Purple Up question

I have been running my tank for about 1.5 years and I'm barely starting to see the coralline I yearned for since I started. I only started using purple up some 2 months ago. What a coincidence that my coralline growth surged and the coloration on it is phenomenal just after using it. Ca: 450-500ppm steady, dose all necessary elements including Str for my Acroporidae and my Alk being at a solid 10dKH; all for 1 year with ZERO results. Coralline never died, but spread EXTREMELY slow and no intense coloration noticeable.

I've never had such "rich" coloration in my existing coralline. As a matter of fact, check out my acan pictures in the classifieds section and look at the photos, look how lush it looks!

inwall: I would rather have coralline growing everywhere than hair algae! hehe. But yes, it isn't scrape friendly!

Also, as inwall mentioned Str is essential for the skeletal development of stonies. It's the first thing utilized to develop new skeleton followed by Ca as a re-inforcement. It's also amongst the chemicals that are used up FAST! So dose it!

 

Now the people that say they don't use PurpleUp are adding the same chemicals to their water and getting Coralline. So I guess the determining factor would be how much are you paying for the chemicals you are adding to what PurpleUp cost. Are you saving any money???? Looks like we are both getting the same results but I do it with one product instead of 1, 2, or 3 different ones.:-/

 

I am I make my own buffer and have a cheap resource for calcium chloride. The other supplements I use are primarily for my corals and clams but they also benefit coralline algae. I use Kent's essential elements and Kent's turbo strontium and I use about a bottle of each every 2 years. The coralline in my tank is so thick it falls off in sheets.

Also keep in mind that whenever you change your water, you're re-adding elements that are beneficial for coralline growth such as strontium, iodine, etc. Read your salt mix, it's all there.

Now, again, that being said, if you want to use it and it works for you, keep using it!! I'm not saying that it doesn't work!! I'm just saying that it's not really needed.

 

Keep your PH, ALK, MAG, and CA in scheck and thats better than any supplement.....and more than most can seem to do :

 

I started adding iodine to my tank last winter to help my inverts, and coincidently noticed an improvement in my coraline algae growth. (I used the Iodine sparingly, usually after a water change, since I don't have an Iodine test).
On impulse, I bought Purple-up when I stopped by ThatFishPlace at Thanksgiving, and have used it once a week since then (I stopped adding Iodine). It may be my imagination, or it may be that I finally got my green hair algae under control, but I think the Purple-up has helped.

 

with anything in this hobby...it all takes time. skip the supplemental crap that half these companies put out to make a buck....do you think somebody dumped a heavy dosage of purple up into the ocean to "spruce" the coralline growth? (maybe that was over the top...) have patience...all will come to those who wait.

 

Ditto !

 

Well at the end of the day purple up and any other snake oil is just a simple way to get the water to its proper parameters and it still goes back to the simple idea that until you can supply the coralline with the water parameters that they require to thrive then you are far from keeping any nice corals and or fish , like the tangs so many have health issues with. I say if it works and you like the use of it then have at it . Its your money and tank so if it feels good do it if not leave it alone.. This old hound won't chase this deer anymore..

 

Purple up

From what I understand it boils down to this..... Purple up has the ingredients required to encourage good corraline growth. But, so do the other supplements that most reefkeepers are using in their tanks, only maybe not all in the same bottle. I was just curious about what it supposedly had that the others did not. In the end, I'm not sure how much corraline algae that I actually want. I would be excited bout having the purple all over my rocks and white pipes (they dont sell the gray stuff at my hardware store) but I dont want to have to scrape it off of my glass constantly either. I'm not to the point yet that I have to worry about this, because I only have about 20lbs of live rock in the tank. My new lights should arrive this week and I will see what happens with good lighting and the proper supplements as it goes along. I might give purple up a shot one day in fractional doses if the results I get are not the ones that I want I guess. We'll see.

Thanks,

Ray

 

You cannot possibly compare the filtration and how the ocean is naturally supplemented with a house hobby aquarium. LOL. Captive systems do not compare to ocean life. It's scientifically different. Everything get's absolutely EVERYTHING. There is no spot feeding or dosing, LOL! The ocean is full of balanced necessary elements. Our water is superficial, you cannot possibly be serious with that comment. :-/