[sg_halvorsen]

I was wondering if purple up is any good instead of buying all the other additaves as this contains all of them

[e_baer]

no, it will make your PH drop like a rock under water. just keep the calcium level good and in a few month you will have loads of coraline algae

[dragonboy4578]

if you use purple up please be carefull. if you aren't it can cause your ph to drop and kill everything in your tank. so if you use, use with caution. many people seem to be having problems with it.

[WILLIAM1]

I have used purple up and they are correct it will drop your P.H. you might want to try Calxmax 2 part Calcium/Alkalinity Buffer or some kind of 2 part with a buffer.

[Krazy]

Use a 2 part buffer, such as Kent tech CB, B-ionic, etc...

DONT DOSE IF YOUR NOT TESTING BEFORE AND 24 HRS AFTER THOUGH !!!

It can cause HAVOC in your tank..

[kolokefalo]

420 ca
7 DKH
1300 Magnesium

and your coralline will take off. Just aim a little current over the top of a rock with a good amount of corraline on it and viola. Make sure this same current isnt hitting your front glass....unless of course you are into scraping glass with a razor blade.

[jimw369]

Good to see you posting Kolo! That 1300 for magneseum is good advice that is not much talked about in the usual discussion about calcium. That really helped keep my calcium levels stay much steadier a month or so after my cycle. A tank may be cycled but it still takes some time to get it up and running solid if you know what I mean.

[sg_halvorsen]

Hey thanks everyone so much, i had been using for a week and i tested my ph before i used it and it was 8.2 now i just tested it and after only a week it was at around 7.6-7.7 so i put in some buffer i had and i'm definatly never gonna use that again...

[Tonz of fun]

Hey guys if you raise your P.H. to fast cant that kill the little guys?

[kolokefalo]

Jim,

Yea I don't get online often enough (kids, wife, work) but when I do tis is always my first stop.

Tonz,

Yes, raising PH can be dangerous. You should never raise it too much too quickly. PH is logarithmic. This means the difference between a PH of 7.0 and 8.0 is NOT just 1 point. The water is 10x more alkaline at 8.0 than 7.0. If you PH is at 7.5-7.7 I would make sure I took a full week to get it to 8.1-8.3.

Measure out how much of the PH raising compound you need and dose it all over the course of a week.

[Mattfish]

My comments are a bit late, but I had the same pH drop problem with Purple Up. I'm new to this and didn't know to expect it and even checking overnight, we saw a major drop with only the normal dose, so we stopped it also.

What we did do that really helped our coralline growth was regular water changes. I was surprised at first as to what kind of difference this made, but I shouldn't have been. Reflecting on it, using fresh water replaces all the nutrients and elements that get "used up" in a closed system, and changing water regularly seems to me to be the healthiest thing you can do for your tank, the fish, the corals, and all the other stuff you can't even see.

Seems almost like a responsibility thing - the "chores" you do to steward the life forms you've chosen to be responsible for.....