Has a tank ever crashed from not using carbon? No
Has a tank ever crashed from using carbon? Yes

Not sure we can factor defective products into this. Tanks have crashed from defective salt, we're not going to call salt optional :)

Some people have beautiful tanks and don't do water changes. No way I have the guts to try this... I'll keep running carbon.

But keep the desert island analogies coming just the same.

Has a tank ever crashed from not using salt: Yes
Has a tank ever crashed from using salt: Yes

Lol! A little different.

Well, we don't know if a tank ever crashed form not using carbon. Maybe yes. Then it's exactly the same story.

I think for the purposes of this discussion, we're talking about quality products without contaminants :)

Well my two cents is I use Carbon and will continue to do so!!

LOL, yeah lets not throw a curveball into this home run of a discussion ok????

:smile:

PS.. I use carbon and GFO on all of my tanks... always have, always will.

I personally have run carbon 24/7 for 12 years, wouldn't think of not using it.

Of course you can, it's a risk involved in using it so one has to determine if the risk is worth the benefit. You can't say a tank has crashed from not using carbon, plan and simple. You can argue the use of carbon MAY prevent a crash but the lack off is certainly not a cause.

Salt is not optional and neither is water or the container everything is held in, those risks are unavoidable.

Everything can present a risk, but I think it's so small and random, that we can't discuss the use of a product, as a requirement for tanks, based on that small risk.
The discussion is about using good carbon vs not using good carbon. Now with that identified, we can carry on. :)