Of additives and activated charcoal

[JKurtz]

Hello everyone! What's the consensus out there on using aquarium additives, e.g., Liquid Gold, strontium & molybdenum, Lugol's, etc.? Any preference for a particular line of products? Should additives be used at all? Does regular use of activated charcoal defeat the purpose of additives altogether? Too many questions for such a simple mind!

 

[kyguy]

Activated charcoal will most definately drain all your trace elements out of the tank. If you want some sort of chemical fitration, there are a numver of companies that make synthetic resin beads which will specifically bind nitrogonous wastes, and not your trace elements, I have used Seachem's purigen with much success, but if you keep up with water changes, you probably don't even need that. But using carbon with any sort of liquid supplemnent is just throwing money down the drain.