Flats Man
Community Member
so i switched from Instant Ocean: Reef Accelerator to CaribSea inc: Purple Up.. the R.A said to place 10ml once a week. but the purp only says no more than once daily? should i put some in everyday, or weekly like i was?
PURP'd UP
- Thread starter Flats Man
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If you are going to use either of those you have to go by the directions on the bottle. One may be weekly because it is a higher concentration. Are you dosing anything else? What size is your tank?
I agree Speg. With my 55 doing 10g weekly water changes has yielded me plenty of purp on about everything. I never messed with the additives and was able to get covered in purp in a matter of 2-3 months.
beaslbob
2500 Club Member
I would just do the diy two part referenced here in the chemistry forum.
FWIW water changes alone well never maintain any parameters. What will happen is that the parameters will build up (or deplete) so that the change between water changes is removed by the fraction of the water changed. if you are doing a 1/10water change the parameter before the water change will be 10 times the buildup between changes. 1/5 change-5 times 1/3 change -3 times and so on.
Which is why people report low calcium/alk/mag values and high nitrate values even with water changes. IME the key is to balance out the tank with dosing or consumers so that the tank does not change between water changes.
But that just my .02
FWIW water changes alone well never maintain any parameters. What will happen is that the parameters will build up (or deplete) so that the change between water changes is removed by the fraction of the water changed. if you are doing a 1/10water change the parameter before the water change will be 10 times the buildup between changes. 1/5 change-5 times 1/3 change -3 times and so on.
Which is why people report low calcium/alk/mag values and high nitrate values even with water changes. IME the key is to balance out the tank with dosing or consumers so that the tank does not change between water changes.
But that just my .02
That would only depend on if you're keeping a lot of calcium (or other nutrient) dependant animals in your tank i.e. a stick tank. I've kept softies/lps/some sps for many years without ever having a large swing in calcium; unless it was close to a weekly water change. If you're using up minerals quickly before a weekly water change, you're going to need a drip system and not purple up
Try Oceanic salt. I've always used Tropic marin and have tried many other brands but have always had very little coraline algae growth. Then i saw a buddy's tank that was solid purple and i asked what his secret was. He went through his simple regimine of w/c with oceanic and i though i would give it a try. 3 months with oceanic and my tank was PURPLE! I think it's the high calcium levels of this salt. Just wanted to share my experience with it.
Bugg_zy
Active Member
Step one, test your water to see if any of the parmeters are out of wack. Depending on the tests, how often you do WC's, what type of corals you have etc. and there intake, WC's might be just fine. One thing I have learn over the years is you can use all the same stuff your buddy has and might not get the exact same results. Otherwise dosing the 2 part as stated might be a good route if WC's are not keeping up with intake. I once had a tank about 13 years ago that coraline became a nussance algae. Was a 75g, 4 t-12 bulbs, and a WC every other month with instant ocean, and dosed Nothing! The powerheads in that tank were fully encrusted. No 2 tanks are the same. But I would start off for testing at least the big 3 cal, Alk and mag and go from there.
guy
Community Member
What about "Coralife" and "Oceanic" 50/50; mix or just Oceanic alon in UR opioion. I am about toset a 300 + up and would like the "PURPLE" look as fast as possible. Due you add any thing eles with the Ocianic changes ??
There is an interesting comparison chart on salt mixes. They show the differences between top brands for things like calcium.
I personally use Kent salt as it's pretty darn high in calcium.. according to the poll on salt mixes by users on r2r, I am one of the kent-using-minorities
good luck!
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
I personally cant stand coralline because i hate scraping the walls and pumps.... if you keep your mag up to 1500 it will take off, unless you run a ulns. "ultra low nutrient system" like i do, i barely get any now and love it...
just a quick wipe of film algae on the glass every couple days and im good....my rock's aren't as pretty as others but it's alot easier to clean....
just a quick wipe of film algae on the glass every couple days and im good....my rock's aren't as pretty as others but it's alot easier to clean....
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
I think the keyword is "new"
when i was using purple up i used it about twice a week... I love it when coralline is growing, let's me know things are in balance
My favorite salt. I love the high Ca and Mag. Less dosing for me. Also if you want purple coralline algae fast the best way is to seed it with a piece of rock that already has it on it. When I transferred my rock into my black rubbermade temp tank it had it on the walls and new racks in no time but I had it all over my rocks and my old frag racks. Also like Bugg_zy said make sure your levels are ok on the "Holy Trinity" : Ca, Mag and alk.
beaslbob
2500 Club Member
That would only depend on if you're keeping a lot of calcium (or other nutrient) dependant animals in your tank i.e. a stick tank. I've kept softies/lps/some sps for many years without ever having a large swing in calcium; unless it was close to a weekly water change. If you're using up minerals quickly before a weekly water change, you're going to need a drip system and not purple up
Agreed.
but just to put some numbers on it assume you are using 1ppm calcium each day and changing 1/10 the water each week with 400ppm calcium. Where will the tank "wind up" just before the water change when that value is the same water change to water change?
tick
tock
tick
tock
tic tic tic
Kaboom (couldn't wait):bigsmile:
ans: 330 ppm.
each week the tank is using 7ppm calcium. Therefore the tank goes down to 330ppm before the water change and up to 337 after.
I think heavy corraline, calcius algae like halimeda, clams in addition to sps types and so on could result in 1ppm/day calcium consumption.
but it you just dripped in 1ppm /day that tank would always be at 400ppm regardless of the water changes.
IMHO what actually happens is the corraline, halimeda and so on grow slower or die off reducing the 1ppm/day consumption. Which in turn lowers the calcium drop between water changes raising both the before and after calcium values.
my .02
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Flats Man
Community Member
i have a 29gal hqi, i only started using the coraline stuff recently and it is working well. just wanted to know how often i should add it to my tank, since the only thing it said was not to add it more than once a day.. i do a 5gal water change every week, and i never had coraline growth in my first tank, thats why i bought this stuff for my new tank. and ive been having a problem with too high of calcium levels i use the oceanic salt, how do u lower the calcium levels with a water change when the salt u add has calcium in it?
The problem is using Oceanic in conjunction with Purple up. They both add Ca so unless your coral are using it up then it is just building up. I use Oceanic and still have to dose 2 part because of the number of coral I have and 4 clams. Most of us that dose use 2 part which adds Ca, alk and Mag. That is what Purple Up is doing so for us that dose already it would be a waste of money. If my Ca was too high I would quite adding the Ca portion but continue to dose the other or likewise with alk and Mag. When you are dosing a product that adds all three then you don't have the control that we do over your system. In your situation you could stop dosing Purple Up until your Ca levels fall or do a less frequent water change but of those two I would stop Purple Up until my Ca levels come down. What are your Ca levels at?
Flats Man
Community Member
i havent really checked cause everything seems to be doing alrite. but i will stop dosing until it lowers, but if i do will that stop the coraline growth cause its not fully covering the back but i have alot of purple dots and i dont want to stop and it all go away.. but a few of my zoa colonies havent fully opened lately, probably the high calcium levels im guessing.
but yea i dont really have to much that need high levels of calcium mostly zoas, candy cane, cup coral, galaxia, rics... a few others just cant think right now.
but yea i dont really have to much that need high levels of calcium mostly zoas, candy cane, cup coral, galaxia, rics... a few others just cant think right now.
