what to do or how to do it ?

David James

Reefing newb
I know it mite take some time, I have been looking at some pic on the forum and there are a lot of people who have purple coral coating all over the rocks and some on the inside of their tanks. I would like to know what I have to do to get it. I have a 90 gal bow front with a canister filter and a por skimmer two power heads facing the rocks. Just did a 10% water change all levels are good. Now I test my water with the saltwater test kit from petland. Would I need a better test kit? On the rock now is some algae but not a lot. I soft brush them before a water change. Lighting is the old coral life with four fluorescent light and the two halogen light in the middle. It's a fish only tank right now. Can anyone help me
 
It's coralline algae. I suggest no more canister filter and better lighting or at least new bulbs if needed. ATI makes good bulbs. The coralline uses up a lot of calcium so you may want a quality test for that and start using reef salt instead of plain marine salt (it mixes higher salinity as well as calcium, alkalinity and magnesium). It takes quite awhile to get going. I would also stop scrubbing the rocks because that can clean it all off and it has to start over.
 
Thanks I will get new light but how long should they shouldbw on without getting unwanted algae. Another thing is, I do have to use reef salt mix. I was using the saltwater already mix at the pet shop. I saw the purple up solution can I use that as well. Or just calcium, alkaline and magnesium separately.
 
I use, prefer and recommend Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. They've worked really well for me. And of course you want to use RO/DI water. I've heard that Purple Up stuff works, but I wouldn't waste my money on it. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. Patience is the best thing you can ever have.
 
Personally, I wouldn't use the Purple Up stuff. It would make the coralline grow really quickly. Even though mine grows at a moderate rate, it's actually really annoying to clean off the glass and such.
 
Personally, I wouldn't use the Purple Up stuff. It would make the coralline grow really quickly. Even though mine grows at a moderate rate, it's actually really annoying to clean off the glass and such.

It shouldn't be that bad. I use razors to clean my glass already anyways.
 
I'm not sure if there is any fact to my theory but IME I have fond that coralline grows faster under lower light. I have on three different tank builds started my build with lights that were under powered for my tank. And each time the tank has been a purple monster it still takes 6 months (give or take).
 
It will come in time, and eventually you'll be sick of scraping it off the glass. I would not dose anything that you aren't testing for - including purple up
 
I'm not sure if there is any fact to my theory but IME I have fond that coralline grows faster under lower light. I have on three different tank builds started my build with lights that were under powered for my tank. And each time the tank has been a purple monster it still takes 6 months (give or take).
After the switch to LEDs in the 130 litre, it took about 3 months for the coralline to adjust to the new higher intensity lighting.
 
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