[gimlid]

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I picked up a small can of this at K E the other day. I thought it may help with some odd odors that are coming from one of my tanks that has a fairly large bio load (I 7" Chocolate and 2 9" plecos plus a few smaller fish) for a 75 gallon tank. My understanding is the odor "may " be casued by nitrate and amonia spikes. Smells like methane or something.
I was stoked to see that the medium container treats 250 gallons for about 15$.
I threw half of it in a mesh filter bag and put it in my 2217 eheim (also running an xp4).
24 hours later the water was amazingly clear and odor free. super clarity.
the ultimate test is tonight, a large feeding of carnivore pellets, algae wafers, and zuchinni for dessert. I will see tomorrow.

 

[tony1928]

Yeah, I'm using it in my tank it completely eliminates the tannins from my huge driftwood that was making my water brown. Took only a day or two. Neat stuff. Even eliminated the real earthy smell from the wood as well.

 

[2wheelsx2]

The water will be clearer, your fish will show brighter colours as they seem happier. I use it partly for clarity and partly for the smell. I love it. For a big tank, I'll never not run it again.

 

[keitarosan]

i love purigen! btw, does anyone have an idea on how much to use? i have a 33g heavily planted tank with a 404 fluval filter. the top most basket contains the purigen and scrubbies. i have 2 mesh bags with about 2-3 tsp of purigen. am i using too much?

 

[2wheelsx2]

You can use as much or as little as you want. I am using a full bag (Seachem's The Bag) in my 2213 in my 15 gallon. With 2-3 tsp's you're probably regenerating it every 2 weeks? I do mine every 2 months or so. Sometimes I skip one cycle even when I clean the filter as the particles don't appear all used up. In my 125 gallon, it gets regen'd every month, but it's in my FX5.

 

[TCR]

hmm look like you can reuse the stuff too..

 

[tony1928]

For the price of Purigen, thank goodness it is reusable. I need to pick up another bottle soon so that I can rotate the stuff as part of the regeneration process. You have to use bleach for that so I'd like to be able to leave the stuff out of the system for a few days so let the chlorine disperse.

 

[hp10BII]

I don't enjoy doing the regeneration process - hate the smell of bleach. I keep 3 bags of Purigen, so when I need to regenerate it, I do 2 bags at a time while the other one is in use.

 

[2wheelsx2]

I run 3 bags for 2 filters. That way I just rotate them out. I buy the 1 L bottles so each bottle is good for 2 years for me. I've only thrown away one bag so far because I burst the seams on it, and the Purigen wasn't regenerating very well anymore. Well worth the money IMO.

 

[jobber]

2wheelsx2 - question for you. Does the purigen affect your plants as the purigen absorbs the nitrate (nitrogen source for plants)?

I've been sitting on idea of whether to use purigen or not for my planted tank.

 

[2wheelsx2]

All my tanks are planted. I was told by Tom Barr and many others on plantedtank.net that Purigen will only affect the organic material, so if you dose KNO3, that won't be affected, or maybe it's only affected minimally, as I've never noticed a problem.

 

[jobber]

Guess I'll be picking up some purigen in the near future

Thanks 2wheelx2!

 

[Mferko]

sounds like good stuff.. i'll pick some up when my carbon runs out

 

[gimlid]

Does anyone know what the process is that purigen works off? Is the black colouration of the used grains due to beneficial bacteria, like a moving bed filter, or an actual chemical reaction?

 

[2wheelsx2]

It's exact process is unknown (at least to most of us), but Seachem states it uses ion exchange and adsorption. It's purely chemical.

 

[gimlid]

Well its a week or more into the purigen and I have never seen such health and vigor from my fish.
Stress level are at an all time low and like was mentioned previously, colour and appetite are wild. The musky smells I was getting completely vanished, I am now going to use soem Prazi or something cause I think there is a bio infection in my larger plecos. there stools are floating and mixed between clear and regular coloured.
Very happy with this product.
Any special tips (in addition to those mentioned) about the regeneration process from anyone?

 

[Fish Whisper]

The water will be clearer, your fish will show brighter colours as they seem happier. I use it partly for clarity and partly for the smell. I love it. For a big tank, I'll never not run it again.

Did you mean never not run WITHOUT it again?

 

[chillin]

i am using purigen on my 300 gallon discus in a reactor,product works awesome,and is reusable if bleached out. planted tank also thriving, no bad filtering issues, change out purigen when required, and lots of water changes, seems to work for me..chillin

 

[Mferko]

did you mean never not run without it again?

-(-1) = 1

 

[2wheelsx2]

The trick I found is to have more than 1 bag so that you can pop in a fresh one that is dechlorinated when you do a filter change. I run 3 bags in 2 filters.

I use full strength bleach, and massage the Purigen around the bag so that the center stuff gets exposed to the bleach properly after a couple of hours. After 12 hours, if it looks clean, I'll rinse out and soak in water with a double dose of dechlorinator. If it's still grungy, I'll rinse out, massage the bag and soak in bleach for another 12 hours.

Because I am using full strength bleach, I use extra dechlorinator and massage the bag to make sure I get all the chlorine. If you use half strength or less, it might not matter.