Purple Up Review
Purple Up has been mentioned and asked about numerous times on various forums.
Answers and opinions range from like to dislike. What made me sit down and write this was a post saying Purple Up is snake oil.
My response and in effect review of Purple Up followed.
It is absolutely not snake oil.
But neither is it a bottled miracle. It is simply calcium, some trace elements and iodine.
It will likely promote coralline algae in a tank that has little already. The same as regular additives.
In a tank without coralline algae the reefer is likely to not have calcium/alkalinity within desired levels, so boosting calcium will promote growth.
Targeting calcium and alkalinity with a two part additive is a better method.
The effect will be much better than what you will get with Purple Up.
From Marine Depot:
CaribSea Purple Up Coralline Algae Accelerator
Pet Product News Editor's Choice Awards Winner as One of the Best New Products of 2005!
Has a unique dual method approach to coralline algae acceleration:
- Ionic calcium immediately raises dissolved calcium levels in your aquarium water.
- Ten micron aragonite targets the live rock surface, where it dissolves in situ (in place), delivering calcium, strontium, magnesium and carbonate right where it is needed.
Now we can discuss how unique their method really is. But boosting calcium and iodine as well as adding a debatable amount of trace elements does not exactly qualify as snake oil.
I use Purple Up as the only additive in my 10 gallon tank.
I have softies and some LPS so my adding this is only to boost coralline algae.
I do water changes as well of course, but the brand I use of salt is low on calcium.
Purple Up fits my tanks need great because there is little need to keep a constant eye on the calcium and alkalinity levels.
My 75 gallon with a growing amount of sps corals needs more attention and I instead use a two part additive.
Update on April 20th 2009.
Seeing quite a few hits on purple up reviews to this website, I desided to post additional information.
The following is quoted from CaribSea's website. They are the maker of Purple Up.
Quoted from: Purple-Up Directions
"Purple-up. does not contain coralline algae. Some living coralline algae must already be living on rocks or aquarium glass."
Quoted from: Purple-Up FAQ
"What's the difference between Buffer Plus and Purple-Up?
Both of these products contain the same main core ingredient: Aragonite powder dissolved in water. Aragonite contains Calcium and Carbonate in balanced proportion and is also a good source of Strontium, Magnesium and other minor trace elements. This is the sole ingredient in Buffer Plus., (which is the same as Aragamilk). This ingredient makes Buffer Plus the ideal alkalinity booster / calcium and trace element source. Purple-Up expands on this main ingredient by adding an iodine source and adding an ionic form of calcium thus increasing the amount of available calcium. This makes Purple-Up. a more complete additive that may be used as a stand alone reef supplement."