Coraline algae

[cichlidfort]

Is their a product you can buy that will bring lots of purple coraline algae to your tank?

[BubbaWPB]

If you need to seed, get a start from someone - give it good calcium levels and several months of patience. If you can't do that, Indopacific Sea Farms sells "coralline booster" www.ipsf.com . It is basically purple coralline algae growing on a piece of plastic that is used to seed your tank.

You need to keep optimal calcium levels for the coralline to grow well.

[cichlidfort]

If you need to seed, get a start from someone - give it good calcium levels and several months of patience. If you can't do that, Indopacific Sea Farms sells "coralline booster" www.ipsf.com . It is basically purple coralline algae growing on a piece of plastic that is used to seed your tank.

You need to keep optimal calcium levels for the coralline to grow well.

What about the product called purpleup? Its a liquid that you put in it daily and speeds it up.

[BubbaWPB]

Yes, I've used purple up, and to be honest, the coralline algae did grow faster when using it (in my experience), but the bottle clearly states, "Purple Up does not contain coralline algae. Some living coralline algae must already be living on rocks or aquarium glass." It boosts calcium and adds other trace minerals.

If you got live rock, I'd bet the farm that it is probably got coralline algae spores on it already.

[cichlidfort]

Yeah I already have liverock (50 lbs) and that has some coraline algae on it so I guess prupleup will just boost the process faster.

[showfish]

I do not add any other chemicals besides calcium and alkalinity dosing. If you mantain your calcium levels around 350 to 400, you will grow coraline algae. It just takes some time to get going.

[Randy1]

I've waited almost a year for my coraline to really take off and nothing. I've maintain great water and light too??

[cichlidfort]

thats what i am afraid of. I am just going to use purpleup instead of taking a chance of nothing/

[The R/C Man]

Time is the key for things to happen naturally. I am opposed to adding any chemicals that are not an absolute must. Some argue that you will remove it during water changes and that is only true to a point. Organisms in the tank will asorb some and some will remain in the sandbed etc. The long term acumulation of minute particals can be a potentially a bad thing.

Keep the perameters correct and things will occur on there own........

[BubbaWPB]

Purple Up is a quick and dirty way of adding calcium, by the way. It's an easy way for fish only tanks if you don't want to bother with measuring and adding calcium on a regular basis (just don't overdose and monitor your pH). If you have hard corals and shelled mollusks (e.g. clams), you should probably be testing and adding calcium supplements to maintain the levels (whether or not you add Purple Up).

I used Purple Up in my tank when I started it, and I got a good growth start on the coralline. When I began adding 2 part calcium/buffer solutions I quit adding Purple Up. I was adding a lot of 2 part solution, so I got a calcium reactor. The calcium reactor has maintained the calcium at 420, alkalinity above 2.5 mEq/L and pH between 8.2 and 8.3... but I noticed after a few months my coralline had stopped growing. I started adding Purple Up again, and after about 10 days, I'm getting lots of new purple spots where there had been none before.

Now, who should you believe? Well everyone here is telling the truth. You can get good coralline growth without special additives, some additives get toxic when used over long periods, and Purple Up has been shown to accelerate coralline growth. What should you do? Only you can anser that.

Good luck.

[showfish]

It sounds like you are getting results Bubba. Is it the calcium booster in the product or something else that is stimulating the growth?

[BubbaWPB]

It sounds like you are getting results Bubba. Is it the calcium booster in the product or something else that is stimulating the growth?

I don't know to be honest. I talk about calcium because I know in tanks with lots of calcium-sucking organisms, coralline can lose out. But since I really don't know what's in Purple Up other than calcium and "iodine" (both stated on the bottle but not what type or quantity), I have no clue.