The effects of conventional carbon sources such as pitch, carbon black, coke and graphite, etc., surface modified carbon and new carbon sources on the properties of Al2O3-SiC-C iron trough castable were summarized. It was pointed out that pitch plays an important role in Al2O3-SiC-C castable. After softening by heating, pitch penetrates or volatilizes and condenses into the grains boundary or pores of the castable, which enhances the bonding between grains. Pitch which is uniformly distributed in matrix of castable can improve the liquid phase distribution in matrix and avoid over sintering at high temperature, so as to significantly improve the slag resistance of the castable at high temperature. The particle size of carbon black is very small, which can fully fill the pores, reduce the average pore size of the calcined sample, and improve the corrosion resistance at high temperature. Carbon black, coke and graphite are suitable to be used together with pitch to achieve complementary effects. Granular graphite in surface modified carbon has good application effect, which can introduce more graphite in Al2O3-SiC-C iron trough castable by adding pelletized graphite and significantly improve the slag resistance. Besides, it can also effectively improve the service life of iron trough by adding Carbores P together with pitch to Al2O3-SiC-C castable.