# Purigen Review



## borohands8593

Well I used Purigen for the first time in place of the typical carbon. I waited for the tank to almost completely cycle but still had traces of nitrites when I added the purigen. There is no information out there the support the claim that Purigen will or will not effect a cycle, but I didnt want to take the chance.

It has been 4-5months since that time( the time table seachem claims their product will last before exhuastedis 6months), and the first 4 months or so were great with no waste products and nitrates never climbing above 10ppm with crystal clear water and water changes only every 2-3weeks. This past month *** noticed nitrates climbing steadily to 40ppm or so so figured the Purigen was exhuasted. After another week or two I finally made it to the LFS to pick some more purigen up and did filter maintenance for the first time since sometime back in October!!! ( I did rinse out the cotton from time to time but that was it).

To get a starting point I decided to test all water parameters. Ammonia had risen to about 1ppm, 0 nitrites, and 40ppm nitrates!!!! With the new stuff in there and a water change these numbers should all come back down to acceptable limits in no time.

Lesson to be learned, dont wait for purgien to fully exhaust before doing filter maintenance and swapping it out. In Purigens defense for not lasting as long as they claim( even though they state 100ml will do 100gal for 6 months and I used 250ml for much less!!), I do over stock my tanks and feed VERY heavily. I also did not do consistence water changes and only did them 50-70% on a 2-3week interval. Im sure this contributed to the faster exhausted of the product. Also, I am not fully bought on the idea that it does not effect cycling at all since after exhaustion there is ammonia when there was none beforehand. It is still a great product and before exhaustion it allows you to feed heavily and perform poor tank maintenance and still keep all your water parameters in check. I do plan from what I have learned to start a week 25% WC schedule and to replace at the START of the increase in nitrates next time.

I hope this helps anyone who is thinking or uses the product since there is not much information out there besides what is on seachem's website. I do think theyre a good company with great products, but anything from them would obviously be biased. Feel free to contribute your experiences with purigen!


----------



## noddy

What was it that you were expecting from the product? I am just wondering because I reccently started using it in my filters and I am hoping that it helps to keep nitrates down a little. I don't expect it to remove amonia though. If you have amonia present in your tank, I can't see it having anything to do with the removal of the purigen, unless you recharged it in bleach like it says, but didn't rinse it enough before adding it back to the tank. It sounds to me like the tank is going through a mini cycle, possibly due to cleaning out the beneficial bacteria in the filter. My nitrates usually start to get close to 40ppm after a week and that is by doing weekly 75% (90g) water changes. I was hoping that the purigen will keep them down at around 30ppm.


----------



## tarpleyg

I put Purigen in to clear up my mildly cloudy water. Working like a champ so far. I could see a difference 24 hours later.

Greg


----------



## JimA

I thought you could regenerate the stuff? Can you use this stuff in a HOB, and how would you?
The local LFS sells it, so would it be 1 box per HOB or can you split it up between 2?


----------



## DeadFishFloating

Yes you can regenerate Purigen. You need to soak it in bleach untill it turns white again, then soak it in water with a little bit of Prime in it. How long it lasts between regenerations depends entirely on stock levels, water change schedule etc. What's it's life span? Don't know, but I'll copy and paste a post from a local forum from a LFS owner;


> The only thing I found as it aged was the strength of bleach I had to use
> 
> I used around 5l constantly in the shop and alot of the time let it go black b4 I cleaned it
> I was using it in FBF's and on my 10ft tanks they could get black within a few weeks so I regenerated it alot over 5 years
> 
> In the end I was using pool chlorine and every now and then I had to bleach it twice b4 getting back white
> 
> Brad


----------



## prov356

In an overstocked tank I can see purigen as a make or break with biofiltration, but in a normally stocked tank, exhausted purigen won't result in ammonia levels above 0. The cause of that is an overstocked/overfed tank. Purigen may be removing just enough dissolved organics that it's helping to keep the biofiltration from being overwhelmed, but when exhausted, it no longer can. If that's the situation your tank is in (and I say if  ), you may be tettering on the edge of a tank crash. To know, let it go for a day or two to see if ammonia comes back down to 0 without the purigen. If it will only drop with purigen, you're on a precipice.

Purigen just removes dissolved organics, nothing more, so won't affect cycling either way. It also will have no effect on organic solids. Think of purigen as performing the same function as a saltwater protein skimmer. Salwater protein skimmers aid in keeping nitrates down by removing dissolved organics before they're broken down. You experienced something similar with your ntirate levels, but purigen will not affect how much in the way of organic solids collect in filter media. It will only deal with the organics as they're broken down and dissolved.

Curious as to tank size? Also, where did you place the purigen, in what type of filter? Seems to me you'd have to use quite a bit above recommended amount to get the results that you did for even four months. I'm surprised it lasted that long in a heavily stocked tank.

I'm curious to see if you continue to get same results long term as the tank ages. Let us know how it's going.


----------



## kriskm

For those who have used this, what did you put it in? The seachem mesh bag I saw online was expensive but said it would last a long time, and could be put in the bleach solution you need to recharge it. Just curious.


----------



## Cento

I'd use the Seachem bag... Like you said, it's resistant to bleach, and has virtually no seams. Also, I find the Seachem bag to be the finest mesh out there. I tried using some cheaper ones, but it wasn't as fine and when you give the bag a little squeeze or squish when rinsing, some beads fell out.

I agree with Tim, if a tank is admittedly over stock and over fed, it'll definitely contribute to the media saturating much much faster then normal. For example, my growout tank of 10gal. I had nearly 40 saulosi juvies (not fry... we're talking 3 months old) in there feeding heavily. I had 2 Duetto 100's working in there that were modified with EHEIM bioballs, and about 30ml of Purigen in each. Both sacks were dark brown in 3 months.

However, in my 38gal, I've had about 100ml running in my EHEIM 2213 for 5 months and they are just starting to turn light brown.

I still think this stuff is worth the price, considering it can be recharged over and over, and the fact that its fantastic at polishing...


----------



## borohands8593

prov356 said:


> Curious as to tank size? Also, where did you place the purigen, in what type of filter? Seems to me you'd have to use quite a bit above recommended amount to get the results that you did for even four months. I'm surprised it lasted that long in a heavily stocked tank.
> 
> I'm curious to see if you continue to get same results long term as the tank ages.  Let us know how it's going.


I actually have Purigen in two tanks and in two different places!! In my 29gallon I have a penguin 350 with the biowheels and split the 250ml of purigen into the two slots. I use the penguin cartridge for the front slot without carbon for mechanical filtration and to allow proper water movement to move the wheels. I then put the purigen in a bag and then that bag into a larger mesh bag with some cotton stuff lightly around it to aid in additional bacterial surface area and mechanical filtration. The tank is stocked with 7 nonjumbo cyps and a 2 small calvus along with a few catfish and tetras. I attritube the quicker deterioration of purigen to my overfeeding and lack of water changes. The ammonia spike could be because *** been through rough times lately with power outages, large cleanings, change in decor, and filter maintenance all within a couple weeks. Maybe a mini cycle hard to say for sure. Tank is only about 7 months old.

I also have it in a 125 gallon tank which has two emporer 400s, a whisper 60, and a cascade 1000 canister. I put 250ml of Purigen in two bags into one of the baskets and crushed coral, foam, and floss in the others. Tank is stocked with a large silver arrowana, clown knifefish, jack dempsey, green terror, gold severum, and 2 syno cats. This tank gets water changes mroe freq and fed less often, also because of all the filters it has higher evaporation so water is constantly being added to the tank. Purigen in this tank lasted 6-8months before exhaustion. Tank is about 2 years old. No ammonia levels have been detected even after exhaustion.


----------

