DIY Purigen reactor

[billb]

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 like 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!

A picture:


the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnJDISJd0cg
Bill
Sorry for the noise - I had the NCAA basketball tournament on!

[GlassCat594]

That is some serious filtration.

[Niyona]

Originally Posted by GlassCat594

That is some serious filtration.

+1

Wow!

[bsmith]

Thats awesome. I'm not familiar with those types of canisters though. Can you explain how the purigen does not get blown into the tank?

[billb]

It is a bit over engineered I suspect.

I had a go with Sulawesi shrimp last fall and lost them. Plenty of mistakes but I definitely over did the water change thing. The tank has matured nicely and all of this filtration is designed to provide a very low nutrient environment with out frequent water changes. I may have another chance with more of these shrimp so - trying to get ready!

Bill

[bsmith]

Can someone just purchase the canister you have the purigen in though and perhaps install it inline with whatever filter they currently use?

[PMaj]

Billb what kind of screen do you use to keep the Purigen in the filter.

[billb]

Originally Posted by bsmith

Thats awesome. I'm not familiar with those types of canisters though. Can you explain how the purigen does not get blown into the tank?

These are standard house water filters. This one is a Pentek 10 cartridge with 3/4 inch fittings. There is a 50 micron pleated polyester filter cartridge inside that keeps all the beads on the inflow side of this filter while still allowing good flow. Currently I have roughly 400gph going through the filter

[billb]

Originally Posted by PMaj

Billb what kind of screen do you use to keep the Purigen in the filter.

Probably answered this in the previous post but you could also use a 100 micron filter too. Going smaller than a 50 would start to catch to many fine particles and require that you change the cartridge before the purigen is exhausted. I also have a large 50 micron pleated cartridge ( the big blue 20 inch filter seen on the video) inline before the purigen reactor to filter out particulates.

[bsmith]

Originally Posted by billb

These are standard house water filters. This one is a Pentek 10 cartridge with 3/4 inch fittings. There is a 50 micron pleated polyester filter cartridge inside that keeps all the beads on the inflow side of this filter while still allowing good flow. Currently I have roughly 400gph going through the filter

Thats great. Thanks for the help.

[Gatekeeper]

Ingenious. Well done. This is a perfect example of using basic materials available to create easy and clean filtration.

IMO, you can never ever over do filtration.

You get a

[billb]

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

Ingenious. Well done. This is a perfect example of using basic materials available to create easy and clean filtration.

IMO, you can never ever over do filtration.

You get a

Hey - thanks!
These house water filters are well designed and have many options for media. With a little searching - they are cheap too!

[cfi on the fly]

I too am a fan of Purigen, but hate "The Bag". You have to use two of these square shaped bags in a circular type canister or the flow of water will find the path of least resistance. Anyway, they never fit right...I wish someone would invent a circular nylon bag that fits a standard size filter.

Ive tried the panty hose, and yes they work but require way to much maintenance to make sure they dont rip. I like just taking the whole bag and bleach dipping, cant do that with panty hose too many times, or the hose falls apart.

[billb]

Originally Posted by cfi on the fly

I too am a fan of Purigen, but hate "The Bag". You have to use two of these square shaped bags in a circular type canister or the flow of water will find the path of least resistance. Anyway, they never fit right...I wish someone would invent a circular nylon bag that fits a standard size filter.

Ive tried the panty hose, and yes they work but require way to much maintenance to make sure they dont rip. I like just taking the whole bag and bleach dipping, cant do that with panty hose too many times, or the hose falls apart.

Yup - I tried the panty hose bag too. As you suggest, they don't last!

[OverStocked]

Over at APC Seachem indicates there could be some concern with the beads rubbing against eachother causing them to dust and degrade quicker. I would at minimum slow the flow AND add MORE purigen so that that it isn't rubbing so much.