Making Purple Up paste?

I'd like to make purple up paste, so I can apply it directly to the rock. I'm having trouble finding what to mix with the purple up to make the paste though. I was thinking corn starch, and saw that listed as an ingredient in slow release food for fish. Any thoughts?

 

why would you want to make purple up into paste? It does not contain coralline algae, it contains calcium and coralline algae additives to get your water in a decent condition to grow coralline. If you want to speed the process, see the process. Get some live rock from a friend that has a lot of coralline and scrape it off into your tank. That will speed it up a little.

 

that's right... purple up doesn't actually have any coralline in it... just stuff coralline needs to grow...

if you made a paste out of it, all that would happen is it wouldn't dissolve into the water column where it is needed (which seems to be your goal)


in any event, IMO, purple up is a scam and a really really expensive way to get your Ca and Mg levels up...

 

+1 peridhil, just buy good salt and keep up with water changes (as they are what keeps your cal, mag, str, iod, etc, where they should be) and there is no need for purple up.

 

Cool thanks for the help!

 

Purple up is not a scam, it does work, but it is a very expensive way to get your calcium and alk up.

Dosing 2 part will do the same, but as mattheuw1 said using some coralline scrapings will speed the process up.

 

I think purple up is a scam. I didn't say it doesn't work (but I am now - I think every example of it "working" is an example of coincidence ;D)... IMO, it's like someone selling you a bottle of air... it works, you can breathe it... or you can just go outside and take your own breath of air... in that sense, I would call the bottle of air a scam. Or another easy one... bottles of drinking water :


Personally, I keep my Mg/Ca/Alk at proper levels via autodosing. I have an annoying solid purple back wall to my tank... ugh.

 

I would agree that Purple Up does work. I do 25% WC every week. My coraline started turning white, so I decided to try PU. Within a week the white coraline started turning purple again, and new coraline had started growing everywhere. There was a definite difference. I'm skeptical of everything, and I don't add anything to my tank unless I see it work with my own eyes. In my case, it had a positive result. But, don't make it into a paste.

 

i also agree that Purple Up is good. I was always struggling to get my calcium levels up. My calcium never got above 400 even after a water change. It would be around 400 right after the change than drop through out the week till my next waterchange. I was using Red Sea Salt, not the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt (which i have now!!) I added it to my tank and tested my levels like two or three days later and it was still rockin at 420> So it does work and if it accelerates coralline algae growth than thats great too, but i would rather have stable calcium levels> Also noticed that my green flower pot coral is really expanded and looks really happy. Maybe just a coincidence but it has been on a downward spiral since adding my black clown pair as they would stress it out trying to host in it. Now it is looking good and the clowns arent really able to get it to close up into its skeleton now. ONE UP ON THE PURPLE UP!

 

just make sure you are testing for what you are dosing. better to keep your parameters stable and in check than to get in as much chemicals as possible. Keep the parameters in line and the coralline will come.