (Oct 6, 2008)

I have found that good water changes is the best treatment for the growth reducing problems with fish. Make sure everyone can get enough food and keep up on water changes, daily or more often if you are really overstocked. For my discus I do a 50% once a week, I get good growth and healthy fish. This is the one thing everyone wants to do without because of the work, however it is the most important step to healthy fish, more important than the food. Carbon would need to be changed once or twice a week to do any good and it would be iffy on helping with any growth reducing problems. Carbon will take up impuritys for only a few days and then cannot take up any more, after a period of time it can let the impuritys back into the water and cause the tank to crash this is why you need to change carbon once a month.

I hope this helps


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