Caribsea Purple-Up..?

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The best option for your reef tank is to put as few additives as possible into it. If you want a coralline boost ask your lfs to scrape some off of their tank into a bag for you. That will seed your tank with a whole lot of algae and speed things up for you. Other than that its something that will come with time.
 
The best option for your reef tank is to put as few additives as possible into it. If you want a coralline boost ask your lfs to scrape some off of their tank into a bag for you. That will seed your tank with a whole lot of algae and speed things up for you. Other than that its something that will come with time.

I see your standpoint on the natural development of coraline, but my question was more of a how and why would someone use it? I have a buddy that swears by the stuff, I just don't want it all over my glass.
 
You can't add calcium safely without effecting other parameters in the process. You most likely have all the calcium you need in your salt mix, and adding things blindly without testing for them and knowing that you are definitely in need of them, is not a good practice.

Your friend swears by it to do what? Grow calcium based algae? This will happen with or without that stuff, so I would say it's a total waste of money.
 
The cons ive seen IME
1. Clouds water temporarily (1 to a few hours)
2. It costs money and adds to the cost of upkeep
3. It will affect parameters IME Ca, Mg, alk and sometimes I'd get a P.H swing
4. As soon as it hit the water all of my fish would hit the sand bed to get away from it. (they came back out but I'd rather stress my fish the least amount possible)
5. I have no scientific way of telling you why but i always lost more water to evaporation after adding purple up. Normal evap for my 210 is 1gal a day without Purple Up and just under 2 a day with it in my system.
This is all just MY experience with purple up and I no longer use it because of these issues.
 
You can't add calcium safely without effecting other parameters in the process. You most likely have all the calcium you need in your salt mix, and adding things blindly without testing for them and knowing that you are definitely in need of them, is not a good practice.

Your friend swears by it to do what? Grow calcium based algae? This will happen with or without that stuff, so I would say it's a total waste of money.

i know guys, IM NOT USING THIS im just asking whats the hype, and i guess to grow purple coraline algae, idk what its "supposed" to do.

The cons ive seen IME
1. Clouds water temporarily (1 to a few hours)
2. It costs money and adds to the cost of upkeep
3. It will affect parameters IME Ca, Mg, alk and sometimes I'd get a P.H swing
4. As soon as it hit the water all of my fish would hit the sand bed to get away from it. (they came back out but I'd rather stress my fish the least amount possible)
5. I have no scientific way of telling you why but i always lost more water to evaporation after adding purple up. Normal evap for my 210 is 1gal a day without Purple Up and just under 2 a day with it in my system.
This is all just MY experience with purple up and I no longer use it because of these issues.

wow tim, those are some considerable side effects, did you even get coraline out of it after all that trouble..?
 
My LFS has a tank with rubble that they sell for a buck a piece that is covered with it. I figure that is how I will seed mine.
 
My LFS has a tank with rubble that they sell for a buck a piece that is covered with it. I figure that is how I will seed mine.

so you bought a piece and seeded your entire tank with it? how big was the piece? how big is the tank..? how long did it take?
 
so you bought a piece and seeded your entire tank with it? how big was the piece? how big is the tank..? how long did it take?

Regardless of tank size and size of the seed ruble it will take a while for Coraline to spread.
 
so you bought a piece and seeded your entire tank with it? how big was the piece? how big is the tank..? how long did it take?

I bought a few pieces and threw it in with some of the live rock that came with the 240g I am putting back together. It's all in another tank and I have not seen anything yet, but assume it will come with time. I did the same basic idea with a reef years ago and believe it took months to get to the point that most of the rock was purple.
 
I bought a few pieces and threw it in with some of the live rock that came with the 240g I am putting back together. It's all in another tank and I have not seen anything yet, but assume it will come with time. I did the same basic idea with a reef years ago and believe it took months to get to the point that most of the rock was purple.

so do you think adding the covered rubble helped accelerate the process or did it take the same amount of time as without the rubble..?
 
If you have no Coraline algae in your tank at all(used all dry rock) you will need something to seed your tank. Either a few pieces of ruble or Coraline scrapped off the glass at your lfs will work. Either way it will take time for your rock to be covered. You can't really speed up the process as far as I know. Just maintain your calcium levels and wait.
 
If you have no Coraline algae in your tank at all(used all dry rock) you will need something to seed your tank. Either a few pieces of ruble or Coraline scrapped off the glass at your lfs will work. Either way it will take time for your rock to be covered. You can't really speed up the process as far as I know. Just maintain your calcium levels and wait.

well i have coraline and i love it, its showing up as spots but i want it to carpet my rocks heres a link to my build with tank pics.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f45/salty-noobs-37g-bow-front-build-273715-21.html
 
Calcium is all it needs, plus good water conditions. It is a natural process that shouldn't be messed with to try to accelerate it. In time, it will become the royal pain in the a** it has been for me for many years. Pretty, but a mess to keep under control as it covers my power heads and probes. I almost need power tools to remove it from the tank walls.
 
Yes purple up will grow coraline but it has to be present first. Just get a small rock with it on there and scrape most of it into the water column. Generally where it lands it will grow aka "seeding"
 
Calcium is all it needs, plus good water conditions. It is a natural process that shouldn't be messed with to try to accelerate it. In time, it will become the royal pain in the a** it has been for me for many years. Pretty, but a mess to keep under control as it covers my power heads and probes. I almost need power tools to remove it from the tank walls.

and thats what i dont want, it to grow on the glass and i have to scrape it off, i periodically clean my glass with a mag float to prevent that, its my #1 fear because ive seen some disgusting tank covered in it top to bottom glass and all, and it horrified me lol

Yes purple up will grow coraline but it has to be present first. Just get a small rock with it on there and scrape most of it into the water column. Generally where it lands it will grow aka "seeding"

well i have coraline algae already i guess ill just wait it out,
 
It can't be helped. Any tank that has water that will sustain hard corals also grows this algae.

growing on the glass cant be helped? i dont give a crap about the rear wall, jus the front (bow) and sides need to be spotless for me.
 
I just started my tank last February it's a 75 and I only had money to buy a couple pieces of rock being new I add a bunch of tall plastic plants to fill out the tank in about three months my plastic plants were covered in Coraline so about a month or two ago I lucked into a bunch of live rock that was in a tank for about 8 years but it didn't have any Coraline on it so when I put the rock in I decided to pull out all the plastic plants when I did I reached in the tank and used my fingers and scraped off all the algae that was on the plants now about every piece of rock is covered in it so seeding your tank defiantly speeds up the process. Sorry for budding in your post but I just wanted to share my experience with you
 
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