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Purigen Alternative

Just a safety warning: DO NOT MIX bleach and peroxide! It can cause serious harm, especially as peroxide solutions are stabilized with acids. Acids and bleach should not be mixed.

Up to the user, bleach gets the job done in a day or hours...
 
Ria95 said:
Just a safety warning: DO NOT MIX bleach and peroxide! It can cause serious harm, especially as peroxide solutions are stabilized with acids. Acids and bleach should not be mixed.

Up to the user, bleach gets the job done in a day or hours...
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It has its uses but Chlorine Bleach is pretty nasty stuff and I wouldn’t mix it with anything but water.
 
Hanuman said:
It's not fully regenerated as is. It should look very close to when you got it new.
IMO 12% H2O2 is too high of a concentration. I would use 6% but that's just me.
You could try bleach to finish it up but you will need to neutralise the bleach afterwards.
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As I mentioned, it was only in the H2O2 for about 30 minutes whilst I was working on the filter. 😉
I might normally leave it overnight.
From a number of comments I’ve read though, many folks don’t seem to get their regenerated Purigen to look anywhere near as white as unused Purigen. Can you post a picture of your used, regenerated Purigen as an example please.
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
many folks don’t seem to get their regenerated Purigen to look anywhere near as white as unused Purigen. Can you post a picture of your used, regenerated Purigen as an example please.
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purigen.jpg
This Purigen has never come in contact with bleach. Regenerated in H2O2 multiple (>10) times.
One of the sacks resisted H2O2 cleaning on one instance. I reasoned it was due iron precipitate and cleaned it successfully with oxalic acid (reducing/dissolving agent).
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
As I mentioned, it was only in the H2O2 for about 30 minutes whilst I was working on the filter. 😉
I might normally leave it overnight.
From a number of comments I’ve read though, many folks don’t seem to get their regenerated Purigen to look anywhere near as white as unused Purigen. Can you post a picture of your used, regenerated Purigen as an example please.
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Sorry, I missed this. Here is mine. It has been regenerated at least a good 10-12 times.
IMG_0130.jpg
 
Thanks for that. Good to know what to aim for.
I bought 2 packs so a used one can sit overnight regenerating.
 
I’m not suggesting anyone else try this but as an update I heated some bleach in the microwave to warm it up a bit as it was quite cold. I think it was about 40 or 50 seconds on full power.
I would describe it as very warm rather than hot and the Purigen regenerated in under 10 minutes. I’ve done this twice now so far and the Purigen still seems to be working ok and doesn’t look any different.
Repeat my experiment at your own risk. I’ll be doing this again in future with one of the two bags I’ve got and if anything goes awry I’ll report back.
I now need to find a cheaper dechlorinator, any suggestions?
 
Isn't Seachem Safe basically sodium thiosulfate? You can get it in bulk as pool dechlorinator. TBH I'm still using a bottle of Safe from 2014.

As for heating the bleach and soaking the purigen, perhaps a laboratory heating mantle/plate would be better than using the microwave
 
I always use Sodium Hypochlorite (14-15%) to regenerate my Purigen, have never had any issues and it works very effectively. Near black Purigen will almost instantly revert to white though I generally nudge them about a bit whilst they're soaking.

All rinsed well and then soaked in Prime and rinsed again. Remember to store them damp though else you might have issues with breakdown.

I tend to buy 5 litres of the Sodium Hypochlorite at a time as it comes in handy.
 
I’ve ordered some sodium thiosulfate, anyone know how much I should use to dechlorinate the Purigen after regeneration?
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
I’ve ordered some sodium thiosulfate, anyone know how much I should use to dechlorinate the Purigen after regeneration?
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Well there is this thread.

Sodium thiosulfate

I have been using this as dechlorinator but ive not really been that accurate. Not had any problems, but thought maybe I should work out the dosage better. Does anyone know how? I found this link... http://www.jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/dechlor.htm It suggests 4oz (100g) dissolved in almost...
www.ukaps.org

Or this calculator.

Koiphen.com - Koiphen's Koi Calculators

As the largest Koi and pond community on the internet, the forum provides help and advice on pond building as well as Japanese Koi and Goldfish care including disease prevention and treatment.
www.koiphen.com

According to the calculator adding 14g of sodium thiosulfate to 100ml of water would give you a solution that each 5ml would treat 200L of water at 1ppm chlorine. Or in layman's terms the same strength as seachem prime.

How much prime needs adding to purigen to declorinate it; I've no idea.
 
That’s very helpful John, thank you!

Seachem say:

“Rinse well, then soak for 8 hours with a solution containing 4 tablespoons of Prime®, or equivalent dechlorinator per cup of water.”

On the basis that one cup is 237 ml and one tablespoon is 15 ml, I can work that out now.
 
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Thiosulfate is a strong reducing agent. It removes not only chlorine but also oxygen. I wonder if anyone faced troubles when using it directly in the tank?
 
He said somewhere on the site not to add the salt directly to the tank, but also this. Have a look at the website for more information. 😉IMG_8061.jpeg
 
_Maq_ said:
Thiosulfate is a strong reducing agent. It removes not only chlorine but also oxygen. I wonder if anyone faced troubles when using it directly in the tank?
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Pretty certain they have for the reasons you state, though it's probably overlooked by many - relative to all dechlorinators!

This said, I do think that whilst the above may be true there are likely other issues going on in these tanks and that the additional reduction in oxygen could just be the straw that breaks the camels back so to speak!
 
Disaronno said:
Isn't Seachem Safe basically sodium thiosulfate? You can get it in bulk as pool dechlorinator. TBH I'm still using a bottle of Safe from 2014.

As for heating the bleach and soaking the purigen, perhaps a laboratory heating mantle/plate would be better than using the microwave
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If Im not mistaken then Prime and Safe are actually not Sodium Thiosulphate but actually Sodium Hydroxymethanesulfonate
It also has tetrasodium EDTA mixed in for "heavy metal neutralizing" properties.
 
Mortis said:
If Im not mistaken then Prime and Safe are actually not Sodium Thiosulphate but actually Sodium Hydroxymethanesulfonate
It also has tetrasodium EDTA mixed in for "heavy metal neutralizing" properties.
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I believe you may be correct, whilst not confirmed by Seachem.

If I recall correctly @dw1305 had mentioned a reasonable assumption of what it contained at some point.
 
Hi all,
Mat H said:
If I recall correctly @dw1305 had mentioned a reasonable assumption of what it contained at some point.
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I've never been a tap water user, so I don't have any first-hand experience of dechlorinators.
Mortis said:
If I'm not mistaken then Prime and Safe are actually not Sodium Thiosulphate but actually Sodium Hydroxymethanesulfonate
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I've speculated that "Seachem Prime" is very similar to "Kordon Amquel", it has to be speculation because Seachem won't tell you what is in "Prime" and "Safe". Amquel <"has a patent"> and it is sodium hydroxymethanesulphonate based.
This is the reaction supplied by one of the manufacturers. NH3 + HOCH2SO3Na = H2NCH2SO3Na + H2O
(an aminomethanesulfonate salt) stable at pH below 9 .

The manufacturers process by the product for the other two parts Chlorine and Chloramine are stated below.

OCl- + HOCH2SO3Na = H2NCH2SO4Na + Cl-
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This is a really useful thread* <"How does Prime detoxify ammonia and nitrite?">
Mortis said:
It also has tetrasodium EDTA mixed in for "heavy metal neutralizing" properties.
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Tetrasodium EDTA <"EDTA - MOTM"> would mop up ions of higher valency (including any lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) & copper (Cu)), but it would preferentially chelate iron ions (Fe(+)++). I'd guess that it is another <"Seachem 2 + 2 = 5">.
..........This same property allows EDTA use for incidents of lead poisoning by the medical profession. The formation constant for Pb-EDTA complex is 1018. Intravenous injection of Na2CaEDTA solution is given at 25 mg/kg body mass/day over 6 hours for 5 days when blood lead levels go over 45 mg/dL. The Pb+2 ion replaces the Ca+2 ion in the complex because the formation constant for the lead complex is greater than the calcium complex.​

Pb+2 + CaY-2 arrow.gif PbY-2 + Ca+2 K ~ 108​

The five day limit is there to prevent Zn+2 depletion, since the Zn+2 ion replaces the Ca+2 ion in the complex too.........​
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* and very entertaining.

cheers Darrel
 
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