tank not getting more "purple." ideas?

[devin mac]

so my 10g's been up and running since Feb, and for the last couple months i've been dosing randy's 2 part for Ca and Alk. My Ca and Alk levels have been pretty good since (minus the few times i got lazy on the dosing), and i've had a 150W sunpod w/14K bulb for the past two months.

my question is, why am i unable to get the nice deep purple coraline that all the "real" reef people seem to get.

my tank looks pretty healthy, i have some rather large white sponges growing in my "fuge", SPS always has that fuzzy polyps extended look and has shown some growth in the last month, zoos are multiplying nicely, xenia's pumping away, and a lot of brownish and/or pink coraline on the glass.... but none of that nice purple color i see in other people's tanks...

now, i haven't done anything for Mag supplementation, and haven't tested for it yet, so should that be somewhere to look?

 

[stingythingy45]

Do you have any purple coralline growth at all in the tank?
You might need to seed it with a small piece of LR.
Also i'm getting a lot of purple growing everywhere and I dose the Kent Strontium.
I've heard some good things about"Purple Up" also.

 

[smcnally]

IME magnesium levels have a lot of impact with coralline growth. You'll want your Mg right around 1350.

 

[RayD]

Purple Up is a pretty good product.

 

[~Flighty~]

MG is almost certainly the issue. That is the exact issue you would expect and the exact result from the problem.

 

[devin mac]

well, maybe this weekend i'll go on a quest for a mag test kit and some magflake, then.

anyone have magflake?

i have had "purple" coraline rocks in the tank, and they've kinda bleached out to more pinkish over time. i have to imagine better mag levels are better for sps coloration as well?

 

[Behrmon]

I get very little Purple on my rocks in my home tank w/ MH & SPS w/ a mg level around 1250, it is on the glass though. I do get a ton of purple in the shop tank w/ PC's & Softies only. Do MH tanks normally get much Purple on the rocks?

 

[RayD]

Mix your own MG with Epsom Salt.

 

[~Flighty~]

With proper MG levels my rocks quickly get all purple. Look up the randy-holms farley MG artices for a ton of info. It really makes a difference with the health of everything.

 

[RedTide]

Purple Up is a pretty good product.

While I agree with Ray, I wouldn't use it if there is any livestock in the tank. I used it while my system was cycling and stopped when I put in the clean up crew. The reason for this is that if I understand properly, it will actually leave a very thin coating on all surfaces. If you have fish/coral the coating may act as an annoyance.

 

[chew*]

in order to grow purple coraline there are a few key things to do, 1 is chemistry, 425 CA, 1350 Mg, second is under MH your going to need to run a true 14k bulb like a pheonix, and last is a "quality" actinic bulb preferably vho but i get good results with URI,s non vho that peaks the same as they're vho version.

although all this is judgemental however in my case the proof is in the pudding. 4 month old tank shot. Purple power

 

[devin mac]

hmm, interesting take on the actinic requirement... since i use a sunpod MH over my tank, i don't know if i'm going to try and stuff an actinic over the tank as well. though i suppose i could go to a 20k bulb... that said, i have the bulb that shipped with the sunpod and not a phoenix 14k.

maybe i'll spring for a phoenix next month, and start dosing epsom salt mag mix this weekend.

 

[chew*]

I just use esv calcium and magnesium, + drip kalk. heat would not be an issue with a normal flourecent URI 420nm super actinic, it uses like 30 watts and is always cool to the touch, corallife makes a nice sealed endcap wiring kit, home depot has cheap electronic ballasts. total cost for a 1 bulb setup was like $50? I'll add another someday but for now its fine.


@ kevin yes MH will get the rocks quite purple but your using 10k, wehn you swap to 14k one of these days it will grow however your corals won't grow as fast.

 

[devin mac]

oh i'm not worried about heat, just space and whatnot. I'd rather swap to a 20K bulb for spectrum, and have less growth than attempt to fit a vho over the tank. Not a lot of footprint left over a 10g when there's a sunpod over it already.

 

[stingythingy45]

I'll bet it's too much light for good coralline growth.
Here's a picture of a tank(I believe it's a 10 gallon,from another site)that has the standard hood with just PC bulbs.

 

[devin mac]

well, like i said, i'm not short on coralline in general. just the purplish stuff. and i already admit i am probably WAY low on magnesium.

i'll try that, and maybe pop for a 14k phoenix in the next couple of months.

thanks for the advice, folks.

 

[stingythingy45]

Are you sure?You could always give me your light and go back to the standard hood.
Good luck.

 

[devin mac]

ha! almost had me ;-)

 

[Reefried]

Your mg levels ar probably the problem, however my tank has coraline growing in sheets all over and I've never tested for mg, but I do think it has a lot to do with flow, because mine started growing that deep purple first at the return and power heads then all over. And finally about "purple up" that stuff is BAD for your tank, it does help, but as soon as you stop dosing that dreaded stuff, all the places you gained coralline you will have die off and that deep purple will turn dark reddish then eventually white. the best thing in my experience is kalk, perfect levels all around, and tons of flow

 

[chew*]

I'll bet it's too much light for good coralline growth.
Here's a picture of a tank(I believe it's a 10 gallon,from another site)that has the standard hood with just PC bulbs.

I run 2 DE 250 watt MH in reef optix 3 reflectors on a 65 gallon my sps get about 130 par. So by what technical data have you read that states to much light hinders coralline growth?