Is Purigen some kind of magic bullet for green hair algae?

[heathermoor]

A very startling thing has happened in my nano tank. Its coming up to a year old and I have had the most terrible trouble with a combination of green hair algae and lyngbya ( think thats how you spell it). For months, awful. Tried all kinds of things - scrub it, dont scrub it, etc. Nothing worked. Id clean it out and within a few days my hermits were walking round with green fright wigs on their shells and it was everywhere again. My water parameters have been fine and I have been gradually upgrading bits of kit and the last stage was to buy a purigen sachet and put it in my hob filter.

As if by magic, the next day the hair algae had started to turn white. It seems to be disappearing and dying - fast. Ditto the Lyngbya.
I know you might be thinking I have shares in seachem or something - I dont. It could be just a coincidence and a range of things including time coming together but I really think my green hair algae problem looks like ending. Everything else - the livestock - looks fine and healthy.

So I thought I would mention it in case it might work for anyone else. Has anyone any explanation for why this might have happened? Is it the good news I think it is?

 

[harrylarry]

Purigen has been around for decades and it isn’t a magic bullet. All it does is help remove waste.

 

[heathermoor]

Yes - I didnt buy it thinking it would help with the GHA problem but it seems to.

I'm thinking maybe what has been going on is I have been testing and seen all my parameters within range and so thought that water quality was not causing the problem. But in fact maybe what I have been seeing is that it was all in balance while the hair algae was taking up what it wanted - only after that everything was within range. Now the purigen has shaved off a greater level of nutrients from what is available and there isnt enough for it to live on anymore.

Thats the best sense I can make of it but I'm no expert. Its a dramatic change.

 

[harrylarry]

Yes - I didnt buy it thinking it would help with the GHA problem but it seems to.

I'm thinking maybe what has been going on is I have been testing and seen all my parameters within range and so thought that water quality was not causing the problem. But in fact maybe what I have been seeing is that it was all in balance while the hair algae was taking up what it wanted - only after that everything was within range. Now the purigen has shaved off a greater level of nutrients from what is available and there isnt enough for it to live on anymore.

Thats the best sense I can make of it but I'm no expert. Its a dramatic change.

Perhaps it made your nutrients come in line and therefore made the algae die off?

 

[Boehmtown]

No , coincidence for sure. It's a very good filter media in my opinion, but it doesn't kill algae overnight. All your months of hard work are paying off. Suck the rest of it out. Add s large cleanup crew, sit back and enjoy your tank

 

[heathermoor]

Perhaps it made your nutrients come in line and therefore made the algae die off?

Yes - Im still a learner. Its leading me to the conclusion that theres no point testing your water to check if your eg nitrites or whatever is too high if you have an algae problem, because you wont see it. Excess is being balanced out by the algae consuming it. Once the purigen took it down some more, its starving.

 

[heathermoor]

No , coincidence for sure. It's a very good filter media in my opinion, but it doesn't kill algae overnight. All your months of hard work are paying off. Suck the rest of it out. Add s large cleanup crew, sit back and enjoy your tank

Well, I cant be sure, it could be either. I'm glad it looks like going though!