ready for SPS...or am I?

[ickmagnet]

Anybdy? I know you guys got this one. I'm gonna head over to jl today so any answers are appreciated

[Aquattro]

First, the one piece (frag?) may have just died because sometimes they like to do that. If you added it, and it quickly perished, then probably due to some other reason.
To use carbon, you can just add some to a media bag and throw it in the sump, or you can use a media reactor and run water through it (at a slow rate so as not to grind the carbon up).