[Cougra]

Although Carbon acn remove a lot ofchemical impurities, it gets exhausted very quickly and can start to leach the elements that it absorbed back into the tank once it becomes saturated. There are other resins around that work more effectively and last longer then carbon but they seem to be more specialized. Polyfilters are good to run occassionally as well since they bind a vast amount of chemicals as well as organics.

There are many different types of chemical filtration but emphasis is only put on a couple media's because the others aren't understood. As we all know Phosphate absorbers have come to the forefront in our tanks and carbon isn't as effective as we once thought it was. But what other types of chemical filtration (besides water changes) do people use in the tank?

Do you classify collecting marco algae as a form of chemical filtration? In some why's it is because it uses some chemical elements but in other ways it's not since it also releases toxins back into the water as well.

We've made huge advances in biological filtration and mechanical filtration but we still have a lot to learn about chemical filtration and it's this lack of understanding that I think has a lot to do with old tank syndrome.

There is a lot of research being done on the chemical processes that occur in the tank, and a lot more is being understood each day, but that understanding hasn't really translated into many methods of filtration.