Kent Marine is my choice for salt. It has extra stuff in it and is formulated to provide a higher buffering level. You do not need to use purple up at this point and your salt mix will provide adequate calcium, minerals, vitamins, etc until you get your system loaded with animals. Until you get the coraline algae going the purple up will not help you. Think of purple up as a food for coraline algae, so if you have none, and you overdose with purple up or dose the manufacturers recommended amount you are over dosing your system with calcium until you have something in the tank that uses calcium. I hope this helps to clear things up. Sometimes there just is not any way to speed things up. Coraline algae is one of those items that just takes time to establish, and patients is really needed here, if you boost too much and too fast you could experiance a crash which could be more difficult than going a bit slower. As your system starts to mature over the next three months, you will start to see some coraline algae spreading out. (TIP for success - Never add anything to your system unless you have tested and determined there is a defficientcy and the addition of the chemical will correct the problem.) If you feel you just must add the purple up do so at no more than 1/4 of the recommended dose and only at 1/2 the times recommended. this will help to not over dose, but 1st make sure you need the purple up. good luck keep us posted on your systems progress.
