ABOUR ALL FOR REEF

[silvia_10]

Hi,

I have a 240l+sump mixed reef tank.
I have been using the Triton method for two years and I am very happy with the results, however, I have switched to AFR and my alkalinity has shot up to 10.3.
Initially, I set the 12ml dose indicated by the calculator on the website, but after measuring daily that the kh did not drop below 10, I decided to lower the dose to 4ml per day and, even so, it continues at 10.2 ALK. Any suggestions? I have read that the opposite happens to most people, their KH drops a lot and then stabilizes. In my case, it's just the other way around and I can't find any information about it.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Keep lowering the dose. There is no inverse effect, just a delay in seeing the response.

 

[arking_mark]

About 2 plus years ago, I transitioned away from the Triton method. Even though I knew my daily consumption, adding AFR initially impacted my uptake and I had some swings until the tank adjusted.

I believe these initial swings are caused by two factors. 1st is that the introduction of Calcium Formate somehow impacts the corals and their uptake temporarily goes down. The 2nd is that it takes time for the tank bacteria to adjust to more quickly break down the formate to produce Alk.

It took me a several weeks to dial it in...it is hard to do with the delayed Alk release and the increasing effectiveness of the bacteria over time. With an automated Alk tester, I was able to gage rate of Alk change over time and figure things out pretty quickly.

A simple way to do this is to start with 1/2 the calculated dose for measured Ca/Alk consumption. After a couple days (my guess is 3 days), if your Alk is trending down, increase by about 1/2 of what you would to bump it up...and do the opposite if your Alk is trending up. Keep doing this every couple of days and you'll get thete. If Alk drops below your comfort level use 3-part to supplement. If it increases above your comfort level, pause AFR and restart with a lower dose in a couple of days.

 

[silvia_10]

Keep lowering the dose. There is no inverse effect, just a delay in seeing the response.

OK, thank you!

 

[silvia_10]

About 2 plus years ago, I transitioned away from the Triton method. Even though I knew my daily consumption, adding AFR initially impacted my uptake and I had some swings until the tank adjusted.

I believe these initial swings are caused by two factors. 1st is that the introduction of Calcium Formate somehow impacts the corals and their uptake temporarily goes down. The 2nd is that it takes time for the tank bacteria to adjust to more quickly break down the formate to produce Alk.

It took me a several weeks to dial it in...it is hard to do with the delayed Alk release and the increasing effectiveness of the bacteria over time. With an automated Alk tester, I was able to gage rate of Alk change over time and figure things out pretty quickly.

A simple way to do this is to start with 1/2 the calculated dose for measured Ca/Alk consumption. After a couple days (my guess is 3 days), if your Alk is trending down, increase by about 1/2 of what you would to bump it up...and do the opposite if your Alk is trending up. Keep doing this every couple of days and you'll get thete. If Alk drops below your comfort level use 3-part to supplement. If it increases above your comfort level, pause AFR and restart with a lower dose in a couple of days.

Thank you very much, your comment is the closest to the situation I have right now in the reef tank. All the posts are about problems with alkalinity drops and mine is just the opposite.

At the moment I am dosing 4ml per day for the 240l and I can't get it (Alk) to go down. Theoretically (according to the web calculator) i should be adding 12ml. But I also don't want to completely stop the dose because as you say, the rest of the parameters would drop and I think that the disaster could be bigger than having a single wrong parameter.
I measure twice a day with the Hanna Checker and so far no change.

 

[arking_mark]

Thank you very much, your comment is the closest to the situation I have right now in the reef tank. All the posts are about problems with alkalinity drops and mine is just the opposite.

At the moment I am dosing 4ml per day for the 240l and I can't get it (Alk) to go down. Theoretically (according to the web calculator) i should be adding 12ml. But I also don't want to completely stop the dose because as you say, the rest of the parameters would drop and I think that the disaster could be bigger than having a single wrong parameter.
I measure twice a day with the Hanna Checker and so far no change.

So, I'm a believer in balanced dosing. However, it never really is 100% balanced as each tank will be slightly different.

Balanced dosing products such as AFR, estimate what the balanced consumption is. Clearly trace ions/elements are consumed differently in a softy tank vs an SPS tank in proportion with Ca/Alk consumption.

However, if Ca/Alk is high, then chances are your othe trace ions/elements will be proportionally high if your tank behaves close to TMP estimates. So pausing AFR should not impact your balance.