may have nuked my xenia tank

[wowser]

Have a 9 gallon JBJ with nothing but pulsing xenia. It took over the tank so I let it. It's been great for a few years along with my one clownfish. Yesterday I put in a regenerated Purigen in (I even doubled the soak time and rinse times, made sure it didn't smell of chlorine). Sure enough the water is milky white and xenias are starting to melt. Anything I can do to save this tank? Doing 50% water change and then a 90% when water is ready in a few hours. Chemipure elite is in there already. So sad!

[markalot]

Try Prime to neutralize any left over bleach. Big big water change, and hope.

[lnglostsurfer]

As long as you take the purigen back out and do a few big water changes, everything should be able to bounce back, if not you are one of the first people to find a way to kill xenia!

 

As a side note, I've never bothered regenerating purigen, after it runs out I just replace it with another back. It's not a big enough expense to risk using bleach with something in my tank. How is your clownfish doing with everything? Showing any signs of weakness/sickness?

[wowser]

I used Prime to neutralize the Purigen. Am afraid that maybe it's the Prime my Xenias don't like. Afraid of doing more harm.

 

You have to realize the extent of Xenia I have. Imagine a 9 gallon square filled 2/3rds with Xenias. Tank is crashing bad. Waiting for the next batch of water.

 

You would think I'd learn my lesson with regen Purigen. Same thing started to happen the last time I tried a regen. But nooooo, I got to try again. Penny wise, pound foolish applies here!

[markalot]

It happens. Xenia can live out of water for a while as they grow in tidal areas, some anyway. Perhaps turning the lights off and getting rid of most of the water might prevent an all out crash? I really don't know.

[Chew_Magna]

Just yank it all out and do a huge water change just for the clown's sake. Grab another Xenia frag and have it right back like it was in a month.

[happyhour99]

I used Prime to neutralize the Purigen. Am afraid that maybe it's the Prime my Xenias don't like. Afraid of doing more harm.

 

You have to realize the extent of Xenia I have. Imagine a 9 gallon square filled 2/3rds with Xenias. Tank is crashing bad. Waiting for the next batch of water.

 

You would think I'd learn my lesson with regen Purigen. Same thing started to happen the last time I tried a regen. But nooooo, I got to try again. Penny wise, pound foolish applies here!

was it also with your xenia tank? IMO xenias like dirtyier water, and purigen has a tendency to clean water to an extreme amount (that why people always say they get crystal clear water). Rather than being the purigen, it might have been the shock of suddenly clean water (or not, i don't know your water parameters). Next time if your worried, do a double dip with prime. I pretty sure prime is not the problem.

Did you rinse out the purigen after the prime bath?, if you did there wouldn't have been very much prime on the purigen.

Edit: Take a frag and put it in a pico jar. Then add prime. If it melts, then it probably is prime (doubt it).

[Deleted User 3]

I used Prime to neutralize the Purigen. Am afraid that maybe it's the Prime my Xenias don't like. Afraid of doing more harm.

 

You have to realize the extent of Xenia I have. Imagine a 9 gallon square filled 2/3rds with Xenias. Tank is crashing bad. Waiting for the next batch of water.

 

You would think I'd learn my lesson with regen Purigen. Same thing started to happen the last time I tried a regen. But nooooo, I got to try again. Penny wise, pound foolish applies here!

You're supposed to put the purigen in bleach solution, for a few days, and then rinse and soak it in prime for like 3 days and then soak it in RODI and test to make sure all ammonia is out before you put it back in lol.

[wowser]

Wrongo, I did just as instructed by Seachem:

 

Soak in a 1:1 bleach:water solution for 24 hours in a non-metalic container in a well ventilated area and away from children. Rinse well, then soak for 8 hours with a solution containing 2 tablespoons of ChlorGuard™, Prime®, or equivalent dechlorinator per cup of water. Rinse well

 

You're supposed to put the purigen in bleach solution, for a few days, and then rinse and soak it in prime for like 3 days and then soak it in RODI and test to make sure all ammonia is out before you put it back in lol.

[Deleted User 3]

Wrongo, I did just as instructed by Seachem:

 

Soak in a 1:1 bleach:water solution for 24 hours in a non-metalic container in a well ventilated area and away from children. Rinse well, then soak for 8 hours with a solution containing 2 tablespoons of ChlorGuard™, Prime®, or equivalent dechlorinator per cup of water. Rinse well

Yeah you do that but soak longer in prime and then soak in RODI and test for ammonia... or you risk getting bleach into the tank... not all directions are accurate..

 

after 2 days my purigen soaking in RODI & prime STILL smelled of bleach, so i soaked it in RODI, swishing around for a few days, and it finally didn't smell like anything, as well as my test showed no ammonia.

[happyhour99]

Yeah you do that but soak longer in prime and then soak in RODI and test for ammonia... or you risk getting bleach into the tank... not all directions are accurate..

 

after 2 days my purigen soaking in RODI & prime STILL smelled of bleach, so i soaked it in RODI, swishing around for a few days, and it finally didn't smell like anything, as well as my test showed no ammonia.

I think you mean chlorine, not ammonia. Bleach has chlorine in it. Prime usually works pretty fast, so if you still smell chlorine (bleach) then there probably wasn't' enough prime to neutralize all of it. After a couple of day, residual chlorine (as long as not in bleach form ie Cl2 not NaClO) probably dissipated into the air. I've used the airing out method when my tab water contained chlorine, but it doesn't work with chloroamines.

[Deleted User 3]

I think you mean chlorine, not ammonia. Bleach has chlorine in it. Prime usually works pretty fast, so if you still smell chlorine (bleach) then there probably wasn't' enough prime to neutralize all of it. After a couple of day, residual chlorine (as long as not in bleach form ie Cl2 not NaClO) probably dissipated into the air. I've used the airing out method when my tab water contained chlorine, but it doesn't work with chloroamines.

I don't have a chlorine tester, the ammonia one atleast with my shitty api shows up when there is bleach still in the water. and I'm not a noob, for the 2c of water i had I used like 8 tablespoons just to be sure of prime.. It still smelled like bleach

[happyhour99]

I don't have a chlorine tester, the ammonia one atleast with my shitty api shows up when there is bleach still in the water. and I'm not a noob, for the 2c of water i had I used like 8 tablespoons just to be sure of prime.. It still smelled like bleach

its very strange that ammonia test would show up with bleach. There is no nitrogen containing compounds at all in bleach. I'm going to have to test that out. It looks like a good indication of bleach. How strong of a signal are you getting from the ammonia test?

[Tamberav]

Have a 9 gallon JBJ with nothing but pulsing xenia. It took over the tank so I let it. It's been great for a few years along with my one clownfish. Yesterday I put in a regenerated Purigen in (I even doubled the soak time and rinse times, made sure it didn't smell of chlorine). Sure enough the water is milky white and xenias are starting to melt. Anything I can do to save this tank? Doing 50% water change and then a 90% when water is ready in a few hours. Chemipure elite is in there already. So sad!

 

To prevent further problems:

 

Use two Purigen's so one is always ready to go. Do as you normally do with bleach then prime but then store it and let it dry out completely. If you have two, you will always have one ready to go and one stored/drying. This way there is no residue left when it comes time to change your purigen.

[Deleted User 3]

its very strange that ammonia test would show up with bleach. There is no nitrogen containing compounds at all in bleach. I'm going to have to test that out. It looks like a good indication of bleach. How strong of a signal are you getting from the ammonia test?

Yeah it is weird but it must have an ammonia relative in it somewhere. And it's over the normal 'i can't tell if this is .25 or .5' thing usually. Maybe it just detects something in the prime or from the non RODI i soaked it w/ bleach in?

[wowser]

No more regen for me. It cost me my tank. Really bummed. Just did a 95% water change and the tank is still milky. The xenias are still melting. Probably no going back. May have to put the clown and critters in my 24 gallon aquapod and start over with the 9 gallon. Clown may get beat up by my mean tomato clown tho.

[happyhour99]

Yeah it is weird but it must have an ammonia relative in it somewhere. And it's over the normal 'i can't tell if this is .25 or .5' thing usually. Maybe it just detects something in the prime or from the non RODI i soaked it w/ bleach in?

it might be reacting with one of the reagents, but chlorine is very different from ammonia. For one thing, the charges are completely different. chlorine likes to be neutrally charged as in Cl2 or if its charged, (-) then its just a form a salt and completely nontoxic. Ammonia likes to be charged (+) at high pH. Prime should not be setting {the ammonia test} off. What might be happening, is that bleach might be degrading prime in some way to form some sort of ammonia. I'm guessing because prime has proprietary components in it. But most of them are some sort of hydrosulfite salt (MSDS) which definitely should not show up.

Since you say that its a low indication (0.25 - 0.5) what might be happening is that the bleach is releasing a bit of ammonia from the organic waste trapped in the purigen. Then its detectable until the prime can take care of it and the bleach. thats my 2 cents. Makes me want to scratch my head.

[jedimasterben]

I still can't fathom why people insist on soaking regenerated Purigen in dechlorinator. Simply let it dry out. Boom, no bleach, no chlorine, no ammonia, nada.

[nhart608]

I used Purigen once. First, it did nothing noticeable for my nitrates (which weren't that bad to begin with) and second, after regenerating it and flushing the $*#! out of it, it was light brown and smelled like dead fish. I'm not exaggerating. I couldn't bring myself to use it again and tossed it.

[jedimasterben]

You're doing it wrong. (and it won't help nitrate at all, it absorbs dissolved organics, which will, in turn, slightly help to prevent more from accumulating, assuming you do not add so much as to exhaust it)

 

 

Think of Purigen exactly like you would carbon, because they do very similar (and some of the same) things.

[wowser]

AHhhhhhh! What to do. Based on these pictures, should I take the live rock out and cut/scrub off all the xenia or keep doing water changes? It seems to be getting smaller and releasing junk in the water. But maybe there's a chance it will recover? As you can see by the before and after pix, there's a LOT of xenia (and this is an older pic, imagine 1.5 times that yesterday).

 

 

[Deleted User 3]

No more regen for me. It cost me my tank. Really bummed. Just did a 95% water change and the tank is still milky. The xenias are still melting. Probably no going back. May have to put the clown and critters in my 24 gallon aquapod and start over with the 9 gallon. Clown may get beat up by my mean tomato clown tho.

Well atleast it wasn't a huge tank with thousands of dollars worth of corals, yanno =\

[wowser]

Btw, all that's in the tank is the xenia. It kind of took over and I let it so it became my xenia tank. I think I am typing xenia too much today.

[markalot]

Doesn't look dead yet.

[jedimasterben]

Since it is xenia, do a 100% water change.