I just got a bottle of Purigen to help my nitrates and I read that you should not use any other chemicals that produce a protective slime coat on the fish or the Purigen can go bad (toxic). In the last month I have put some Amquel in my tanks, but have since done a few water changes and I am not sure how long that stuff stays active in the water. Any input from the experienced out there?

Also do I need to use the spendy Seachem brand bag or will a normal nylon chemical bag work with the Purigen and last through a bleach cleaning?

How high is your nitrates? No real reason to use chemicials.

my 46 gal peacock tank seems to hit the red zone (40ppm) in about 2 weeks. I do about 3 water changes a month of 50% and have enough filtration on it for a 100 gal. Other tanks are around 25 on nitrates which I can live with. Just got a big sponge filter for it today also (to replace a small cheap one). 14 younger cichlids and 2 plecos so it is not overcrowded although I may have been overfeeding them. The do seem to be dirty fish compared to my other tanks though.

All I have to say say is about your nitrate worries, just do your water changes and maybe throw in some floating water sprite or water lettace. Those numbers are nothing mine are 60 to 100ppm and they breed in it.

Conway Tropical has an adult colony of Tropheus Duboisi's and they breed in 160ppm water, and they only do WC once a month.

well I've only been doing something other than community fish for the past 6 months or so, but I feel like I am not nearly as anal about water changes/purity as many on here.

Trust me I still have a hard time just leaving the fish alone. Something I keep getting preached too about, just do your WC and dont waist your time on salt(unless sick), dont move the decor around etc, if there is a problem the fish will tell you, if they dont like the way the tank is setup they will move it. The more you set there and watch the fish the more likely your going to be anal and want to try and fix it, which you wont be able to do. My Brichardi tank, I only do weekly 25% WC and nothing else and they breed.

Yup more water changes and some fast growing plants.
Yes the fish will telly you when something is off, that's the only time I test water.

I agree, floating plants , water sprite and water changes will help removing nitrates. Maybe you are overfeeding?
Sometimes the test are not working properly(strips or drops), you can check the accuaracy using a KNO3 solution with a known value.The test strips are less reliable.
A good indicator of a high nitrate are the GSA. If you have these algae it means that the ratio nitrate vs phosphate is too high(well, if the phosphate are high also you may not have GSA).
Sometimes tap water has 10ppm NO3. Did you test yours?

thts y i read by my tanks or listen to music and do something near em.. so i just glance at em but im busy so only the best ideas are retained.. aka very few...

I run purigen in my canister filters, but I don't apply any meds in those tanks whatsoever. Not because of the purigen, but because there are too many fish and I wouldn't want to apply meds to all of them.

I actually did end up buying several of the Seachem bags, a bit spendy as you say but worth it in my opinion. I recharge my purigen in them as well, and simply swap bags when doing filter maintenance.

Haha.