purigen disaster ..... opinions please

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tanyaelec11

tanyaelec11

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 4, 2012
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I decided to recharge my purigen that was in my sump . I picked the bag up and it literally disintegrated in my hands and all fell into my sump loose... a half of containers worth. My question is if it goes through my pump and gets in my main aquarium will it damage the fishes gills ? I have larger fish in a 300 gallon and the purigen is small enough to get into the fishes gills. I'm trying to drain my sump and syphon all of it out . but opinions are great . ive never encountered this before and I have been in the fish hobby for 13 years now.
Thanks
 
Well that's a first. I'm guessing you shut off the pumps? Letting all of it sink and siphoning it out is about all you can do. Fish gills are resilient I don't know what your stock is but fish have to deal with muddy, sandy, and generally turbid water in the wild they should fine. You could put a sponge or filter floss over your return to keep it from going into the tank also
Good luck though
 
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Email seachem and ask them if you haven't.
 
I shut off the pumps and I'm trying to syphon it all out . ive filled the sump three times and drained it with the syphon it just doesn't stop. worst disaster ive had yet !!!
 
Hello; Sorry about your troubles. I just bought some purigen and plan to use it. I have been wondering how to do this in a way to be able to recharge the stuff? My I ask what type container you had the purigen in?

Also in general do those with experience have suggestions on how to set the stuff up?
 
Purigen is inert, so that's a good thing as far as other animals are concerned.

Course sand is defined as around 300 microns in size.
Fine to medium sand as 100-300 microns in size.

Seachem says on their website that Purigen is best kept in bags of 300 microns or smaller. This implies that Purigen is uniformly larger than 300 microns, else it would routinely sift through a 300 micron bag.

To me, that means that Purigen is comparable in size to course sand or larger, but indeed is uniformly larger than the smallest course sand. That makes it much larger than fine to medium sand. If that's true, fish (in a tank where some Purigen has been released) should have no more difficulty passing water over their gills than they do in tanks which use course sand as a substrate.

That being said, I'd feel much better in the long run if the Purigen was trapped in a filter and removed from the tank.
 
Last edited:
skjl47 said:
Hello; Sorry about your troubles. I just bought some purigen and plan to use it. I have been wondering how to do this in a way to be able to recharge the stuff? My I ask what type container you had the purigen in?

Also in general do those with experience have suggestions on how to set the stuff up?
Click to expand...
I had the purigen in panty hose I got from the dollar store. I recharge it in bleach for half a day and then put some seachem prime after rinsing the bag really well after the bleach solution. . I guess the bleach disinigraded the panty hose ( tights ) so don't do what I did. I went to my lfs and they did not have the actual bags in stock. My suggestion is to use those bags designed for the purigen and not tights ! Purigen works great however you do not want to make the mistake I did. It made a huge mess and took about 4 hours to clean it all out of the sump loose !
 
tanyaelec11 said:
I had the purigen in panty hose I got from the dollar store. I recharge it in bleach for half a day and then put some seachem prime after rinsing the bag really well after the bleach solution. . I guess the bleach disinigraded the panty hose ( tights ) so don't do what I did. I went to my lfs and they did not have the actual bags in stock. My suggestion is to use those bags designed for the purigen and not tights ! Purigen works great however you do not want to make the mistake I did. It made a huge mess and took about 4 hours to clean it all out of the sump loose !
Click to expand...

Chlorine bleach of sufficient strength or duration will degrade nylon, and panty hose are typically made of nylon, so yea, if that was the scenario, it could explain it.

In the attached link, chlorine has what is called a "strong attack" effect on nylon.

http://www.newmantools.com/pipestoppers/NYLON_chem_resistance_nt.pdf



Sorry for the mess but gosh thanks for posting this for the rest of us. (I certainly would not have thought that what you did would have been a problem.) You might help other unfortunate souls if you post this as well on the lessons learned forum.
 
Glad I didn't cheap out, I don't use purigen much but this would be extremely upsetting
 
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