CoralUP / PurpleUp Expiration

SirCyber · Feb 27, 2023

Hey all. I came across some bottles of CoralUp/PurpleUp from Carib Sea of unknown age. Since this a mineral supplement and contains no living organisms (or it shouldn't) I figure as long as I give it a real good mixing to get everything homogeneous I should be fine to use it.

I've got a 4 year old tank with a pretty good establishment of coralline algae so I don't need to use this, but I've been struggling a little with keeping SPSs. I figured it couldn't hurt my tank as long as I follow the recommended dosage.

Any thoughts?

blaxsun · Feb 27, 2023

I honestly have no idea the shelf life when sealed. Maybe start with a small dose?

Timfish · Feb 27, 2023

They're both good to use.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 27, 2023

They are as good as they ever were, but the main ingredient is just find sand and I do not recommend this product.

Fish Styx · Feb 27, 2023

It is fine to use, but is just snake oil, IMO.

Jamie814 · Feb 27, 2023

I would say they are fine to use since they just contain minerals. I would not buy them, but if you already have it why not use it?

TokenReefer · Feb 27, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
the main ingredient is just find sand

Really? Lol. I wonder what thier thoughts are on how this does anything...

SirCyber · Feb 27, 2023

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll go ahead and use them up after a good shake.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2023

TokenReefer said:
Really? Lol. I wonder what thier thoughts are on how this does anything...

I wrote an article on why fine aragonite products (such as Aragamight) from several companies cannot work to boost alk or calcium more than 20 years ago:

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Calcium Carbonate As A Supplement

Randy discusses the importance of calcium supplementation using a variety of techniques .

reefs.com

It is nothing unusual for reef companies to sell products that do not do what is claimed because some companies either do not understand their own products, or do not care.

In the case of fine aragonite, a number of companies have in the past, and some still do, push it as a way of boosting alk and calcium in a reef tank. Of course it does not work, but profit remains.

As to Purple Up specifically, it has been around for decades with no great body of supporting claims from experienced users. However, it also claims to contain iodine that they say boosts coralline (I've never seen much evidence of that claim) and there was a hypothesis around taht the fine bare sand coated rocks and acted as a place where coralline could seed and get started, in a way of physical acting. I cannot show any data against that hypotheses, but rarely has anyone reported that other types of aragonite added to a reef tank act as a place for coralline to start. Usually coralline prefers plastic surfaces first and glass second and rocks often last.