Purigen regeneration disaster

[kruzerman]

I just regenerated my purigen bags in my 37 gal tank and after soakng them for days in dechlorinator, I out them back in my filter last night while doing a water change. This morning there were 2 of my long fin blue danios dead and all of my endlers were nowhere to be seen. Had to run out for family stuff so all I got to do was drop in some more prime and powdered dechlorinator. Came back this evening to find all but one danio dead (I lost a total of 8) and I can only assume all 6 of my endlers are dead since I still haven't been able to find a single one. My 3 otos and legions of ghost shrimp seem to be doing OK. Maybe just a little slower. The 2 pond snails that hitchhiked their way into my tank seem to be thriving at the moment. I was planning on escaping but this is not how I planned it. I had regenerated several bags of purigen without issue and this time torched my tank...

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[NWA-Planted]

Not to say you didn't, but you did soak the purigen in clean water and dechlorinator before adding to the tank? if you have done it several times before, something had to be different. or it wasn't the purigen, also I thought the directions only said to soak them for 24 hours in the bleach?

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[kruzerman]

I soaked it for 24 hours in the bleach solution and then for 24 hours in a dechlor solution and then I rinsed the purigen and dumped the water and did another 24 hours in the declor solution and rinsed again before putting back in the filter. This was more than I did for my other tanks. I obviously didn't get out all the chlorine.

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[NWA-Planted]

Originally Posted by kruzerman

I soaked it for 24 hours in the bleach solution and then for 24 hours in a dechlor solution and then I rinsed the purigen and dumped the water and did another 24 hours in the declor solution and rinsed again before putting back in the filter. This was more than I did for my other tanks. I obviously didn't get out all the chlorine.

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That much though how could anything really be left in the purigen? thats bizarre, sorry to hear about your fish though

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[GeToChKn]

Chlorine should evap for the most part, do you smell the water. It shouldn't smell like bleach at all and how much prime did you add afterwards to kill the bleach?

[In.a.Box]

first if it was the bleach the ghost shrimp/pond snai would be the first to go.
fish will be 2nd.

the ghost shrimp/pond snail is fine but the fish isnt? make no sense here.

if you cant find the other fish the shrimp ate them.

[discuspaul]

I don't think it was a chlorine problem based on what you did to cleanse, but rather it could possibly have been some significant residue of bleach in the bag, around the pull string area, etc., but that doesn't seem very likely, again based on your 48 hour treatment of rinsing, fresh water, and conditioner. (But perhaps insufficient rinsing after the bleaching ? Did you use full strength bleach ? )

Having said that, I suspect some other cause - e.g. removal of seeded media from your filter to accomodate the Purigen - then producing an ammonia spike due to reduction of the bio-filtration level in your tank.
Sounds 'fishy' to me (no pun intended) - I've done multi-dozens of Purigen re-charging, much along the lines of what you did, with no sign of any problems whatsoever.
Again, I suspect some other source of your fatalities.

[Aquaticfan]

If there was that much Chlorine left in the Purigen you would have smelt it.. It takes a considerable amount of Chlorine to kill fish that easily. Especially in a 37 gallon tank.

I use bleach to clean all sorts of stuff with and never have any issues. Including my purigen. BUT I also hate to waste Prime or any declhor product so I have a couple bags I use. After I clean mine in bleach I rinse it completely Then it gets left to dry out for a few days with every day I move it around and shake it to rid any moisture and air it out. Never have I used declhor with any of mine.

I honestly think you have something else that has happened. Its just the timing. Unless somehow your purigen got contaminated with something else. BUT again if it was chlorine/bleach you would have had to smell it for it to be strong enough to wipe out fish.

Your Shrimp I would be would be even more sensitive to it if thats the case.

Test your water parms, check things over. Some illness or something happened.

[jeremyTR]

Highly doubt it was the purigen and it was something else you did wrong.

I soak in bleach over night, rinse then soak in clean water with dechlor then rinse then dip once more in dechlor water it's been soaking in for.

Never any problems and I've recharged them this way 10 times already.

[vincenz]

Maybe it was a massive pH swing? Seachem does say to use some kind of buffer or neutral regulator after regenerating and dechlorinating the Purigen, so that might've been it. I always use a buffer after to avoid any problems.

[kruzerman]

Originally Posted by In.a.Box

first if it was the bleach the ghost shrimp/pond snai would be the first to go.
fish will be 2nd.

the ghost shrimp/pond snail is fine but the fish isnt? make no sense here.

if you cant find the other fish the shrimp ate them.

That's what I thought. The Danio's are pretty hardy and the Endler's were small but able to hold their own.

It could be something other than the Purigen, I am just not sure what could cause me to lose all those fish so rapidly. I did dechlor with Prime and Seachem Neutral Regulator and I didn't smell a chlorine/bleach smell before adding it back in. The tank was doing great when I did the water change. All the fish were swimming around middle to the top of the tank and the shrimp were everywhere.

This morning, the last danio is now swimming towards the middle to the top of the tank instead of staying at or near the surface. I hope this means the tank is getting better but I will be hesitant to put anything back in there for a while. I thought my params would have been crazy but they were pretty normal, pH 7.0, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 30-40 ppm. What diseases could have caused this rapid a decline? I have no idea, there were no spots or rot on the fish.

[jeremyTR]

Maybe you caused a mini cycle

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[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi kruzerman,

Did you use Seachem Prime as the dechlorinator? This is from Seachem forum on another website.

Sorry for the confusion on this. The correct answer is the one from our FAQ. Basically, amine based Polymers cannot be used with Purigen if you plan on regenerating it. If you have no intention of regenerating, you can use any water conditioner. I would imagine that most other water conditioners do not contain amines, but since we cannot know this for sure, the safe bet is to use Prime. I would definitely recommend trying to contact the manufacturer of whatever water conditioner you plan on using to see if they can provide information on whether or not they use amines. If not, then it should be of no issue.

[kruzerman]

Originally Posted by Seattle_Aquarist

Hi kruzerman,

Did you use Seachem Prime as the dechlorinator? This is from Seachem forum on another website.

Yes, I used both prime and seachem neutral regulator in separate soaks.

Thanks for all of the possible reasons here. The last danio is swimming around and active again, albeit a little lonely. I want the tank to settle a bit but it is time to think restocking.