purple up question

i bought a bottle of purple up and the guy at my LFS said its okay to put the recommended amount in once a day while im cycling my tank. then at a different LFS someone told me i should only be doing it once a week. any thoughts? also take into consideration that i just added 3 green damsels and a hermit crab yesterday will that effect it as well?

 

Never used it... Have great coraline growth without.. Don't add anything you don't have.... ESPECIALLY when cycling....

 

Baugherb's right. I'm kind-of against the use of chemicals which are made to effect a certain outcome, when nature does the same thing. I think that when conditions are right for coralline to grow, it will. If you can cause coralline to grow with a supplement, then you must continue to use the supplement to sustain its growth/life.

Not to mention that coralline algae is not something you should be focusing on during a cycle. Get your parameters right, take your time, and you'll do fine!

As for your second question regarding the addition of the green damsels and the hermit; no they won't affect coralline growth, but they'll help the cycling. Some people don't use fish to cycle, but I've always used damsels since back in the dark ages of the 80's, I've never had one die. I'd be lying if I said that was always a good thing in my circumstance. Damsels are capable of becoming thugs down the road, and bullying more docile fish to death. (Please forgive me Omard).

Good luck, Jcreek!! And BTW, Welcome To 3Reef!!!

 

Don't use it. Just let the tank cycle. Then add calcium supp as needed. Coraline takes time. Its something you earn. Can't get it to grow any faster. Its just a calcium supp any way.

 

Purple up is a great product as it contains calcium and iodine especially!
Purple up is primarilly used, by fellow reefers, for the growth of coralline algae, however it WILL NOT work if you do not have coralline algae established somewhere in your tank!
This is not to say that it is not beneficial to coral, anemone and invert health though, as it will help. Just be careful not to over dose and also, it isn't beneficial for a cycling tank, wait til your tank becomes established in my opinion!

 

I use purple up! Have AWESOME results with it! BUT... You need to be testing Calcium, Magnesium and DKH when dosing it. It contains all 3, and you will soon knock your parameters out of whack if you're not testing. If you go the label instructions, thats not meant for just anybody. It says you CAN dose daily if needed. I dose once a week on ALL of my tanks with excellent results as I mentioned before, lol. 99% of the people who run purple up down either have never used it, or used it incorrectly.

 

thanks for all the advise! i wasn't using it with intention of speeding up the cycling process it has just been recommended to me so many times that i just had to try it out! this is actually the first time i have ever heard anything negative about it. we do have some LR with coralline algae already on it and it has been spreading. and as for the taking the time thing im all about it. my tank has been cycling for about 2 weeks, my boyfriend (ballpuncher) is the one who insisted on buying fish for the tank =]

 

Thats not entirely true, lol! Its rumored to have coralline spores in it. Thats the only way they can guarantee purple and pink coralline. I had a tank that was covered in the burgundy colored coralline, no pink or purple whatsoever. Started dosing it purple up, purple and pink showed up in a 2yr old system.

CaribSea makes 2 products, Aragamilk and Purple up. They are both the same thing, except Purple up guaruntee's pink and purple coralline.

For those of you who say "it doesnt say that on the bottle", Aquatic additives are not regulated by the FDA unless its intended for human comsumption, so they do not have to list all ingredients on the bottle.

 

Ah, another one of those either you love or you hate it questions.

I use purple up in my 10 gallon Nano when I first set it up and I didn't in my 16 gallon mostly becasue I had some people tell me it wasn't any good.

Well the coralline in my 10 gallon grew fast, thick and all over and my Xenia and my zoa's in that tank did fantastic (some say that was due to the iodine)

In my 16 the only place coralline grew was on the back glass and not much grew at that. I also lost several colonies of Zoa's in that tank. I just started using it just before I went to a much larger tank and the rocks in that tank and small patches of it started growing on the rocks in that tank.

So I guess that puts me in the use it sparingly group and as G'fied states you will need to test so you don't knock your parameters to heck. Also keep in mind it does contain large amount of Iodine so before using any other supplements check what they contain because to much is not a good think.