Monkey Magic
Aquarium Advice Activist
Has anyone ever used seachem purigen in a planted tank. is it worth buying?
Damian said:Wait a minute, you guys are saying that using carbon in a planted tank is bad.
If you use a hang off the back filter and the cartridges have a little carbon it's not much of an issue. Using a real amount of carbon doesn't serve a real purpose in a planted tank and will strip out some of your ferts.
In a fish or reef tank you want carbon to help take out nutrients that allow algae to grow. In a planted tank we actually dose nutrients (ferts) so our plants will outgrow nuisance algae. This keeps our plants healthy and keeps algae at bay so long as you don't have some crucial deficiency with an important plant nutrient. Carbon won't make keeping your ferts in balance any easer. We don't want to use carbon any more than we would want to use phosphate remover, and for the same reason. Why use something that takes out what we try to keep in?
Planted tanks break lots of the rules for any other kind of aquarium. It's totally opposite in some ways. We want nitrates, phosphates, highish nutrient levels and carbon dioxide. We don't usually want surface agitation, clean gravel, or to much water flow.
By issues do you mean plant related deficiancies or something else. I also came across hydra or hydrozorb cant remember did a little reading but apparently purigen is the cats pyjamasaqua_chem said:Long term carbon use might cause issues. When you think about it though, carbon should only be used short term, and anything that makes carbon necessary should trump plant health, at least short term.