PWC's

[MT79]

I'm happy to hear that. The purple up may help speed coralline growth, but it's not something I would use or recommend. I never dose anything I can't test for. With proper water chemistry and lighting lack of coralline growth has never been an issue for me. If anything it's an annoyance heh.

 

[artoledo]

I'm happy to hear that. The purple up may help speed coralline growth, but it's not something I would use or recommend. I never dose anything I can't test for. With proper water chemistry and lighting lack of coralline growth has never been an issue for me. If anything it's an annoyance heh.

Can you send me a bag full of your scrapings?

 

[austinsdad]

I enjoy more of the natural growth of corraline. I've seen tanks where the purple is just so much, it looks unreal. Don't let the dosing get out of hand IMO.

 

[artoledo]

Hey guys, i just bought some RO/DI water to do a PWC because my Calcium levels are just insane and wanted to know if this was due because of the purple up. My calcium is at a whopping 600 ppm. I dont know if there test kit is off or mine is? I just tested mine and its at 500. Any suggestions on this and how unhealthy is this for my tank?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Yes, most likely the addition of PurpleUp has caused excessive Ca and alkalinity levels. My personal opinion is to just let your tank settle down... if I remember right it's not even a month old. Stop with all the additives. Do 10-15% water changes weekly to get your Ca/Alk levels down back in a somewhat normal area. After 4 months or so, check out your Ca levels and see if they're where you want them. Anywhere 380-420 should be just fine, with a alk of 8-12 dKh. And if you decide at that point if you want to supplement your calcium, any of the 2-part additives will work much better than PurpleUp or any of the other "quick and easy(?)" products.

 

[artoledo]

Actually my tank is almost 3 months old. i just got back from vacation today so i will be doing my routine maintenance. Also, i had my xenia on a shell that my LFS had glued it on to and when i got back this morning i noticed it wasnt in its normal place. Happens to be that a hermit crab inhabited the shell and i had to scare the crab out of there. i started to crack the shell a little at a time until it jumped back into its old shell. the xenia went thru a tremendous amount of stress and its still looking shriveled up.

 

[roka64]

That may be an indication the crab needs a new, larger shell to move into. You can buy them at a craft store (shells).