# Purigen bag, size always matters!



## somebody (May 13, 2014)

I have a small question for those of you running purigen through a sump.

My custom sump has a media tray area that's approx 12" x 12" x 5". In upper tray, I have about 1.5 gallons of bioballs. In the second tray I normally run poly fill bought at wally world but I am looking for something a little more "efficient". Nothing wrong with the poly fill by any means it's just a pain to change out and really holds water when I change it and makes a mess. I want to run poret foam more or less as a pre filter and gradually decrease the ppi down to the purigen. Just a few problems. Picture is for helping understand the sump design.....










1) how small (micron) is the purigen?
2) does anyone know where I can order a bag to hold said purigen? (I see they offer "the bag" but I want 1 single bag)
3) how much purigen to cover a 12 x 12 x 1 area?
4) what is the approx equivalent ppi of a sponge to the capacity of the purigen?

Another ?? do yall find the purigen is more efficient for a square area like so or just go with foam layers in the chamber? I don't like uncovered areas like a round peg in a square hole.


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## LXXero (May 4, 2016)

1. it's REALLY small. I ended up using a cut-up aquaclear carbon bag, doubled on itself, to act as the filter mesh in my reactor.
2. Other than "The bag?" I'm not sure...but I can say you want it to be fine fine fine....
3. purigen itself is rated by gallons, they say a 250ml container can treat 250 gallons...i'm not sure trying to fill an entire area with purigen is the most effective way to use it....
4. ???? not sure what you mean by this

if you really wanna make it efficient, you jam it in a reactor! this is on my 120g build


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

1. Another forum said Purigen is approx. 0.75mm in size or 750 microns and the 180 micron Seachem bag works perfectly.

2. The Purigen bag is sold singly and approx. 5" x 10" and available on most websites and probably in stores that also sell Seachem products.

3. You shouldn't need to cover the whole area, just place the bag in an area of good water flow. It should fit by your pump or in the small section prior to your pump. Remember it needs to be submerged by water at all times. If you can place it in those areas, it will be easy enough to remove it for regeneration.

4. No equivalent! Purigen is an adsorbent resin so considered chemical media.

Are you planning on using the Poret foam prior to the bio ball section? If so, that would be ideal and you can install the Poret vertically and leave small gaps between the different PPI sections. Another choice could be the addition of a filter bag to catch any incoming debris if you have enough room for it. Can we see a pic of the 'empty' side of the sump?


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## somebody (May 13, 2014)

Thanks lxx I might have to check on a reactor to run inline somehow. As for question 4 what is the equivalent poret foam ppi to achieve the same effects of purigen. I've never seen this stuff in real life my fish shop doesn't have this on hand it's considered a specialty item.

Deeda I have a piece of foam I cut from a block to prevent larger detritus from getting in the trickle filter portion. Them the water hits the trickle plate, then down dispersed amongst the bio balls. Full on sump pics inbound.....









this is during testing when I originally built it. Left is the input right output/return









this is the trickle filter portion. Sorry for the poor quality I had the wife text it to me, lost the quality over picture messaging.









this is the input side. You can kinda see the sponge used to prevent detrius from entering the tickle filter portion. The darker substrate is the planted "refugium"/ grow out tank portion (I forgot the substrate I used). Now there are about 60 jungle vals in this area (24 x 12)


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for the additional pictures, I didn't realize you also had a refugium section.

Ideally you would have any mechanical filtration prior to the bio-balls so as to keep them as clean as possible. You could always place a piece of Poret vertically at the input side (small section) to prevent larger debris from entering the refugium section though the Poret is usually 2" thick so I'm not sure if there is enough space.

Under the bio-balls section you can use 20PPM and then 30PPM to catch any remaining debris before returning to the tank. However, when it's time to clean the Poret, a lot of the fine debris will drop out when you lift the foam out to clean it, similar to what you experience with the Poly-fil change out.


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## somebody (May 13, 2014)

I bought some filter socks for below the input pipe but I don't like them at all. The reason I let detrius fall in to the refugium is because I have fry in there, corydoras as well, to catch excess food.

There is a vertical piece of foam pre-filtering the wet dry not the refugium.

Your recommendation of 20 and 30 ppi sponges is what I was looking for. I was afraid the purigen would release the befoulment like the poly fill I forgot to ask thanks for that nugget.

So next question is.....
Would the 30 ppi slow my flow rate down much? Right now I'm estimating anywhere between 1100 and 1200 gph through the sump.

Wow!! reactors are expensive!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

The 30PPI should not slow the flow down though once it gets plugged up you should see the water level rise in that chamber.


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## somebody (May 13, 2014)

Yea that's the problem I've been seeing with the pillow stuffing. I've been making my on food and it's really been putting off a cloud in the tank. Just want something a little more convenient and reusable. Something purpose built for the job. Sponges and possibly purigen will pay for itself after 2 or 3 changes


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