Sblev Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Hopefully I'm posting this in the correct place. I've setup a quarantine tank and put salt in it. Thought I would be OK with the fritz bacteria but after about 5 days I noticed a slight ammonia smell and a little yellowish discoloration. I then panicked and added some purigen. It seems to be working but my question is will the tank still cycle with the purigen sucking up all the bacteria food? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Did you do any testing? If there's still ammonia in there then your cycle will continue. Those resins were originally designed for water purification at crazy high (300ppm) ammonia levels and not to help aquarium fish. The kinetics down in the 1-2ppm ammonia are pretty slow so I suspect you'll still have some ammonia. In any case the only way you'll know is to test (I recommend the API "master" test kit). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sblev Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) Thanks for the response.. Haven't tested yet but I'll check it. Edited March 8, 2021 by Sblev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Sblev said: Thanks for the response.. Haven't tested yet but I'll check it. So if there is still some ammonia the cycle should continue? yep! Roughly speaking, the bacteria will increase in population until ammonia gets to 0. If you see 0 or close to zero you can take the purigen out. Edited March 8, 2021 by CT_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sblev Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 Ammonia is .5 ppm, nitrite is 0. My other dilemma is I've already added two neon tetras and a black neon. It's a 10 gal. Would you recommend just keeping the purigen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Sblev said: Ammonia is .5 ppm, nitrite is 0. My other dilemma is I've already added two neon tetras and a black neon. It's a 10 gal. Would you recommend just keeping the purigen? yeah. Lots of people a fish-in cycling process. 0.5 ammonia isn't good for fish but its not too bad. my guppies survived 1+ ppm at a ph in the mid 7's (but they weren't happy about it) BTW Do you know your ph? the lower the ph the less toxic "ammonia" is (as it spends it's time with an extra proton and becomes ammonium). Also a lower temp helps a tiny bit with ammonia toxicity, but obviously don't go colder than whats okay for the fish. Edited March 8, 2021 by CT_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Are you still adding the fritz bacteria? When I used it to cycle I added some every day until it cycled - can't hurt, plus it has a short shelf life once opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sblev Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 Ph is ~7.2 and I have the tank set at 76°. I am able to adjust temp if you think I should. I only have little of the fritz left ill go ahead and use it up. Thank you both for all the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 2 hours ago, Sblev said: Ph is ~7.2 and I have the tank set at 76°. I am able to adjust temp if you think I should. I only have little of the fritz left ill go ahead and use it up. Thank you both for all the input. You can check out this chart. It says "ideal" but 0.5 is never ideal. I'd read anything above 0 but "ideal" on this chart as "fine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 I don't like Purigen. It seems like part of the micro-plastics problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 3 minutes ago, Streetwise said: I don't like Purigen. It seems like part of the micro-plastics problem. can you elaborate? Of all sources of micro-plastics it seems to me purigen is near the bottom of the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 I could be wrong. I had a bad experience recharging it. I never should have used it for my tanks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 (edited) It's outside of my sphere, but I don't agree with the use of Purigen on a continual basis. I think that it does rob the benificial bacteria of their food. On the other hand, I will always keep some on hand. It saved me, and my charges, from a possible disaster recently. Edited March 8, 2021 by Frank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 18 minutes ago, Streetwise said: I could be wrong. I had a bad experience recharging it. I never should have used it for my tanks. Oh yeah I didn't even know you could recharge it. I thought you just had to pitch it in the bin. 7 minutes ago, Frank said: It's outside of my sphere, but I don't agree with the use of Purigen on a continual basis. I think that it does rob the benificial bacteria of their food. On the other hand, I will always keep some on hand. It saved me, and my charges, from a possible disaster recently. I agree. I think its more of an emergency use kinda thing if you have a spike. I also don't see a problem with using it during cycling so long as there's still some ammonia in there to keep the bacteria population increasing. My experience with heterotrophs at least is that when concentrations of essential nutrients get low they upregulate importers and their absorption can happen REALLY fast. Assuming these autotrophs are similar any ammonia you can measure means they're not limited by it. I could be wrong though. I haven't cultured nitrogen fixing bacteria out side of a fish tank before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sblev Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 5 hours ago, CT_ said: You can check out this chart. It says "ideal" but 0.5 is never ideal. I'd read anything above 0 but "ideal" on this chart as "fine" Thanks again CT. Everything is looking good so far, appreciate everyone's input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungle Fan Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 @Streetwise@CT_ I don't trust the Purigen after re-charging, somehow the bleach smell never goes away after using it, no matter how much water you run over it, or how much you soak it. To remove tannin pre-soaking is a much better method, and in regards to "removing" ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate, this is from their product site, just what they say about its capabilities: "I’m using Purigen® but my nitrate is still high. What’s going wrong? A: Purigen® will remove organics before they can be converted by bacteria into ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, resulting in lowered nitrate concentrations over time, but it will not directly remove these chemicals from the water. If your nitrate is high, we would recommend carrying out a partial water change and utilizing Matrix™ or de❊nitrate™ biomedia to house anaerobic denitrifying bacteria that will remove nitrate from your water." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungle Fan Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 This is the site: https://seachem.com/purigen.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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