Too Late

[sagent3000]

my tank has been up for 3 years now is it to late to start using "purple up"

there used to be a place that sold base rock are they still online somewhere?

[yote]

Its not to late to use purple up,but why waste your money?
All that junk ever did for my tank was make it cloudy.
If your trying to make coralline grow,Get calcium,alkalinity,and magnesium test kits and start keeping those a tad on the high side.

[Bifferwine]

I have used Purple Up in all my tanks and love the stuff. It seems to work really well for some people, and not for others. Go ahead and try it, worse case scenario you're out $20.

[sagent3000]

Originally Posted by Bifferwine

I have used Purple Up in all my tanks and love the stuff. It seems to work really well for some people, and not for others. Go ahead and try it, worse case scenario you're out $20.

i might need that $20 for something good like cheese on my whooper

If your trying to make coralline grow,Get calcium,alkalinity,and magnesium test kits and start keeping those a tad on the high side

i just swtiched to tropic marin salt and the guy at my LFS SWORE i would NEVER have to add supplements again. should i keep adding b/c the bucket swares they have a high concentration of all three.

here is what i am looking like now

[Rcpilot]

How often are you doing water changes? How big is the tank and how much water are you changing?

If you do frequent water changes, that should replace all the trace elements in the tank and keep your coraline growth really good.

I have a 30g tank and I'm changing 5-6g every Sunday. Thats about 20% water changes. More than a lot of people change. Most people try and do about 10% or maybe 15% per week.

I still have to dose for pH and Alkalinity. For some reason, it's always low in my tank. I got it down to a regular ritual now. I dose every other day. Sometimes every third day. I could just let the tank go, since I'm changing water every week. It's fine for 2 or 3 days after a water change. But I want to try and keep my levels more constant and regulated. Thats why I dose it so often--I just use less of the buffer each time. I feel it keeps the levels more constant and there is less large swings of pH and Alk by doing it this way. Slow adjustments and try to maintain as close to constant as possible.

When I started paying attention to my Alk, my coraline and polyp growth went nuts. I had zoas that were slowly deteriorating when I let my Alk slip down low for a couple months. Now they are growing like nuts with Alk up in the mid too high range. IMO Alk is one of the most important tests. If I could only have two test kits, they would be Alk and pH.

An example of how dosing frequency effects the stability of the tank:

[sagent3000]

i do a 10% change every sunday. the tank is 75 gallons.

[yote]

Originally Posted by sagent3000

i do a 10% change every sunday. the tank is 75 gallons.

The best way to get your tank back on track:
#1 Dont depend on ANY brand of salt to keep your level constant.If you dont test for any thing else.At least test nitrate,PH,alkalinity,calcium and magnesium once a week.Then dose accordingly.

#2 Step up the amount of water you change.I personally like to change 15 gallons a week in my 75.That way I dont have to dose near as much.Usually just a half dose of Kent Super Buffer once a week because I like to keep my alkalinity on the high side.

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by sagent3000

my tank has been up for 3 years now is it to late to start using "purple up"

there used to be a place that sold base rock are they still online somewhere?

I used the Purple Up and never really saw any difference.A two part calcium would be a better choice.Always test before dosing.Calcium,akalinity and magnesium in proper levels is essential for good coralline growth.

Base rock?Do you mean dry dead rocks or base live rock?
Liveaquaria.com sells foundation rocks.Its base live rock with the bacteria but doesn't have any coralline algae.Marcorocks.com sells dry base rock.