Purple Up?

[In Deep Water]

Hello all. New to the community and hobby. I've just recently bought some LR. My freind tells me that I need to buy some stuff called Purple Up to get the coraline algea to grow. Is this true? Im very hesistant about putting chemicals into the tank just yet. Is there a more 'natural' way of doing this? Thanks for the tips.

 

[xenon]

I have always read that its useless. Make sure alk and cal is correct and add some LR that already has coraline to seed the tank and wait.

 

[drew22to375]

I've always got tons of purple with just NO flourecents. under My t-5 lighting it wasn't as good. All I ever did was just regular water changes no chemicals.

 

[bertoni]

[welcome]

The major ingredient of Purple Up is ground calcium carbonate, which is effectively just fine sand. Coralline seems to grow best in lower lighting, and requires calcium and alkalinity to grow. Depending on the tank, supplementation might or might not be necessary.

 

[REMF]

Purple Up is a waste of money. Spend your money keeping your parameters in check with quality test kits like salifert, and you will grow Coralline.

Do you have any Coralline on the rock you just bought? If not you could buy a small piece that is covered in it and scrape it off over the tank to seed your rock.

Here are a couple of great links for parameters and additives for your tank.

Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System
HERE

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
HERE

Reef Chemistry Calculator HERE

 

[In Deep Water]

Thanks for all the great info. I can see that I will be regular in the community.