Will purigen kill my bioballs?

[stanger127]

I have a mixed reef Oceanic Biocube 8. My current filtration setup is:

 

Chamber 1: oceanic carbon filter

Chamber 2: Filter Floss -> Purigen* -> Chemipure Elite -> Bioballs.

Chamber 3: Eheim 600 Compact Pump (158gph)

There is about 20lbs of live rock in the tank.

 

I started out with just bioballs and the system ran for ~5 years as FOWLR and parameters were always pretty good. I got the itch about a month ago to start with corals and wanted to clean up the water a bit more. I removed 5 bioballs and added the chemipure elite (to hopefully work out some phosphate problems I was having) and this has worked well for 2-3 weeks. Last night my torch started acting funny and I ran out of test strips (I know I need to invest in a better testing system) and I paniced and put in a 100ml bag of purigen that I bought a while back in chamber 2.

 

Here's my question: If purigen is as effective as everyone says it is at removing waste before it can be come nitrate or nitrite, will it starve out the bacteria that are living on my bioballs? Should I remove the purigen and let my bioballs do their thing?

 

I don't want to do the mini-fuge thing because these tanks are show peices and there isn't much room behind the tank to put a light.

 

Here are a few pictures of the tank from 5 minutes ago (didn't know if the forum would auto resize so I just put the links:

http://i.imgur.com/83xbF10.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qVJ1har.jpg

 

[HarryPotter]

From what I've seen, you should run CARBON if your corals are acting funny- it absorbs a lot of chemicals released in warfare.

 

You should really have test kits of you own a reef. Since you don't, maybe a water change is in order?

[brandon429]

there is no amount of nutrient stripping, filtration schemes, decent changes in salinity, temp, . ph, any tank param or non antibiotic activity you could do to kill or make the filter bacteria not adapt and instantly continue on. Youd have to medicate the tank w certain chems to affect them. they are the toughest, most adaptive animals we keep despite what the fritz web page that sells biobac retail fluids says about them heh (makes them look weak, you buy more)

 

I think the bacteria are the oldest adaptive organisms on any living reef = practice w changes.

 

Its not that minor changes wont kill tens of thousands of filtration bacteria. its that as a collective reproducing, motile community found in the presence of protective mechanisms it doesnt matter for about 20 hours.

[stanger127]

From what I've seen, you should run CARBON if your corals are acting funny- it absorbs a lot of chemicals released in warfare.

 

You should really have test kits of you own a reef. Since you don't, maybe a water change is in order?

 

Yeah, there's carbon in the chamber 1 filter.

 

I know, I just got into the coral hobby about a month ago and had two bottles of 5 way test strips that came with my biocubes 5 years ago. I just now ran out of them, time to get an API kit. The good news is my LFS is less than a mile away and does free water tests (just not at 8pm when I panicked.)

[braaap]

 

Yeah, there's carbon in the chamber 1 filter.

 

I know, I just got into the coral hobby about a month ago and had two bottles of 5 way test strips that came with my biocubes 5 years ago. I just now ran out of them, time to get an API kit. The good news is my LFS is less than a mile away and does free water tests (just not at 8pm when I panicked.)

 

First off you should never use those crappy strips. 2nd API is decent but wont give you exact levels. It will ballpark you but that is about it.