Broken Filter, carbon everywhere!

Question
Hi, I'm in the middle of cycling my 130 litre tank (no fish) and the end cap has fallen out of my filter and the carbon has now covered everything- do I need to start over? I've had a few little things happen over the years but I'm really not sure what to do with this one- I'm just thankful I don't have fish in it yet!

Answer
Well, you don't need carbon in fish tanks at all, so after you clean it up you don't have to replace it. Putting in another sponge or something to fill in the gap is better.

Anyways,
I would do a 90% water change and a gravel vac over all of the tank.

Not much else you can do, really. Keep doing water changes until you see most of it gone. This is really going to set back your cycle but.... what can you do? Things happen.

-Nick