Szat Clear Water

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Cool thread thx for the info. Ive been messing with various methods foe the past yr all were either ineffective or required too much maintenance to be a realistic fix. Algae scrubber, purigen reactor, denitrate filters and floating plants all failed for me


I havent posted about it yet because i want to run it for a few weeks and have a decent amount of data to provide but i just set up a purigen filter. I like this product your using because of the recharge method salt seems a hell of allot easier than bleach.


Can you describe the recharge process ?
 
Cool thread thx for the info. Ive been messing with various methods foe the past yr all were either ineffective or required too much maintenance to be a realistic fix. Algae scrubber, purigen reactor, denitrate filters and floating plants all failed for me


I havent posted about it yet because i want to run it for a few weeks and have a decent amount of data to provide but i just set up a purigen filter. I like this product your using because of the recharge method salt seems a hell of allot easier than bleach.


Can you describe the recharge process ?

According to the directions, you soak it in a solution of 100 grams of salt per 1 liter of water for 30-40 minutes then rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water.
 
One week since adding Szat Clear Water and the last water change. Nitrates are approximately 10 ppm. Roughly 30+ ppm less nitrates than before last weeks water change. And approximately the same nitrate reading as what comes directly from my tap.
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Will do a water change later today or tomorrow.
 
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That Szat thing is a big marketing gimmick over here across the pond. It's nothing more then regular selective ion exchange resin sold overpriced in packaging. As such it introduces free Cl- (chloride ions) into water and I can tell you that my wild caught malawi predators didn't like it a bit. Started coughing, stopped eating... not all of them, just some here and then but it was everytime I introduced ion exchange. I think it has something to do with chloride cells fish have on their gills which are used to regulate pH of their blood system. When you put regular salt in water you also introduce chloride ions but these are somehow loosely associated with sodium ions... One of the questions is what are characteristics of these Cl- ions coming out of resin... Anyway your mileage may vary based on fish you keep...
 
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Interesting topic. Frank, did you see any reduction in nitrates when using Rid-X?
 
That Szat thing is a big marketing gimmick over here across the pond. It's nothing more then regular selective ion exchange resin sold overpriced in packaging. As such it introduces free Cl- (chloride ions) into water and I can tell you that my wild caught malawi predators didn't like it a bit. Started coughing, stopped eating... not all of them, just some here and then but it was everytime I introduced ion exchange. I think it has something to do with chloride cells fish have on their gills which are used to regulate pH of their blood system. When you put regular salt in water you also introduce chloride ions but these are somehow loosely associated with sodium ions... One of the questions is what are characteristics of these Cl- ions coming out of resin... Anyway your mileage may vary based on fish you keep...

Appreciate this feedback. Make no mistake, I'm not sold on this product at this point. I will be the first to admit I don't have enough knowledge in some areas of your conversation to have an opinion at this time. I can say this.... I have been keeping an eye on the behaviors of my fish since introducing this product. In the short time I've used it so far, I have seen no changes in behavior or appetite. It advertises nitrate reduction, and I have seen that up to this point. Although it is reducing nitrates, I do understand it could be affecting my water in ways I cannot see. So I do plan to continue my regular large water changes even though the nitrates are still going down. I have not seen much of any one using it in the states so thought I'd try it. If it turns out to not be worth it, I will chalk it up to my contribution to the folks here to learn from.
 
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Interesting topic. Frank, did you see any reduction in nitrates when using Rid-X?

No not with ridx alone. I still dose tho. As far as things that ive tinkered with the purigen fitler has been promising. 2L of purigen at 1100gph after a wc had nitrates at 0 but i was concerned with starving the bb. Dropped it down to 500 to 600 gph and it was at 5ppm at last check which was 3 or 4 days after a wc where nitrates would normally be 40+. Want to wait a few mire days before i post anything.

Did have some short lived success with a denitrate filter (low flow)

I like the product slippery is using because of the simplified recharge process. Eagerly following this one.
 
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I used Purigen years ago, but I don't recall how much of a difference it made in nitrate reduction, mine were never that high to begin with. That, and I didn't relish using bleach in the house with kids and animals about, so I gave up my experiment prematurely. It will be interesting to see where this trial ends up, and if any of your fish are impacted negatively as Malawi Prague experienced.
 
There may be differences in ion exchange effects based upon the way of implementing it. I was using proper column and my nitrates were like zero (lemon yellow in Sera NO3 test). And I was using like 4 gallons of this for my 400 gallons tank. Which means I got a lot of released chloride ions as my bio load was like 30mg NO3 per liter per week. In case of using of these small packets in sump the effectivity of these is much lower so they release less chloride ions over time if it makes sense. Essentially the concentration of chloride ions at the end of the cycle is given by the total capacity of media. So if the concentration is lower some fish may go ok with it. As far as the fish response go gibbiceps plecos didn't like chlorides a bit either, they always behaved funny after ion exchange deployment and I lost one of these too. I suspect the Uaru cichlids OP has are not thrilled either as their origin are black waters of amazonas.
 
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