Re-generating Purigen - intense ammonia like smell?

[Jandiscus]

I pulled the purigen bags from my filtration system the other day to regenerate them with Chlorine (bleach). I noticed an intense stingy odor that started to develop after I pulled them out of the CL bath. It did this while the purigen was drying (a week) . Is that normal? I didn't rinse it with water after the Cl bath. maybe that is part of the problem...?!

Thanks,

JC

[Bizarro252]

I notice this as well, and because of my paranoia I actually only use new purigen on my Discus, the re-used stuff goes to other tanks - have never had an issue I am just weird.

However - you should not let purigen dry out, and if it has I would recommend tossing it. The last step in regen should be soaking in prime laced water (very heavy dose per the directions on the package) for 24 hours. Once dried it is ruined as the plastic beads will crack.

[Jandiscus]

Dang it! lol....ok...I wasn't planning on using them again anyways. Thanks for the feedback :-)

[Hart24601]

It's cheap enough doesn't hurt to toss it. FWIW I have regenerated purigen many, many times. It's fun to see the transformation from almost black back to bright white. But heavy use of prime is the key. It's interesting, the product says to not let dry, but I have found (I think in seachem forums) that it doesn't necessarily ruin the purigen, but I would not let it dry out anyway.

[Jandiscus]

Thanks for the follow up. I agree, the change in color is fun to observe. I had two bags. One regenerated back to white, the other one had about 20% or so that kept a pink color. I decided to discontinue the use of Purigen, as I believe it might be overkill, given my daily 70%+ wc’s. I have 14 discus in a bare bottom 220gal tank. Running a FX5 (100% bio) and a sponge filter.

[Hart24601]

Makes sense. I figure if they are getting discolored they are absorbing something from the water even with large w/c although probably just coloring from foods and tannins from driftwood. With Regen it's very inexpensive so I keep running it.

[Filip]

Seachem claims purigen is fairly effective to at least 10 regenerations . I've let mine purigen beds dry once , and they just degraded in dust by 20% of their total mass . I was still able to effectively use the leftover 80% of the beds .
I have never experienced the amonnia smell after regeneration , although I follow the instructions and soak them in overdosed Seachem safe dechlor , right after the regeneration is over .