Re: Purigen and Amquel / Novaqua / Polyaqua

Mr. Sleep <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> kindly wrote:

>According to http://www.seachem.com/en_support/support_faq.html:
>
>"Only certain slime coat products will cause Purigen to become toxic;
>the products that do this are amine based. Prime and Safe are not
>amine based and so will not cause this problem. If you're curious,
>what happens is that the amine compounds can strongly bind to the
>resin, then when they (the amines) come into contact with any chlorine
>they will form chloramines which are highly toxic. We offer a stress
>coat product, StressGuard, which is not amine based and so can be used
>in conjunction with Purigen."
>
>The problem is, how do you know if a product is amine based? Of course
>they don't tell you that, they just tell you to use their products
>(how convenient).
>
>Does anyone know if Kordon Amquel, Novaqua, and/or Polyaqua are "amine
>based?"
>
>I'm looking for a replacement for Carbon, and like what I have read
>about Purigen, however, I use the above Kordon products.

I have some Purigen but never got around to using it because the beads
escaped every bag I put them in. I finally called Seachem and they
sent me a bag but by then I was thoroughly aggrivated. It's still
sitting in it's bottle. But here's a note: Purigen is fouled by
organics in the water, so it's really more of a polisher than a
cleaner. If you want to replace carbon, I highly recommend BioChemZorb
by Aquarium Pharm. It's the greatest chemical filter I've ever used.
Cleans out organics, metals, colors, odors, etc. In fact, if you are
determined to use Purigen, you should feed it water that has first
been cleaned with a prefilter filled with something like BioChemZorb.

Gone Fish Keeping