To all, search the net "Purigen without Seachem". Very interesting read.
That is a BIG thread over on the Planted Tank and a guy did a lot of work and testing on various replacements.
Same questions there as is here. Bigger bead. Nope
Water purification exactly as i thought. Like deiononization ani/canti resins takes all but the wet from water and are recharged with acids from my understanding. Not something the normal home owner has much accessibility to. Just can't go dumping a boat load down the drain before the EPA shows up lol.
The Nitrate resin I use looks identical to purigen, my understanding of resins is the porous plastic bead part is all basically the same, its the goodies inside that are different. I recharge the Nitrate resin with a brine solution, where in purigen it seems more about obliterating the nitrogen compounds it has adsorbed with a strong base (bleach). That in itself is strange to me since most of the reading I did on Nitrate resins (some municipal water treatment plants use it) is to not let it come in contact with water that has chlorine in it still as it damages the beads. I use my resin on water after it has aged overnight for this reason, but the chlorine bleach seems to be fine on purigen, weird stuff
Nope - I don't restrict the flow. I have the purigen sandwiched between two sponges. There's just enough flow to lift it up.
Found to today after almost a week of running the top of the mass has lowered in the reactor allowing an increase of flow rate. It does make quite a bit of difference once the heads get saturated
I had taken a break from Purigen six months ago for all my tanks because I got tired of recharging. In addition, the chemi-pure bags I was using did not hold up well to bleaching and basically fell apart, so I had about a liter of the stuff in storage unbagged.
This thread inspired me to build a reactor, but I wanted to use new purigen, so I picked up an additional 500ml. I decided to use a couple 100 micron nylon filter socks as bags for my original liter of purigen and I threw that in a canister. It is a lot of purigen, but it is packed lightly so it can also tumble somewhat within the canister.
I expected the water to be crystal clear with this much purigen, and it was in record time. What I didn't expect was the impact on nitrate production. I had a busy day yesterday and skipped the WC and my nitrates barely moved. The fish are showing great colors. Seachem claims purigen absorbs the organic precursors of the nitrogen cycle and I believe it, especially if used in reactors or high quantities.
I have always had crystal clear water but my hopes would be some sort of visual indicators of the reactor being a benefit. Had a few long days so went three days without wc. I typically do every other day. My glass was noticeably cleaner and nitrate was only 5. I typically run about 7.5 in an overstocked tank.
By no way am I claiming this is an exchange for wc but what I did want to see was a noticeable difference between wcs.
Im not illiterate...only my phone's auto correct is
Re: Purigen reactors
I never recharged my purigen in a bag. I found a half gallon glass pickle jar worked best for me. A small wooden dowel rod to stir and your set. Rinse in the jar pour off repeat. Refill use the recommended amount of safe your done. I used a liter of purigen in my lifegard bed filter.