??HAS ANY ONE TRIED PURPLE UP???

[junkstang]

Just wondering if it is worth a try.

[miked78231]

i used it in the beginning stages of my tank and after i used the whole bottle about 3 weeks later i had a huge growth of coraline. ever since its been spreading without a problem.

[Jynxgirl]

My roommates tank is PURPLE but nothing opens up and no mushrooms will attach. When it was put in my tank, my sps's were not happy for a few days and my xenia's hands stopped waving as well. I guess its a trade off from our experience.

Jill

[z28pwr]

I've never used that stuff. But I've used Kent Liquid Reactor and after a few weeks my coraline started taking off.

[gjuarez]

If you want coraline just do weekly water changes or use B IOnic. My tank has been up for about 2 and a half months and its already full. I havent even added that much b IOnic.

[ou812pezz]

The stuff worked great for me. Put a nice coat of purple on my cement rock. 80% cover after 6 months. still have 1/2 a bottle left.

[GaryP]

Any good calcium and buffer supplement will allow coralline to grow. The question is how good purple up is compared to others. Its just a mixture of calcium chloride and finely ground aragonite sand in water.

[klondike4001]

Worked great for me, even helped coraline grom on the back wall (nanocube)

[thedude]

Ok the theory behind purple up is this:

Calcium supplement with as Gary mentioned, finely ground aragonite. This aragonite is then supposed to dissolve in your tank and stimulate growth in those spots. Big problem there is, aragonite doesn't dissolve at the PH our reef tanks run at. Maybe Gary can help me here but I thought it dissolves at around 7.5, which would kill our critters.

It's a clever name for a calcium supplement as others have stated. Get yourself a good two part and save the money.

[GaryP]

Actually aragonite dissolves at a pH below 7. Look at the pH a calcium reactor operates at down around 4-5. In theory, the sand is dissolved in localized low pH areas (microenvironments) by acid produced by the bacteria living on the live rock and other surfaces.

There is some dissolution of freshly added aragonite in a sand bed. Supposedly this quickly stops soon after a new system is set up because the sand becomes coated with phosphates and other things that prevent the dissolutionfrom continuing. The theory of purple up, Kent reactor, Fiji Gold, and these type of products is that by introducing this new material to a system there is constant dissolution taking place. Since it is finely ground, it will dissolve faster because it has more surface area then larger sized particles.

These products may work in small systems with low calxium and alkalinity demands, but for larger systems I think its a waste of time and money. If you look at the cost of these products I think they are much less cost effictive then a good 2 part product such as ESV.

[gjuarez]

I agree on the ESV. Coraline also grows much faster under higher temperatures, dont know if you want to do that but I thought I would just throw it out there.

[GaryP]

Just to clarify, I don't really have a problem with these sand based products. I just think they aren't necessarily a really good value for what they are. An ounce of sand in a bottle of water with maybe a pinch of Turbo Calcium thrown in? And how much do they sell it for? $7? I just feel that that the value of the product may be more in the marketing then the chemistry.

I suppose it depends on the size of your tank too. I would have to dump a case of this stuff in my SPS tank every week to maintian my calcium and alkalinity levels. In a smaller tank, levels can be a lot more easily maintained with weekly water changes with a good salt with decent calcium content.