Aquario Neo Bag Carbon

Ready-to-drop activated carbon in a mesh bag — food-grade rather than industrial, and specified not to move pH.

To adsorb is to make something stick to a surface: activated carbon is charcoal processed to be riddled with microscopic pores, and it works by holding impurities on all that internal surface rather than adding anything to the water. pH is the acidity scale — below 7 is acidic, above 7 is alkaline.

In Aquario's own words, Neo Bag Carbon “quickly adsorbs various chemical compounds and pollutants, making water transparent and removing odors”, and is “the highest grade activated carbon used in food manufacturing processes, not for industrial use”.

The pH point is the one worth knowing. Aquario state plainly: “mostly activated carbon generates a lot of hydroxide in the manufacturing process, which increases the pH of the water, but the neo bag carbon does not affect the pH”, because it has little ash. (Ash is the mineral residue left over from manufacture — the part of a carbon that pushes pH up.) If you have ever had carbon nudge your pH up, that is the problem this is specified against.

What that does in a tank: it pulls dissolved organics (waste compounds from food and livestock), tannins (the compounds from driftwood and leaves that tint water tea-brown) and odour compounds out of the water column — the open water itself — which clears tinting from driftwood and botanicals and takes the musty edge off after a big clean-up. As with any carbon, it saturates (its pores eventually fill and it stops working) — run it as a temporary or rotating stage rather than leaving it in indefinitely. Aquario also design for internal flow, so adsorption happens inside the granule and not only on its surface.

• Food-manufacturing-grade activated carbon, pre-bagged for canister and hang-on-back baskets
• Adsorbs dissolved organics, tannins and odour-causing compounds
• Aquario specify no effect on pH — low ash, unlike carbons that raise pH via hydroxide
• Pore structure designed so water flows inside the granule, not just across its surface
• Saturates with use — run as a temporary or rotating stage
• An Amazon listing title claims it “stabilizes pH levels”; Aquario's own page says no pH effect, so we have not repeated the Amazon wording