I bought the Euro Reef...

the bubbles are all gone... I also bought a mass of chems... C Balance A & B, trace soft, trace hard, kent Magnesium... Going to be dosing to get my levels to optimum before adding any corals...
 
You don't need to add chemicals unless you have a test kit that shows you have a deficiency. You can easily overdose on chemicals. The only thing you would probably need to worry about right now is getting your calcium up to the right place.
 
Ctimpson said:
will the trace hard and soft help to grow coraline though?
Click to expand...

Nope.
About the only to grow coraline is keeping your calcium and alkalinity right.
Keep calcium between 380 and 450 with an alkalinity between 9 and 14 DKH and give it time.

If you dont have any coraline on some rock,get a rock that has some from your LFS.
 
I used it and saw really good results in coralline growth. Others (Yote) saw better coralline growth without it. I think it's hit or miss.
 
What is a good calcium reading? I have been testing lately and mine has been around 300-350.. Not sure if its low, high or just right...
 
MikMcgyver said:
How about Purple Up? Anyone used it? sposed to help with calcium and all that good stuff
Click to expand...

You have to be careful with purple up.Its got a bunch of other stuff beside calcium in it.

And Biffs right.I tryed the stuff and COULD NOT get coraline to grow on nothing.Quit using it,and within 3 weeks it was covering my power heads.
 
I actually use seawater, no mix here. My LFS sells it for $0.30 a gallon and it is natuallty low on calcium, just spoke to him on the phone...
 
Just did a retest and its about 400.. maybe a lil higher. I need a different test kit. I dont like the RedSea Reef lab kit..
 
I hear that Salifert makes a great kit,I've never used theirs as there pretty pricey.
I do use API kits,never had a problem with em so far.
 
forget all trace elements additives cause all water changes replenish trace element from sea salt. Like everyone said watch calcium and alk, and if you really want to jump start corraline algae buy a rock full of purple algae and scrape it off in front of powerhead or over rocks and it will spread everywhere.
 
So much for patience! :mrgreen: Heres my opinion. Be careful with purple up. People have had trouble with PH flutuations and other weird stuff using it. there is alot more to it than adding calcium. Ive been doing this along time and the best result with any reef is patience. when you start trying to have everything right away you end up adding chemicals that mess with the whole system. One thing that you are doing differently and is hard to help with is adding natural sea water. that is very dangerous in my experience. it is nice and easy most of the time. but you dont know where they are collecting the water number one ( you have to collect way off shore to get clean water) and number two What happens if the water source gets polluted by a storm or whatever as yours is being collected? anyway. thats just some stuff to think about. also you have to test your water alot cause you never know what your levels are gonna be. Sea salt usually has a balanced amount of trace elements. All that to say, try and let the system do its thing, if you keep the clacium and alk where they are suppose to be the coraline will grow, some tanks it takes a month, some take several months. be patient
 

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