Purigen
- Thread starter Walter White
- Start date
I understand that Purigen works pretty well. I have a two little fishes media reactor I have been running with a RKE on my 28g with carbon. I have heard that purigen lasts longer and is good at indicating when it should be changed by color. What I am worried about is running it too much. I am worried it with strip the tank of nutrients so well my zoas and palys will suffer. Im trying to determine if I should just run it for a few hours a day half a day or what. I know that this will depend drasticly on the bioload of the tank, water changes, as well as many other factors.
I was hoping someone else was already doing the same thing and could lend some input but I may just have to tune it in with trial and error.
I was hoping someone else was already doing the same thing and could lend some input but I may just have to tune it in with trial and error.
I'm running Purigen with great success on my 22g CAD. I have it sitting on the middle rack of a homemade media rack along with Carbon Rox and floss. The tank is an all-in-one even though I do have a reactor for GFO/Carbon. I would not run Purigen in a reactor...I think its only suited in the media bag but I could be wrong. Just put it in a medium flow area/inlet. I run my GFO/Carbon reactor a couple times a week as needed. I dont feed heavy so I dont need it often. The Purigen is EXCELLENT..
I am constantly at 0 Nitrate readings as well as Amon/Trite. Might want to ask the manufacturer about using it in a reactor. GL
I am constantly at 0 Nitrate readings as well as Amon/Trite. Might want to ask the manufacturer about using it in a reactor. GL
I've ran mine from day one so everything in my tank is used to it. The GFO is the most delicate because you can wipe out your PO4 rapidly with a reactor and your critters/corals may not like that rapid nutrient removal. Purigen is mainly for Ammonia,Nitrites and Nitrates. If you have higher nitrates then I would run it every couple days so your zoas dont suffer but honestly your probably fine to use it non-stop immediately. I change my Purigen out every 3 months...you can re-charge it with bleach but I dont trust so I just buy another bag for $8.
I wouldn't run it in the reactor merely due to the extremely small pellet size. Even the canister filter on my planted tank is able to force some of the pellets through the fine mesh bag whenever I clean the filter and recharge the purigen.
I also wouldn't worry too much about it completely stripping nutrients to the point that the corals suffer. I've used purigen on my planted tanks for years, and can honestly say that I've never noticed a decrease in available nutrients as a result of either adding purigen to the system or recharging the media...and this was in a tank that was getting daily doses of nitrate, phosphate, potassium, and micronutrients. I tested daily for nitrate and phosphate, and weekly for iron and copper while figuring out the dosing regimen over a few months. The purigen did effectively polish the water and removed tannins, but had no effect on nutrients.
I'm also running Purigen on my 28 gallong JBJ nano right now, and just have the bag sitting in the middle chamber of the media basket. I started running it after adding some coral to the tank, and didn't notice any stress or bleaching. FWIW, I did notice my hammer shedding off some zooxanthellae after adding a skimmer to the tank whereas it was unaffected by the addition of purigen.
I know most of my experience isn't with a reef...but IME nutrient availability shouldn't be a huge issue.
edit: To add to my post, answers to previous inquiries directed toward Seachem about the product's use in planted tanks and the potential for detrimental nitrate reduction pointed out that purigen removes the organic waste prior to conversion to nitrate. In other words, it interrupts the ammonia - nitrite - nitrate cycle by removing waste before it's ever converted to nitrate. I am running a fairly large amount of Purigen in a heavily stocked planted tank and still have 5-10ppm of nitrates in there without dosing KNO3...the purigen likely removes some of the organic waste prior to conversion...but definitely not all of it.
Hope that helps...
I also wouldn't worry too much about it completely stripping nutrients to the point that the corals suffer. I've used purigen on my planted tanks for years, and can honestly say that I've never noticed a decrease in available nutrients as a result of either adding purigen to the system or recharging the media...and this was in a tank that was getting daily doses of nitrate, phosphate, potassium, and micronutrients. I tested daily for nitrate and phosphate, and weekly for iron and copper while figuring out the dosing regimen over a few months. The purigen did effectively polish the water and removed tannins, but had no effect on nutrients.
I'm also running Purigen on my 28 gallong JBJ nano right now, and just have the bag sitting in the middle chamber of the media basket. I started running it after adding some coral to the tank, and didn't notice any stress or bleaching. FWIW, I did notice my hammer shedding off some zooxanthellae after adding a skimmer to the tank whereas it was unaffected by the addition of purigen.
I know most of my experience isn't with a reef...but IME nutrient availability shouldn't be a huge issue.
edit: To add to my post, answers to previous inquiries directed toward Seachem about the product's use in planted tanks and the potential for detrimental nitrate reduction pointed out that purigen removes the organic waste prior to conversion to nitrate. In other words, it interrupts the ammonia - nitrite - nitrate cycle by removing waste before it's ever converted to nitrate. I am running a fairly large amount of Purigen in a heavily stocked planted tank and still have 5-10ppm of nitrates in there without dosing KNO3...the purigen likely removes some of the organic waste prior to conversion...but definitely not all of it.
Hope that helps...
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