Using Purigen

[Marine_Tank]

Hi Anyone,

Pls advise the proper way to use Purigen. I have packed it into a ordinary cylindrical shape filter pump (size: diameter = 3.5 cm height: 9cm) one that you can easily purchase from an ordinary fish shop selling at $14) which I submerged it into my pump chamber. However, my nitrate reading is still the same i.e. around 50 ppm (using Salifert Nitrate test kit) after running Purigen for about 4 days.

Here is my 1 yr old tank specs/fish bio :-

FOWLR tank specs : 75 gallon tank with an effective tank size : 3.6 ft (L) x 1 ft ( x 2 ft (H).

Bio Load: 1x Royal Angel, 1x Maroon Clown, 1x Regal Tang, 3x Electric blue damsel, 1x wrasse, 5 Astrae snails & 2 x tiny reef lobsters in my tank.

My filtration system is just using normal overflow system (which flows into the biological chamber) + DSB (3.5 inch grade 3 sandbed) + coral chips (inside biological chamber) + live rock + pump chamber + 1 Orca 25 protein remover

My tank nitrate is always very high and I am looking into other methods of using chemical / mechanical filtration i.e. ChemiPure and Poly-filter.

Are ChemiPure and Poly-filter effective ? Can they be used together with Purigen ?

How much nitrate can these 3 methods remove ?

IMO, I guess my bio load is on the high side or the Purigen is not being effectively utilised by the filter pump in my water pump chamber.

How long does it take before Purigen starts to work ? Or is there a more effective way of using Purigen. I have limited space and I can't use Eheim canister which is too big or external hang-on filter too as it can't fit into my tank.

I heard it is normal for a FO tank to have a nitrate of btwn 10 - 40 ppm right ?

Thanks fr yr kind advice.

[Achilles Tang]

Hi, suggest you do a search on nitrates here.

You'll find many many threads that have suggestions on how to deal with nitrates.

[Marine_Tank]

Hi AT,

Have tried reading all the threads here but can't find the definite answers to my questions posed.

Just wonder anybody have similar experience like I do.

Thanks.

[Achilles Tang]

IMO, the above chemical filtration will be a very expensive long term solution to the reduction of nitrates.

Nitrates are best dealt with naturally, via denitrifying bacteria action. So try to setup conditions for these bacteria to flourish and do their work.

Either that or you have to export dissolved organics before they have a chance to breakdown into nitrates via a very good skimmer or harvesting of macroalgae on a regular basis.