Does Live Rock Die?

[Jonny967]

Phospates are now testing at 0.4ppm, what should my next step be, shall i keep the seachem in there for another four days or shall i remove the rest with water changes?

Also to get the coralline growing back should i use the "purple up" stuff or is this also harmfull? feel like the chief chemist for Klaxo smith Kleine with all these tests and treatments

I also need to think about restocking with a couple of fish, i will post in my journal about these though want a goby but once had a engineer and it destroyed the aquascape on a daily basis.

 

[Buddyboy67]

Mate recomend you don't add purple up..lotta bad stories out there about this product

 

[scott133]

hi bud whats up with purple up i heard it was good stuff

regards scott

tho i never used it.

 

[Buddyboy67]

First off excessive coralline can choke up live rock, coating it stops water flowing freely through it..
Also several reports on various forums of it messing up the chemical stability in mature set ups....
Addition of calcium, magnesium and strontium to desired levels is a much safer option if increased coralline growth is required, as well as maintaining zero to minimal phosphate levels.

Here's one quick snippit from an un named forum...

"I'm told that "purple up'' is pretty much a gimmick- relabelled calcium supplement, and provided you keep your MG, Calc and DKh at sensible levels it won't do anything for you that keeping good water won't.
However, I've never used it. When taking advice you really need to talk to someone who's used it, and NOT used it. Plenty of people will use it and say they got loads of coraline growth- but they may well have got it anyway and are falsely crediting the product with a result which is actually unrelated to it's use. "
__________________

 

[Jonny967]

Just bought some purple up before i have read your post, it says on the bottle that it can take up to several months before any coralline is seen to grow? this seems to be a very expensive and long winded affair. I think i will use this bottle up and then just keep all parameters in check as you said.
Strange thing just occured when doing full tests on tank - phosphates have increased from around 0.4-0.5 to somewhere around 0.8, i only tested phosphate this moring so can't understand it. Ammonia is up from 0 to 0.25 and nitrate is up from below 5ppm to 12.5ppm. How can this happen when there is no livestock in the tank, could it be the die off of the problem algae causing a mini cycle?

Got 150 litres of RO ready to mix and add tomorrow so the para's should be all in check - well hopefully anyway

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, not a fan of purple up either. It's NOT a balanced additive, and prolonged use of it WILL mess with your chemistry.

As for your tests, likely something else dying off in the rock, maybe even some sponges or something you can't see. Hang in there