Seachem purigen, questions

[Niki_up]

so I have gone out and bought the seachem purigen for my fish tank. I was hoping to use it to keep down some AM that is in my tank from the tap, along with all the other things it’s does it sounds fantastic! Now upon reading the bottle I noticed it will deal with AM, NI, and NA.

Here’s my problem/question:

I have 75g understocked tank that is moderately planted.

I have almost 0 NA’s as it is, which is good for the fish but not good for the plants. If I add the purigen it should keep my NA’s 0 all the time, which I do not want bc of the plants. Can I just add the purigen on what’re change days for 24hours to get rid of the AM?

Should I add some fish to my tank to up the production of my BB? I will be fully stocked once my current baby fish grow up, so I was thinking maybe some other kind of fish that would be easy to re-home? Thoughts, anyone have the same problems previously?

 

[Drstrangelove]

Maybe I'm missing this completely, but you shouldn't need purigen for the ammonia at all. If the tank is properly cycled, the bacteria will reduce the ammonia and nitrites to zero quickly enough.

No need to add a fish that you don't really want that you can later have to find a home for, no need for a complicated schedule of adding purigen, then taking it out, no need to worry as your own fish will grow to size and the BB will grow properly at each step of the way.

Ammonia in the tap isn't a blessing, but it's normally easily handled by the BB, and if not it can be addressed with smaller water changes until the BB catch up.

 

[Niki_up]

Sorry, just correcting my post.

I’m getting my own info mixed up!

So I actually bought the purigen for tannins not AM out of the tap.

But still same questions, I want NAs in my tank as I have plants but the purigen will remove them...

 

[Hendre]

As far as I know purigen doesn't take much nitrate out. Even if it does just pop it for tannins now and again or feed your fish more

 

[esoxlucius]

Purigen wont take nitrate out of your water, nor ammonia or nitrite. I believe what it does do is to bond with these elements and protect your fish from them until the BB have caught up so they can neutralise them.

If you want to reduce tannins in your water use carbon. This will reduce the discolouration and wont have any effect on your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate either.

It seems you are afraid of having zero or very low nitrate due to your plants but in an established aquarium you should never have zero nitrate anyway. You should always have a reading of nitrate.

I don't have plants so i cant really comment on what level of nitrate you should have to keep a happy compromise between fish who it's bad for and plants who it's good for.

 

[Niki_up]

so I have gone out and bought the seachem purigen for my fish tank. I was hoping to use it to keep down some AM that is in my tank from the tap, along with all the other things it’s does it sounds fantastic! Now upon reading the bottle I noticed it will deal with AM, NI, and NA.

Here’s my problem/question:

I have 75g understocked tank that is moderately planted.

I have almost 0 NA’s as it is, which is good for the fish but not good for the plants. If I add the purigen it should keep my NA’s 0 all the time, which I do not want bc of the plants. Can I just add the purigen on what’re change days for 24hours to get rid of the AM?

Should I add some fish to my tank to up the production of my BB? I will be fully stocked once my current baby fish grow up, so I was thinking maybe some other kind of fish that would be easy to re-home? Thoughts, anyone have the same problems previously?

Purigen wont take nitrate out of your water, nor ammonia or nitrite. I believe what it does do is to bond with these elements and protect your fish from them until the BB have caught up so they can neutralise them.

If you want to reduce tannins in your water use carbon. This will reduce the discolouration and wont have any effect on your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate either.

It seems you are afraid of having zero or very low nitrate due to your plants but in an established aquarium you should never have zero nitrate anyway. You should always have a reading of nitrate.

I don't have plants so i cant really comment on what level of nitrate you should have to keep a happy compromise between fish who it's bad for and plants who it's good for.

Thank you this was very informative, and you are correct, I am afraid of having too little NA somewhat bc of the plants but I also know low NA can contribute to blue green algae (which is starting in my tank)

I believe my goal for NA is in the rage of 10ppm.

So I wanted the purigen for tannins but didn’t want it to affect my NA.

I cannot use carbon yet bc I am treating my tank for parasites and the carbon will remove the medication....

But knowing the purigen won’t take away my NAs makes me feel more confident in using it for tannins.

 

[Dieselhybrid]

Purigen will help to remove the tannins will exhaust in time. It will stain dark and stopped working as well. You'll soak it in a diluted bleach solution to recharge it. Then soak it and dechlorinator and then add it back to your filtration system. I used to do this monthly when I used purigen.

Found this online posted by one of their staff members on their Forum in response to using purigen with medications:

"Whereas carbon is a broad spectrum, indescriminent filter, Purigen is specifically designed for removing organic wastes out of your tank. Some medications are ionic or inorganic, and others are larger organic molecule with amine functional groups. Because of this vast array, a general guideline is to remove your Purigen while medicating. Though Purigen will not remove inorganic or metallic medications (such as ionic copper), unless you are certain of what you are using it is best to remove it. MetaFix states that it is an organic source of medication, so I would assume Purigen has a chance to remove it. Thank you for your post and have a great day!"

I would be careful using purigen and medications

 

[DN328]

Did you recently put in more driftwood and now want to reduce the tannins from your water?

Based on the threads I've read, I think there’s many variables and I wouldn't be too concerned that using Purigren will eliminate NA. I'd run it for awhile and see what your water parameters are based on your specific tank, feeding habits, stock, etc.

 

[Niki_up]

Did you recently put in more driftwood and now want to reduce the tannins from your water?

Based on the threads I've read, I think there’s many variables and I wouldn't be too concerned that using Purigren will eliminate NA. I'd run it for awhile and see what your water parameters are based on your specific tank, feeding habits, stock, etc.

There are a lot of variables haha, and all the chemistry part of fish keeping is a whole new world for me and I’m thinking I’m a little OCD hahah

I haven’t even added my drift wood yet, as I don’t want tea coloured water

 

[DN328]

You can try to soak, or even better, boil your driftwood to remove as much as possible. Even boiling will not remove all, but it will help. The rest is really water changes.