How to make a purigen reactor?

[dleblanc]

Someone posted that they had made one of these, I've been thinking about how I might do it. The pieces of the puzzle that aren't yet sorted out are:

1) How to put a filter in before the purigen to keep it from getting crud in it
2) How fine a screen I need to keep it in - it is fairly small stuff
3) I can think of lots of ways to put something together, but am drawing a blank on putting something together that comes back apart to be able to regenerate it

I'm thinking along the lines of a container that I could fill about half full of purigen, and then pump the water in from the bottom - if it is an upflow, it should keep the purigen fluidized, and should maximize utilization.

What sort of things have people come up with? Just tossing a bag or two in the sump by the pump intakes does work, but I'd like to figure out this puzzle, so...

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know where to get them in bulk but stainless screens people use for growing mosses on should work great. I found some on theplantedtank.Com for pretty cheap. There are PVC pieces that are threaded with a seal. Don't think it would take much to cut and glue in the Stainless screen.

 

[Anonymous]

One might even be able to make one out of those water purifier filter canisters. Just add the stainless screen so the pellets can't pass through. (?)

Just ideas off the top of the head. I've never done this

 

[dleblanc]

They sell screens at Lowes with a reasonably fine mesh that come in three sizes. I bet they'd plug up quickly, though. Probably work to keep the pellets in. I need a pre-filter, maybe something involving a sock.

 

[keman]

What I have found with Purigen is that it needs to have the water kinda forced through it rather than being loose enough to circulate in the flow. I have had good luck with nylon stockings. Just keep in mind that if the water can flow past the bag of purigen, it will.

My post filter media reactor is a nu-sea canister. I added the bag of purigen in the small round bottom space right where the water comes in, then fitted a layer of black Matala over it to make the water flow through the purigen. After the matala, the rest of the can is full of K1 type material. In case the main filter and the purigen do not clear all the organics.
All of this did tend to slow down the flow of the big Odyssea, but I have a Rena XP-M at the other end of the tank running Matrix, bio-stars, and foam with no other ion scavengers.

Not too worried about spikes with this tank. Between the Odyssea, the reactor, and the Rena, the tank is well filtered.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a feeling if these are free floating in something such as a tube with a current passing through them they will all pack in at the exit. These are terribly light.

There is a type of canister that has a type of insert that are a round in shape, flat ends, and flat on one side. This thing is like 2.5-3 inches in diamiter, and about 6 inches long. Don't remember the name of the canister it fits. The reason I bring this up is because it's a hard plastic, is a mesh type screen and is made to hold carbon bits. If I can find a picture I'll add it. I remember seeing these at Dennys pet in Kirkland.

I'll seach around a bit to see if I can find some online info.

 

[Anonymous]

Unable to find exactly what I was talking about but if you google search - canister filter mesh basket , in images a bunch of cool stuff pops up. May give you ideas.

I was thinking. I hope these pellets are hard enough not to deteriorate under added pressure and getting knocked around. I don't really like the idea of these things comming apart and getting pieces all over the aquarium...

 

[dleblanc]

The first one I want to build is for a sump, so they would be inline with a dedicated pump, and probably the whole thing would live in the sump itself. This is why I have to have a pre-filter - there is crud in the sump. Not much, but it is there.

The problem with the bags is what I'm trying to get around - it only flows around the outside, which means I need to pack the bags loosely, and cycle them more often. If I had a proper fluidized bed - hmmm - perhaps with a way to adjust flow rate - then I should get more even utilization. I do like the idea of sticking them in something, though - that might work.

My initial thought is to expand the diameter out by a lot - say to 3". Then if you had a 1/2" tube coming out of the pump, you'd drop flow velocity by a factor of 36:1 in the reactor.

Maybe too much trouble - throw it in a couple of bags, grab them every couple of days, flip them over does OK. It does seem like a good puzzle to solve, though.

 

[Anonymous]

Sure! I have done quite a bit of DYI stuff just to do it. Most in the CO2 reactor focus. But for a while I was trying to maintain 0 nitrates by messing around with recirculating pumps and configuring interesting filter set ups all in the sump. I am sure you will come up with something. I myself when I was using this.product I just laid the sacks in the sump baffles. I watched and noticed flow going through the pellets just fine and didn't put much more thought into it.

It never seemed this product was ever doing anything beneficial in my system. All it did was turn brown, then I had to clean, then turn brown. The packets found their way to the stuff box after a few months, lol.

 

[dleblanc]

In mine, it keeps the nitrates in check. When it gets full, nitrates shoot up, plants don't grow as well, and I get algae. It turns brown because it is binding nitrates.