Purigen and activated carbon vs fertilizers

Hi all,

In my large aquarium I run purigen and a small amount of activated carbon in one of the canisters. I absolutely love the clarity these products yield, almost like having fish floating in thin air..

I have now started my first properly planted tank and my logic tells me that purigen and carbon might remove fertilizer from the water column, so I decided against using these products in my canister for the planted aquarium. But geez, I would love some of that crystal clarity in my planted aquarium.

I figured - hey, I have joined this community of highly experienced and intelligent hobbyists who might be able to weigh in on this for me.

Question - can I run purigen and or activated carbon in my planted aquarium without sacrificing my fertilizer?

 

Hi Grant as far as I understand carbon will completly nullify any fertilizer, purigen I assume would do the same.

You could however compensate for the clarity by adding a prefilter just for water polishing, filled with filter floss, so as an example grab a second hand canister packit full with filter floss and sponges and you should have a very good water polisher. Can also do it with internal polisher as well.

In the picture is a internal water polsher DIY. In one of my second attempts at looking after plants. Only some peacock's in their and a internal sponge filter and water is crystal clear.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

Howzit Grant
I have the same theory so I fert on Mon, no carbon for 5 days then do a water change on Sat and run carbon for 24hrs then remove the carbon on Sun.

My reasoning is after the water change most of the fertilizer is gone but there could be build up over time of stuff you don't want so a large amount (2kg) of carbon in a sump for 24hrs can remove some of it. I discard my carbon after 2 months (about 8 days use). Purigen the other hand is magic and I never remove it from my planted tanks and I've had successful plant growth.

 

Thanks David, I am already knee deep in filter floss, I love the stuff, I buy it in bulk and dedicate an entire tray in every canister to it and will continue to do so. I just can't help but think that chemical filtration polishes on another level.

Hi Adrian, that sounds like a master plan for amazing water clarity, much easier to execute in a sump than in a canister.

As I am running canisters exclusively, this routine seems a tad hectic. However I am happy to hear about your success with purigen.

According to seachem's own forum (which may be biased), they reckon that purigen will have minimal effect on fertilizer.

I will definitely avoid using carbon as I'm sure that will totally strip the water of any fertilizers. But I still have hope for the magical purigen!

I am hoping to hear from a few more members on this topic.

I'm curious, @Adrian Gatter do you regularly "recharge" your purigen with bleach? The reason i ask is because if your purigen depleted/dirty it will stop working, thus not affecting your fertilizer, hence your success with it.. I have 2x the purigen required so that I can rotate and "recharge" on a 4 week cycle

 

If you are tied into a canister ... best is to run your polishing either in an internal filter or a HOB with a big POT. A prefilter sponge on the canister will mean way way less filter cleaning, and reduce the risk of breaking when you do do the cleans. Running your purigen in something that you can easily see into helps to pull it out when it is too saturated. Carbon as a fixed filter media is a no no for me, but I like how Adrian uses it as part of his rest.

You recharge your purigen when it is dark - almost black. You will notice that your purigen's ability to recharge drops after a few cycles - keep an eye on it.

Later Ferdie

 

I'm also running montmorillonite clay which is a fine powder clay that sticks to tiny particles that can normally get through your filter floss. The clay then gets bogged down with dirt and settles in the floss. My understanding is purigen is just a resin that sticks to tiny dirt particles so I'm guessing the purigen is also catching the clay. Bare in mind my planted tank substrate is topsoil from builders, my purigen goes almost black in 3 months. In all the videos on youtube their purigen goes white after 24hrs in 50/50 bleach/water solution. Mine goes light brown after a week in 80/20 bleach/water
I've recharged one baggie 4 times and then moved it to an un-planted tank and put a new one in the planted tank. Kinda trying to cycle them.