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I was reading over a Seachem product brochure the other day, and saw some pretty incredible claims from a credible company. Purigen is supposed to be an insane chemical filtration media superior to carbon (which I hate) and Matrix is supposed to be a nitrifying and denitrifying media. I looked through some of the reviews for them online, all of which were good. One big problem is that some users reported no nitrate reduction while using Matrix. I have no need for a nitrifying media, but denitrifying would be cool. Do we have anyone familiar with Matrix here? What's your opinion of it?

Judging by the reviews here and elsewhere online, the Purigen looks like a good buy. The only major negatives are the recharging process and small particle size, both of which I can live with. I did see reports of nitrate reduction using Purigen, so that makes it definitely worthwhile. Can anyone supply a direct opinion of this stuff? Seachem is a great company that I have a lot of faith in, so if I get good recommendations here I will probably go for it.

Thanks!

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Purigen is great. It works far better than carbon while not removing all the nutrients needed by plants. It absorbs some organic particles as well which helps to lower nitrates. The small particle size is a great plus because of the increased surface area but you do have to watch what media bag you put it in. Not only for size but the bag has to withstand bleaching. I always buy the purigen that is already in a sealed bag and never had issues with it. I've got 5 bags for all my freshwater and saltwater tanks and I've recharged it many times. It's not at all hard to recharge although I know a few people that have had problems. You just have to make sure to leave it sit long enough and use the correct type of dechlorinator. There are certain ingredients specifically those that are supposed to affect the slime coat of the fish that can make purigen toxic. Also the seachem rep I talked to said it's best not to let the purigen dry out or the beads can crack into pieces. But I've let mine dry out a few times without any abvious damage and it continued to work afterward. Purigen needs recharged every 2-6months depending on amount used versus tank size and how much junk is in your water to be removed. Seachem suggests you replace it after I believe around 10 recharges.

We bought some Seachme Purigen last weekend and read on the box about the recharging. It wasn't too full on with instructions, I think it just says to recharge with bleach.

How do you recharge, I thought bleach would kill the fishies?

Thanks,

Cheers
TW

I think you're supposed to soak the Purigen in regular freshwater (pH adjusted) after the bleaching. I guess it releases the bleach from the recharging period.

I went ahead and ordered some Purigen online, and I did buy the 100mL batch that comes with a media bag. None of the area shops have a bag tiny enough, so I went with convenience.

Thanks again!

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Wow that stuff sounds pretty cool. Though i dont use carbon this stuff seem to be acceptable ill have to take a deeper lookk into the stuff though..

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pnh

Soak in bleach for 24hours then soak in dechlorinated water using a seachem dechlorinator like prime for another 8-12hours. It should say hours on the directions. Then if using in freshwater you need to ph buffer by soaking in something like discus buffer. The instructions say exact amounts and other things you can use for soaking. Generally though I soak in diluted bleach for 12hours, then change out for a fresh solution of bleach for another 12hours, and then soak in water with prime for 12-24hours. Partially just because I forget to take it out or don't get back to it until the next evening. With doing 5 of them I was getting a large amount of black-brown crud in the bleach mixture after a few hours so it just cleans better if I switch it out. Always use ro or distilled water for soaking. Otherwise the purigen will just start absorbing junk from the tapwater again and it will be light-medium brown when you put it back in the tank instead of white. You can possibly use other dechlorinators for recharging but seachem cannot gurantee any of these and if they contain the wrong ingredients they make the purigen toxic. It takes a few days of soaking in various solutions but not much work and usually only about 10minutes of your actual time to mix things together and toss the bags in.