Does Purigen absorb organic additives?

[moooog]

I am using Purigen, and have really been pleased with it. I am concerned as to whether it absorbs organic additives such as Flourish Excel? I also own other Organic treatments such as Kordon's "Prevent Ich" - will Purigen absorb them? I use R/O water, and a teaspoon of Flourish Excel daily. I use CaribSea Eco-Substrate. I have had trouble with my plants losing biomass and producing smaller, lighter colored leaves, and they are suffering from heavy pressure by fish. Several species (Wisteria and Diandra) were consumed, The Amazon Sword and Barteri are riddled with holes, the main thing I see is larger mature leaves quickly turn into skeletons and are replaced my multiple smaller lighter green leaves. The Cobombas fine roots failed after two months of very vigorous growth, and the larger Barteri leaves turned Yellow and decayed, and now the Red Crypt seems to be losing it's mature leaves to the fish, with only little small green leaves at the base. 50 gallon tank, 6 3 inch discus, 6 2 inch blue rams, 4 African Butterfly Cichlids, 2 3.5 inch Bala Sharks, 4 3 inch Clown Loaches, 4 2 inch Botiah Loaches, 2 3 inch Chinese Algae Eaters, 6 Black Veil Tetras, 4 Serpae Tetras, 6 Neon Tetras, 6 Dwarf Australian Rainbow Fish, 6 Emperor Tetras, and 1 Clown Plecostomus. I feed the fish very heavily to stop them from fighting and uprooting the microsword and cobomba, but can I have a heavily planted tank if I use additives, or are my fish simply providing too much stress.

[Tech Support GL]

Purigen will not absorb Flourish Excel. From what you are describing it sounds like some deficiencies. You may to test your iron levels to make sure you are maintaining .1 mg/l of iron for your plants. Also it sounds like you need more potassium. Having test kits to monitor your levels really helps if you want to have a heavily planted tank to ensure you are adding enough to the tank for the plants you have. You can use Flourish Potassium and Flourish Iron to supply the elements needed. The fish you have should not bother the plants.

[moooog]

Thank you. I am currently recharging Purigen for the first time. Why is the Acid Buffer/Discus Buffer step required after the 24 hour bleach process? I use RO/DI water, is the 4 hour acid buffer step necessary for the recharging process of Purigen? If so, what does it do?

[Tech Support LK]

Since the pK of bleach is very high (around 10 or so), it is a good idea to perform this step of the regeneration process. This will ensure that you aren't transferring this high pH in to your tank and having any impact on your tank pH.