Saltlife757
New member
I am writing this post to share my experience this past month with "recharging" Purigen.
First off, I want to say i absolutely love PURIGEN because it makes my water crystal clear and does a fantastic job helping with stabilizing water parameters. Purigen is the only media I run in my system because I believe keeping things simple and having patience is a great formula for success with this hobby.
Last month I decided to take action on one of the selling points Seachem has for Purigen, Recharging.
(For those who do not know, after purigen has run its course in your tank and starts to change colors, you can soak it in plain bleach followed by primer, and you can reuse it.) I was extremely nervous about doing this. So I read and re read the instructions on how to properly recharge this product. I purchased the correct type of bleach, Seachem's Prime, and I already have plenty of RO/DI water. I followed the instruction to a T, as I have with everything else with this hobby. The very next day after adding the "recharged" purigen, I noticed the water was somewhat cloudy (I did not think much of it because I had just completed my weekly 13.8% water change and sometimes the sand gets stirred up), later that afternoon I noticed my xenia had stopped pulsing, and the next day my powder blue had lost some color and he began to show "white spots" on his skin. From the time I have been in this hobby, I knew these were signs that something was stressing out my livestock. The only thing I did differently from my weekly maintenance was recharging purigen. I immediately took out the recharged purigen and purchased a brand new container. 24 hours later my powder blue had an absolutely beautiful color, my xenia was pulsing, all the zoa's were open and the water was crystal clear again.
I know there are probably a good amount of people out there who completely disagree with me and have had success with this process. Well, good for you. Maybe I completely missed one of the 3 or 4 steps (I didn't, but okay). We all spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on new equipment, livestock, salt and much more. In my opinion, you are absolutely crazy to not spend $26 on new purigen. Everyone looks for ways to cut corners to save money and there's nothing wrong with that. Please do not let this be one of the corners you cut.
First off, I want to say i absolutely love PURIGEN because it makes my water crystal clear and does a fantastic job helping with stabilizing water parameters. Purigen is the only media I run in my system because I believe keeping things simple and having patience is a great formula for success with this hobby.
Last month I decided to take action on one of the selling points Seachem has for Purigen, Recharging.
(For those who do not know, after purigen has run its course in your tank and starts to change colors, you can soak it in plain bleach followed by primer, and you can reuse it.) I was extremely nervous about doing this. So I read and re read the instructions on how to properly recharge this product. I purchased the correct type of bleach, Seachem's Prime, and I already have plenty of RO/DI water. I followed the instruction to a T, as I have with everything else with this hobby. The very next day after adding the "recharged" purigen, I noticed the water was somewhat cloudy (I did not think much of it because I had just completed my weekly 13.8% water change and sometimes the sand gets stirred up), later that afternoon I noticed my xenia had stopped pulsing, and the next day my powder blue had lost some color and he began to show "white spots" on his skin. From the time I have been in this hobby, I knew these were signs that something was stressing out my livestock. The only thing I did differently from my weekly maintenance was recharging purigen. I immediately took out the recharged purigen and purchased a brand new container. 24 hours later my powder blue had an absolutely beautiful color, my xenia was pulsing, all the zoa's were open and the water was crystal clear again.
I know there are probably a good amount of people out there who completely disagree with me and have had success with this process. Well, good for you. Maybe I completely missed one of the 3 or 4 steps (I didn't, but okay). We all spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on new equipment, livestock, salt and much more. In my opinion, you are absolutely crazy to not spend $26 on new purigen. Everyone looks for ways to cut corners to save money and there's nothing wrong with that. Please do not let this be one of the corners you cut.
