# Fluidized Purigen reactor



## billb1

I am a fan of Purigen, but not a fan of the media bags. These never seem to provide uniform flow. When I take out the bag, it is clear that some beads have been exposed and soaked up organics while most of the interior is still white!

The reef community uses reactors designed to provide a fluidized bed for media that absorbs things phosphates. Unfortunately they do not work well with the tiny Purigen beads ( I read about several disasters!)

The video below shows my DIY reactor. It is working well. I have about 250mls of Purigen in here on a 60 gallon tank. The beads stay suspended and are all exposed to the filter flow. I can see all the beads darkening at the same rate - and much faster than any media bag solution I was able to come up with! The down side is that they need to be recharged at a much faster rate than before!






Bill


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## billb1

*Fluidized Purigen reactor for Eheim 2213 or larger*

Well here is a version for smaller tanks, designed to work with my 12 year old Eheim 2213 which is on a 10 gallon tank.

*The parts*
- Pentek 2 and 3/4" by 5" water filter housing with 3/8" inlet and outlet
- Two 3/8" threaded by 1/2" barbed adapters
- A 2 and 3/4" diameter by 5" pleated polypropylene filter cartridge. This is 30 micron as I could not find a 50 micron cartridge to fit the housing
- about 200ml of purigen - this was too much. I will try 100ml next time to get all of it fluidized

*Pictures:*









In action. The Purigen is wedged into the pleats, kind of like a diatom filter. The remaining material is split - half in motion and half down on the bottom. I'll use less next time









The video


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## S-KGray

Nice job! Now I may just need to setup one of these...  thanks!


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## billb1

Thanks!

They are dead simple. I have tried several brands of filter housing and I like the Pentek - they have rounded bottoms that keep the beads from collecting.

One down side - you have to recharge more frequently! This improves the efficiency by exposing more beads to the water flow. A good thing really!


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## doubleott05

holy crap thats awsome. i bet your water is like super polished. you could prob read a book through 4 ft of water huh.

sweet


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## niko

Bill,

Finally someone to do this! And nice!

Doesn't the micron filter plug up too fast?

I assume that you have connected the Pentek housing to the outflow of the canister filter so less dirt goes through the Pentek. Correct?

How do you disconnect the Pentek for cleaning? Are there valves on both sides of it to shut the water off during cleaning?

How often do you have to charge the Purigen?

Have you seen any definite difference in the tank after you installed the Pentek housing?

--Nikolay


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## billb1

niko said:


> Bill,
> 
> Finally someone to do this! And nice!
> 
> Doesn't the micron filter plug up too fast?
> 
> I assume that you have connected the Pentek housing to the outflow of the canister filter so less dirt goes through the Pentek. Correct?
> 
> How do you disconnect the Pentek for cleaning? Are there valves on both sides of it to shut the water off during cleaning?
> 
> How often do you have to charge the Purigen?
> 
> Have you seen any definite difference in the tank after you installed the Pentek housing?
> 
> --Nikolay


Great questions Nikolay

I have two out of three reactors plumbed in post filter and this is the best way to do it. The exception is on my 90 gallon where it is on a separate loop with my Mazzei CO2 injector ( prior to the injector) This was the proto type and the pleated filter was plumbed in originally to prevent the mazzei from getting clogged. I have to clean this every two weeks. But this this tank has my biggest bioload and the purigen is pretty brown after two weeks!

I do have ball valves on both sides so I can shut the flow off and remove the housing for cleaning. The small reactor use the Ehiem double disconnect fittings.

As for the frequency of cleaning, The one reactor on the 90 gallon is every two weeks. The reactor on my 60 gallon has a 50 micron pleated filter plumbed ahead of the reactor and only gets changed when the purigen looks nice and brown, about every three to 4 weeks. This is faster than before when I had purigen in a media bag, but it just means that I am removing more organic waste. This is a light bio load tank - 4 red neon gobies, 15 threadfins, (both thanks to Invertz Factory) and two species of Sulawesi shrimp. I want this tank to be oligotrophic so the purigen is imprtant. It is working great! The new small reactor is on a ten gallon and is less than a week old so we will see.

As for differences, The water is very clear, that is expected with this product. The Sulawesi tanks are even more dependant. The shrimp are sensitive, the want clean water but they are sensitive to large water changes. This keeps things stable and allows me to do 10% water changes.

Hope this rambling reply helps


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## S-KGray

Yes, very good questions and well-explained answers!

Keep us updated on how well the small reactor on the 10g works out! And also how well they continue to work on your other tanks. Should be a good comparison between a heavy bio-load and a light one.


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## doubleott05

can purigen be recharged indefinitly?


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## joshvito

This is a very cool idea!
Do you add feertilizers to these tanks?
If so, does Purigen remove the fertilizers you add to the tanks?

Do you run the reactors constantly, or only certains times throughout the day?


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## billb1

doubleott05 said:


> can purigen be recharged indefinitly?


Hi Elliott,

I don't think you will get unlimited re-charges. I have a bucket of purigen soaking in RO water that has been recharged using Seachem's directions. As long as it still get's white after re-chargeing and still gets brown in the reactor I use it. I have probably done 6 recharges to date.


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## billb1

joshvito said:


> This is a very cool idea!
> Do you add feertilizers to these tanks?
> If so, does Purigen remove the fertilizers you add to the tanks?
> 
> Do you run the reactors constantly, or only certains times throughout the day?


Hi JoshVito,

I do use ferts in the 90 gallon. It is a high light tank (300 watts of Metal Halide) with pressurized CO2 ( Mazzei) and I use Estimative index with dry ferts.

My understanding is that Purigen has an affinity of organic nitrogen compounts not the inorganic nitrogen in our fertilizers. These organic compounds can act as food for bacteria which can create cloudy tank conditions and increase ammonia. It is also very good at removing compounds that stain the water such as tannins.
I have these hooked to my filters so they run 24/7. No electricity though!

Bill


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## gwclark

billb1 said:


> The new small reactor is on a ten gallon and is less than a week old so we will see.


Thanks for sharing this great idea with us. I will be using two of these small filters on my 20 gallon. One with a 50 micron cartridge and Purigen followed by a second with CupriSorb and a 25 micron cartridge.

What size pump are you using on the 10 gallon to get the desired effect?

Now that you've had it running for a while, how long do you find the filters lasting?

Thanks


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## Travis.808

I'm ressurecting this long dead thread. Wondering a couple of things, any problems you've encountered long term with this setup and do you see a significant drop in flow rate from adding this reactor?


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## Fleabilly

Yes I am also interested in how it has held up.
Plus I am curious about how you might intergrate a co2 reactor inline as well?

Cheers

R


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