# NPT + Tannins + Purigen?



## wakiyasi (Jul 12, 2011)

Hello everyone!

I recently (c. 1 week ago) set up my first 10 gallon NPT but have since had a heavy leeching of tannins into the water from my untreated, oranics-heavy soil, called "Hyponex". I decided the only way to actually rid my water of them, following numerous large water changes to no avail, is to use Purigen. I ordered a 100mL bag from Amazon, and it should be arriving pretty soon. 

Does anyone have experience running this stuff in a NPT and what its effect on parameters will be? From what I've read, the latter would be negligible.


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## nesopheus (May 30, 2011)

I'm no expert but I would think the Pusigen will take nutrients out of the soil. Of coarse at this point you have too much nutrients so for now I say Purigen all the way. Changeing the water will eventually win, at least that has been my experience, maybe consider not using Purigen after your satisfied with water clarity.


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## activesize (Jun 26, 2011)

I've used it in startup NPT's. The neat thing about Purigen is, as days go by, you can see the tiny pellets getting darker shades of brown as they absorb (or adsorb?) tannins and other organic material from the water column. One advantage of Purigen over ie. activated charcoal is that you can soak it in a bleach solution, and then a dechlorinator solution, and reuse it over and over again. When it's soaking in bleach you can really see how much tannins are being removed. Gentle washing machine-like clockwise then counter-clockwise stirring agitation helps speed up the process. When you're ready to dechlorinate then just decant the brown liquid and rinse the pellets a few times, then add fresh water and be sure to stir in enough dechlorinator and let it sit long enough to get all the chlorine out. The manufacturer claims that you should also take the third step of soaking it in neutral regulator, and I usually did, but I don't know if that step is really necessary. I suppose it depends on the size of your tank the most. However, it is essential to double bag it as the pellets are too small for a single media bag to contain it sufficiently. You can do the entire cleaning process with the pellets in the bag, or you can remove them from the bag first. I generally preferred to remove them from the bags and dump the pellets into a clear jar where I could see what was going on better. If you do the latter then after you're done reconditioning the pellets then you make a liquid slurry to pour the Purigen back into a media bag, or use a spoon, then double bag it, then rinse the whole thing again. 

After a few weeks or a month of having a Purigen bag hanging in a speedy current flow I think my water got so pure that my floating Pennywort went aerial on me to seek out what it needed (ie. CO2 + organics) to sustain itself.


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## pat w (Nov 2, 2009)

FYI I was told that Purigen will absorb organic nitrogen bareing compounds but not the nitrogen from nitrogen salts like KNO3.

Pat


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I don't think it takes the nutrients from the soil. You can check with Seachem on their forum.


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## wakiyasi (Jul 12, 2011)

Well I feel a lot better about using this now, then. It's just, my water has gone form brown to black in a matter of days 

I'll let you guys know how it goes when I receive the shipment on Friday


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## nesopheus (May 30, 2011)

I sure your filtration media won't affect your soil, I swear by the 6week submersion period. Take the time to pre soak your soil, that way you can be sure you know what your getting into. This practice will give your plants a real boost when your 6weeks is up.


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