Dosing out of ATO?

At some point down the road I would like to have some healthy purple algae growing in my tank. I have read that there is a product called purple up that will help as long as there is purple algae existing in the tank already (placement of a live rock containing it). In terms of dosing, is it OK to use my ATO to dose this gradually? If so, how much should I use? Or is there something better to dose with that I can have in my ATO reservoir? Can I be successful dosing from my ATO or will this be a losing battle or is there something better than I can be dosing with out of my ATO?

To give some background information the tank is a 29 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump. I just bought myself a master reef testing kit from API so I do not have any specifics regarding the chemistry of my water, other than it having 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and < 10 ppm nitrate. There are only two fish living in the tank at the moment without any corals (however I would like to add some in the future).

 

Don't waste your money on purple up. If you have some coraline in the tank already, and you keep doing water changes, the calcium in the salt mix will do the same as the purple up will. Just be patient, and before you know it, you'll be cursing the stuff because it's growing on your glass.

 

+1 if there's a source in your tank of coralline already just be patient and it will spread. If you have less patience you can scrape your source rock into the water and let your powerhead's spread it around. I have the same tank setup as you and it took my tank just over a year for the coralline to begin growing. Once it started though, like Dowtish said, it's unstoppable and everywhere.

 

+2 you'll curse it soon enough, if not, check out dosing kalk, pretty easy with an ATO

http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-chemistry/kalk-ato-how-much-138021.html

or look into dosing pumps and BRS 3 part solution.

check out biocubes thread, it'll give ya a good idea on how to do a top of the line system

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...thread-forest-fire-growth-pg-81-a-133894.html

 

Thanks for the reply. A few other questions..if I go the kalk route, I am reading that kalk can raise my PH very high when adding it to get the tank to the appropriate levels and I should only use it to maintain appropriate levels...assuming my levels are off, what should I use to get my tank to the right levels of calcium and alkalinity? What are appropriate levels?

 

NEVER USE KALK TO INCREASE PARAM'S!!!, crash waiting to happen.

Use kalk to maintain param's only. And kalk if not store in an airtight container loses its PH raising ability. Its only ability once introduced to the air for awhile is to raise cal.

Read the thread I posted, Steve Wright explains it well I believe. if not, let me know and I'll find it for you.

But basically you need to raise your params to what levels you want using any product, like Kent cal and mag(make sure you read the relationship between these 2) and once you get a handle on that, dose for a week or so, and then use the kalk to maintain your cal Confusing right??? I thought so for sure, but read for a few hours and you'll come up with what solution is right for you. Its really a budget thing IMO, kalk and more water changes for cheap or dosing pumps/controller and and supplements for more cash but less work

 

Just re-read the thread as well as your response. I will attempt to bring my other levels to where they need to be, magnesium, calcium, etc. before dosing with kalk out of the ATO. Should I also try to bring my PH to an ideal range, or will the kalk take care of that when I start dosing it? Even though I don't have any corals in the tank, is it OK to start dosing the kalk to keep levels in check that I pre-adjust?

At this point, I am going to just use my ATO until I can put some cash away for a controller and dosing pumps. I'm trying to build up stuff slowly so that I am not spending a ton of money on things that will eventually need to be upgraded. Originally I had the grand idea of making my own PVC overflow, converting an old 10 gallon tank into a sump. In the end I ended up going with glass-holes for both the return and the overflow and getting an eshopps sump along with an eshopps float valve for a gravity based ATO. I ended up going with a fishneedit T5HO fixture which should arrive Monday. So needless to say, I'm getting closer to a complete setup.

 

Also, I was able to do some testing this morning..before doing a water change. I couldn't test everything...only things I actually had test kits for:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

PH: (I used a test strip since I did not have a liquid testing kit) - somewhere between 7 and 8..I think...I will have to get a liquid testing kit to be more accurate

Calcium: 480 ppm
KH: 196.9 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm

All tests were done using API liquid test kits, with the exception of the PH.

Some background information: The tank currently only has 1 clownfish and 1 royal gramma. It finished its cycle about a month ago. It is 29 gallons, has about 28 pounds of dead rock and 1 pound of live rock in addition to about an inch of dead sand. I am using chemipure in the sump tank. I have been doing weekly water changes of 5 gallons (about 17%). There are no corals in the tank at all at this point but I woud eventually want some once the water conditions are ideal for them and my T5HO lighting arrives.

Is there anything else I should order a test kit for or better test kits I could be using?

 

Grab one for magnesium. Maybe a better phosphate than the API. I feel like it's too hard to read that particular color card.

 

the kalk will raise your ph and your calcium and alk