Thoughts on Purigen?

[rrrrob]

I recently started up again after 5 years, and my knowledge is old skool and probably very outdated.

ANYWAY, my question is about Purigen. I've never thought it particularly helpful in removing nitrates, but I decided to give it another try.

So I bought some for my new 55-gal tank, put it in mesh socks as directed, under the drip tray in the sump. After a few weeks the material was a light brown color so I decided to 'regenerate' it as directed. Once I put it back in the tank, I noticed my royal gramma 'flashing' against rocks, etc. like they do if ammonia is building up but the amonia was fine. The ony difference after months of no problems wias the regenerated Purigen.

I took it out, and added some Prime thinking maybe all bleach wasn't removed during the regeneration process. The next morning I woke up to find the royal gramma had........returned to normal It looks fine...relaxed, much improved.

SOOOOOO I did the regeneration thing again, but this time using the 8-hour water/Prime soak twice to remove bleach from the Purigen during the rinsing process. But I'm afraid to use it. I used non-scented, non-low splash Chlorox bleach, fyi.

Anyone else using this stuff? Opinions?

 

[wvned]

This is from Seachems website
I’m using Purigen® but my nitrate is still high. What’s going wrong?
A: Purigen® will remove organics before they can be converted by bacteria into ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, resulting in lowered nitrate concentrations over time, but it will not directly remove these chemicals from the water. If your nitrate is high, we would recommend carrying out a partial water change and utilizing Matrix™ or de❊nitrate™ biomedia to house anaerobic denitrifying bacteria that will remove nitrate from your water.

So Purigen does not remove nitrates directly.

 

[JohnL]

I recently started up again after 5 years

Welcome back

 

[rrrrob]

This is from Seachems website
I’m using Purigen® but my nitrate is still high. What’s going wrong?
A: Purigen® will remove organics before they can be converted by bacteria into ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, resulting in lowered nitrate concentrations over time, but it will not directly remove these chemicals from the water. If your nitrate is high, we would recommend carrying out a partial water change and utilizing Matrix™ or de❊nitrate™ biomedia to house anaerobic denitrifying bacteria that will remove nitrate from your water.

So Purigen does not remove nitrates directly.

im doing regular water changes (about 9 gallons a week from a 55 gal tank) and i've been using it since I was still at 0 ppm nitrates, so I would think it would have closer to 0 nitrates.

I did think the Purigen would remove nitrates directly, but now re-reading the container after reading your citation above, I see I misinterpreted its method of reduction.

Either way, my main questions are:

Did anyone find it helped manage nitrate levels?
Did anyone find it was harmful after regeneration?

 

[wvned]

It becomes simply a matter of rate. If it is not going down then there are still to many organics being converted to nitrate. You would have to use more Purigen.
You run into this with any absorption media. GFO would be another example.
This is the nature of media that says it treats up to some large number of gallons. It may also only treat 5 gallons with a lot of stuff to be absorbed.
A new tank may have a week biofilter anyway.
Are you feeding a lot?

 

[rrrrob]

probably feeding too much...i feed 2 or 3 times a day, but I thought i was being conservative with the feedings. I only have 2 perculas, a coral beauty, a royal gramma and a few inverts (coral banded shrimp, emerald crab and a sand sifting star)....I JUST added a lawnmower blenny yesterday...so the load doesn't seem crazy. Then again, maybe 5 - 7 ppm nitrates isn't terrible? I am trying to keep algae at bay here.