Water Change, DIY Coral Snow and Purple Up

[Mikey-D]

Today was a big maintenance day.

Did a 20g water change, mixed up my first batch of Coral Snow and added the Microbater7 to help avoiding the dreaded cyano. I also added my purple up. All in all it has been a good day of husbandry

The first pic was yesterday and then during the water change, the coral snow bloom and the last is the most recent when most of it settled.

I will keep up with the this. Testing day is tomorrow I will post my results to see if anything params went crazy

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What were you hoping Purple Up will accomplish? It’s mostly fine sand.

 

[Mikey-D]

I've read it helps promote coralline algae. I used rock that was in another system but had been cleaned and was soaking but had little to no algae and I am trying to promote a beneficial biological system.

 

[rtparty]

Purple Up is snake oil and doesn’t do anything. Just as a heads up.

 

[Mikey-D]

Purple Up is snake oil and doesn’t do anything. Just as a heads up.

I'm seeing that now.....

Is there something better or is it all snake oil??

 

[rtparty]

I'm seeing that now.....

Is there something better or is it all snake oil??

If you are looking for coralline, they sell spores in a bottle. Jury is still out IMO

Some snails with coralline on their shells will introduce it. No need to rush this part

 

[taricha]

I'm seeing that now.....

Is there something better or is it all snake oil??

this explicitly says its coralline spores/fragments. And people have generally posted positive responses with getting coralline to grow.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/live-goods/coralline-algae.html

"Every bottle includes a minimum of 6 separate species of coralline, all with color variations of pink & purple that will populate throughout your tank."

edit: some have used it and found no coralline a month+ later - so YMMV

 

[RobbieMaynard]

Th Arc reef purple definitely works. Used in twice. 5-6 months later my rocks are purple and have some on glass.

 

[Nano_Man]

Go to your LFS and they will scrape some off then seed your tank with it . Good luck

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

If you are looking for coralline, they sell spores in a bottle. Jury is still out IMO

Some snails with coralline on their shells will introduce it. No need to rush this part

I've used them. Although I'm not sure why.

They did however work quickly. I don't recall the brand though.

 

[homer1475]

Th Arc reef purple definitely works. Used in twice. 5-6 months later my rocks are purple and have some on glass.

After 5 to 6 months it would have happened naturally.

 

[Bruttall]

Th Arc reef purple definitely works. Used in twice. 5-6 months later my rocks are purple and have some on glass.

Coralline algae grows in 5 to 8 weeks with just a Seed Rock, if it took that long with an algae additive, you got snake oil friend, sorry.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Coralline algae grows in 5 to 8 weeks with just a Seed Rock, if it took that long with an algae additive, you got snake oil friend, sorry.

Is that your experience? Or something you clipped from some unnamed source?

For many people it takes a long time for coralline to begin to thrive.

 

[Bruttall]

Is that your experience? Or something you clipped from some unnamed source?

For many people it takes a long time for coralline to begin to thrive.

Both, here is a July 1 Pic of my tank started Feb 2nd 2023 (See my build thread), 4 months ago, you will notice a lot of "spots" on the back and left side glass, that is Coralline. No Algae additives added to this tank, no Dr Tims, no chemicals at all. I did Nitrite cycle with frozen fish food. just a couple of seed rocks placed in the tank, 1 about 8 weeks ago right corner with Zoa's and Xenia on it, the other (Finger Leather rock) about 3 weeks ago. However, I did have coralline on a bunch of frags and some of my snails when they went into the tank beginning of April when it all migrated out of the 75g starter tank into this 300g pictured.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Both, here is a July 1 Pic of my tank started Feb 2nd 2023 (See my build thread), 4 months ago, you will notice a lot of "spots" on the back and left side glass, that is Coralline. No Algae additives added to this tank, no Dr Tims, no chemicals at all. I did Nitrite cycle with frozen fish food. just a couple of seed rocks placed in the tank, 1 about 8 weeks ago right corner with Zoa's and Xenia on it, the other (Finger Leather rock) about 3 weeks ago. However, I did have coralline on a bunch of frags and some of my snails when they went into the tank beginning of April when it all migrated out of the 75g starter tank into this 300g pictured.

So you had a faster experience than many folks. One should not assume everyone does.

10 Months = NO Coralline?!

My tank is just a couple days shy of 10 months old. I have a bit of Coralline algae on the temp sensor and over flow box. But no where else! Not on the glass and zero on the rock. What gives? My last tank (running T5) my rock was completely covered as was everything else. Oh and I've no green...

www.reef2reef.com

Three different folks from the same thread:

"My tank has never grown coralline. Right at a year after moving it and doing a 'reboot' with fresh live rock from the Keys, but even for the couple of years before the move I can't ever remember growing coralline anywhere except a skimmer cup."

"Well it's now been over a year and finally the coralline is beginning to show up on the tank walls [emoji45] Yet nothing on the LR. However the rock in my sump/fuge is completely covered. Go figure that one out [emoji12]"

"I seeded. I had about a 7" size chunk of live rock FULL of pink and dark purple in mine and it didnt help. "

 

[SPS2020]

Is there a 'Purple Down'?! It's always been a nuisance for me.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Is there a 'Purple Down'?! It's always been a nuisance for me.

Limpets

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And urchins

 

[jda]

Take the approach that almost anything in a bottle is junk. There are a few bottles that serve one purpose, like Alk/Part A or Calcium/Part B, that are not junk, but you can make these yourself for pennies on the dollar.

There are probably a few things in a bottle that are OK, but you are better off with all-junk than all-work.

Wait until your tank gets some film algae and buy some snails and crabs - these will have all of the coralline that you need on their shells.

Coralline is a nuisance to me too. Scraping is not fun and it can fill in the fins in my powerheads if I do not soak them in acid regularly. Urchins are a good way to cut it back, but raising phosphates from 1-3 ppb to even 10 ppb will slow the growth in half in my tank. The stuff can cover my whole front glass in a few weeks with ocean-level no3 and po4.

 

[SPS2020]

And urchins

Tuxedos aplenty in my tank!