I've been putting purple up in my 29 gallon tank now for about week and a half... starting to see some color change but it is not purple.. My tocks seeem to be turning an orange brownish color?...does anyone no anything about this? Maybe they turn that color first then purple?... any suggestions would be great
purple up!!
- Thread starter manny09
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I'd recommend that you not use the purple up. I used it when I was starting out and eager for quick fixes. Looking back, it probably did more harm than good. The reason purple up is worthless is that it doesn't do anything for your alkalinity.
The secret to good coralline growth is testing(not optional) and maintaining calcium AND alkalinity. I'd check out a balanced calcium and alkalinity supplement as well. This will add both items at the same rate they are consumed by corals and the coralline.
The secret to good coralline growth is testing(not optional) and maintaining calcium AND alkalinity. I'd check out a balanced calcium and alkalinity supplement as well. This will add both items at the same rate they are consumed by corals and the coralline.
Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you haven't gotten any snails yet, get some now. (That's assuming your tank has cycled. I don't see any info on when you set up the tank, or ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.) A week after I got a handful of trochus snails, my diatoms were gone.
And no... it won't turn red, unfortunately.
And no... it won't turn red, unfortunately.
loyalrogue
Aquarium Advice Freak
I'm not sure what you were told to expect, but after only a week and a half (of doing anything) you're not going to see any difference in coralline growth.
The only thing that grows that quickly is stuff you DON'T want in your tank. LOL
When it comes to a successful SW experience, patience is definitely a requirement.
As for Purple-up, aquarists either love it or hate it.
Personally it's worked well for me.
I used Purple-up in 1 of the 4 SW tanks I have in the living room.
After 3 months that one tank had purple, pink, and green coralline completely covering the glass.
The other 3 tanks that didn't get dosed are only showing a few small spots of coralline on the glass.
As someone mentioned above, there really isn't anything in Purple-up that you can't get elsewhere.
Purple-up is just a combination of several things that you can get from PWC, and that aquarists commonly dose such as, calcium, strontium, iodine, etc.
Of course, even tho I'm terrible about taking my own advice, if you're going to dose anything you should have a test kit for it to make sure you don't overdose.
Two other things to consider...
The color and growth of coralline also seems to be proportionate to lighting.
The stronger the light the better.
Also, the more coralline you start with in your tank to "seed" it the better.
Purple-up doesn't have any coralline in it to get you started.
Did you start with cured LR that already had some nice colonies of coralline growing on it?
If not, go to you LFS and buy a few small pieces of rubble that have some nice, mature growth of red and purple on them already.
BTW, coralline does not start off brown. That sounds like a diatom bloom which is normal for a new tank.
With coralline, you'll notice tiny spots of dark green, pink, red, or purple on your glass (where it doesn't get regularly scraped clean) that will slowly get bigger and spread over time.
The only thing that grows that quickly is stuff you DON'T want in your tank. LOL
When it comes to a successful SW experience, patience is definitely a requirement.
As for Purple-up, aquarists either love it or hate it.
Personally it's worked well for me.
I used Purple-up in 1 of the 4 SW tanks I have in the living room.
After 3 months that one tank had purple, pink, and green coralline completely covering the glass.
The other 3 tanks that didn't get dosed are only showing a few small spots of coralline on the glass.
As someone mentioned above, there really isn't anything in Purple-up that you can't get elsewhere.
Purple-up is just a combination of several things that you can get from PWC, and that aquarists commonly dose such as, calcium, strontium, iodine, etc.
Of course, even tho I'm terrible about taking my own advice, if you're going to dose anything you should have a test kit for it to make sure you don't overdose.
Two other things to consider...
The color and growth of coralline also seems to be proportionate to lighting.
The stronger the light the better.
Also, the more coralline you start with in your tank to "seed" it the better.
Purple-up doesn't have any coralline in it to get you started.
Did you start with cured LR that already had some nice colonies of coralline growing on it?
If not, go to you LFS and buy a few small pieces of rubble that have some nice, mature growth of red and purple on them already.
BTW, coralline does not start off brown. That sounds like a diatom bloom which is normal for a new tank.
With coralline, you'll notice tiny spots of dark green, pink, red, or purple on your glass (where it doesn't get regularly scraped clean) that will slowly get bigger and spread over time.
thanks for the grweat advice... actually i do have LR with a lot of red spots... and now for that brown stuff thats a pproblem.. this tank is actually about 6 months oldd... any still no spots on my tank buton some parts of my LR isee smoe green spots dtarting to show up
Kurt_Nelson
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you're going to continue with the PurpleUp, even with the comments folks have made here, please at least go out and get a Calcium and Alkalininty test kit, and use them. If you get your tank chemistry out of whack, you'll be cussing yourself later on.
As Melosu58 noted, you *may* be able to get the calcium levels you need with just your normal water changes. Personally, I can't because my fresh salt water only mixes normally to about 360ppm Ca. BUT... the point is, I *know* what my Ca levels are in my tank and in my new fresh water I'm putting in. Without knowing that information, you can't really make a decision on what you need to do. Your new salt water may have 400ppm Ca in it to start with... in which case you don't need to add anything to get coralline algae to flourish.
Take a read of this...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
It's my favorite article on the whole Ca/Alk issue. You should see how the two are interdependent and messing up one can mess up the other. Messing with Alk can have bad effects on pH. And after your pH starts swinging all over, you're going to see problems elsewhere.
I think one of the best pieces of advice I've gotten off this board so far is that if you're going to add supplements to your tank, then you should at least test for whatever it is you're adding. If you're not testing, you don't even know if you need the supplement to start with. Just because your LFS sells it, doesn't mean you need it!
As Melosu58 noted, you *may* be able to get the calcium levels you need with just your normal water changes. Personally, I can't because my fresh salt water only mixes normally to about 360ppm Ca. BUT... the point is, I *know* what my Ca levels are in my tank and in my new fresh water I'm putting in. Without knowing that information, you can't really make a decision on what you need to do. Your new salt water may have 400ppm Ca in it to start with... in which case you don't need to add anything to get coralline algae to flourish.
Take a read of this...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
It's my favorite article on the whole Ca/Alk issue. You should see how the two are interdependent and messing up one can mess up the other. Messing with Alk can have bad effects on pH. And after your pH starts swinging all over, you're going to see problems elsewhere.
I think one of the best pieces of advice I've gotten off this board so far is that if you're going to add supplements to your tank, then you should at least test for whatever it is you're adding. If you're not testing, you don't even know if you need the supplement to start with. Just because your LFS sells it, doesn't mean you need it!
MT79
Aquarium Advice Addict
Manny09 don't forget coralline needs light along w/ proper Ca and Alk levels to flourish. What type/wattage lights are you using and what size is your tank?
MT79
Aquarium Advice Addict
Should be more than enough. What K lighting is it? IME coralline grows best w/ actinics or higher K (10k-14k)lamps. It seems to favor a more blue light.
Similar threads
