# when to change purigen?



## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

I put in 100 ml of Purigen about 3 weeks ago in my canister filter.
Today I was doing some maintenance on the filter and the purigen beads were brown. 
anyway of knowing when to change it? is the standard 6 months ok? does its coloration indicate anything? is it normal for it to be brown after 3 weeks?
i have a 75 gallon tank


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

I think you can recharge it by soaking in bleach.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

Yes you can
but that wasn't my question.
when do I change/ recharge it? when its brown? 6 months?


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

I did it when it was brown...didn't matter the time.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

You recharge Purigen when it is a brownish color.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

ok, thank you
I found that as well last night on the seachem web-site
I let my nitrates run out of control and now i'm playing catch up trying to get them under control.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

I also added some driftwood to my tank. 
I'm starting to think that is what turned the purigen brown
maybe 100 mg wasn't enough for my 75 g


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

marius432 said:


> I also added some driftwood to my tank.
> I'm starting to think that is what turned the purigen brown
> maybe 100 mg wasn't enough for my 75 g


That is a possibility. Did the water in your tank turn tea-colored? Did you try boiling the wood first to get the tannins out?


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

I put 3 pieces in at different times the last 3 weeks. The last one was heavy and felt very dense. It colored my water so I got rid of it. the other 2 are lightweight and I haven't noticed any problems in terms of color. So if the purigen is brown from the tannis, my question then is, is it still effective at this point in removing nitrates? after only 3 weeks?


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## walzon1 (Jun 17, 2013)

Sometimes just the top of the bag gets brown, after a quick rinse if the beads are still white I just put it back in.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

ok, thanks everyone


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## jcahow (Apr 25, 2010)

walzon1 said:


> Sometimes just the top of the bag gets brown, after a quick rinse if the beads are still white I just put it back in.


I agree, rinse it good and press on the bag as well trying to feel for internal lumps. Purigen that has been in use for a long time will get very dark and the particles will start to bind together into hard lumps that can be crushed between your fingers. If lumps exist and are not crushed back into loose particles the bleach cannot penetrate into regenerate.

If the color is just lightly tan or brown it is probably just on the surface of the container (I use the 100ml sealed bags) and the internal contents are still probably working fine.

When regenerating I periodically poke it with a blunt instrument and flip it over to make sure the regeneration liquid penetrates the sealed bag well. I usually change the regeneration liquid once as well as it can become saturated after awhile if the Purigen was really dirty and hard. Remember that Purigen loses about 10% of it efficiency every time you regenerate so it does not last forever.


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

So my Q is ,hows it doing with your nitrates? better? No change? how heavily stocked is your tank? 
I just ordered some for my 75 mbuna,heavily stocked! 20 ish


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

i'm down to about 15 PPM. i have 2 bags of 100ml each.
Im not sure why i can't get it lower, I think it may be because the tank runs on 2 canister filters and those things can store high nitrate levels


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Water changes will get it down. 1 50% water change should cut your nitrates in half unless your tap water has nitrates.


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

i surely dont want to steal this thread, so please dont hurt me for asking marius432...but I change 50% every week And my nitrates are 40 ish before and 10 -20 ish after. Every single week.. I only feed 1 time a day. skip a day on random. and on wc day.. So I dont overfeed. Ocasionally I will do 75%, but usually the same Nitrate. is why I am asking. my fish are going on 3". 22 of those beauty's..


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