chemi-pure filter medium

[Leo C 2]

I've been having dificulty keeping my PH up and nitrates down even with weakly partial water changes
I just bought a bag of the chemi-pure to put in my fluval filter in hopes of stabilizing my PH without adding PH buffers all the time.
I,d like to now if this product will do as advertised, exept for the no water changes ever B.S.
I was allso suppried that it was wet when I brock the seel, is this normal.
Thanksin advance for any info.
Leo C

 

[danmhippo]

It is supposed to be wet. But I fail to see how that is going to help you stablize Ph?

What test kits are you using? What's the PH of your make up water?

 

[Leo C 2]

Hmm...
Good quistion
I'm preaty new at this saltwater setup, and I thought that the salt mix would have the proper PH to start with, I'm going to check it out right now.
I'll Be Back.
Leo

 

[Leo C 2]

Back with the facts
PH test kit is made by Aquarium Systems
my makup water PH is between 8.2 and 8.4
my tank water is between 7.9 and 8.0
the product states that it a chemical absorption filter, ion generator, and exchange unit, wich posittivly keeps ph at a perfact constant level, and that it will raise the ph to this perfect level (watever that is in there view)
do you think it will work?
how do you keep your ph up between water changes?
Leo

 

[danmhippo]

At which stage is your tank? Is it just starting up? Are you using any skimmer? when did you take the PH measurement?

If your tank is just starting up, bio-activities in the LR could bring the Ph down a bit. Coupled with lack of water currents in the tank to help precipretate CO2, your tank water could be off a bit.

What do you have in your tank now? Usually the 2 part calcium maintenance solution is more than adequate to maintain both the alk and ca which indirectly maintains your Ph.

Are you also using aragnite sand? Tanks with aragnite deep sand bed tends to hold Ph more consistant as well.

 

[danmhippo]

Oh, about the chmipure, I am not a big fan of it. I use GAC infrequently. I use mostly the Kent GAC. I can't comment on Chmi-pure.

(I always thought charcoal is charcoal is charcoal!)

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

I view these products as replacements for carbon.

Long term they are cheaper than carbon due to the long period until they exhaust and the fact that they are easily regenerated.

I use the Seachem version called Purigen - I'm pretty sure that it does not make any claim about pH maintenance. They did (maybe still do) make a false claim about it removeing nitrate - what they meant to say is that it helps prevent nitrate forming by removing the pre-cursors of organic decay (since most people have a protein skimmer this isn't really a selling point for such a product).

My guess is the pH argument would go along the lines that is the organic polutants are being removed before they breakdown then there's no acid production from the bacteria that would otherwise do the same.

pH varies alot during the day, often being lowest before the lights turn on and highest just before the lights turn off.

If the numbers you have are the minimum for the tank then there's no need to worry.

Many things influence pH including what sort of bottom material you are using, what sort of calcium addatives are used, how much circulations there is (influences CO2 levels) etc. Replacing your existing buffer/Calsium addative with Kalk should increase your pH. Just adding a buffer may not help at all (except for a few minutes). Adding a buffer out of proportion to a calcium supplement is asking for trouble - you'll end up needing effectively a 100% water change to get back to having something that could reasonably be called seawater i.e. you'll end up with an ionic imbalance that you'll never fix until all of the water has been changed.

As for your make-up water - if you measure the pH soon after mixing it then the pH can be expected to change from this value as you won't have reached CO2 equilibrium until the water has been aerated for quite a few hours. You could run a powerhead in the mixing container overnight and then measure your pH - this will be close to it's long-term value.

If nitrate is going up quickly then this might point toward an undersized or inefficent skimmer.

Nitrate in itself is not a problem, and you can get rid of it by simply having a deep sand bed (search for threads on DSBs - try to ignore anything bad you have been told about them until you have read about the success everyone has who tries them). There are other things you can do too such as growing calupera which is then periodically harvested and then thrown out (nutrient export).

 

[Rich-n-poor]

First let me say this:

Chemi-pure and Bio-chem-zorb are two of the best products on the market IMO and i have used both on and off for a period of over 5 years. Why:

1. The ionic resins do a much better job than carbon at removing waste and waste products

2. They will make you water sparkling clear

3. They will make up for many incosostencies and/or mistakes concerning water quality

4. They do last I have run them for 6 months straight when i began doing salt and now i keep them on hand if a problem developes in my tank.

while i only use this product on occassion now, whenever I have a problem develope in my tank or when i want to polish the water.

While I do not advocate not doing water changes I have only changed 20 % of the water in my reef in 9 months using this product on occassion.

However the best way to raise PH is to add a buffer such as Superbuffer DKH and/ or to use an agronite based substrate which should disolve to keep the buffer level constant.

I love This Product IMO it is the best thing since sliced bread

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