All For Reef and reduced alkalinity

[Necrodaemus]

Up until the past few weeks, All For Reef was maintaining my system at 8.5 kH, 420ppm Ca and 1380ppm Mg. Now I’m seeing 7.5kh. I tried increasing the AFR dosage but the only result is Calcium increased while alkalinity stayed the same. Has anyone experienced something similar?

 

[Reef.]

Up until the past few weeks, All For Reef was maintaining my system at 8.5 kH, 420ppm Ca and 1380ppm Mg. Now I’m seeing 7.5kh. I tried increasing the AFR dosage but the only result is Calcium increased while alkalinity stayed the same. Has anyone experienced something similar?

Best way is once you see a drop in alk is to not try and increase your alk with AFR but to use baking so do or similar to get your alk back to the correct lvl, then you will just need to increase your AFR slightly to keep up with the higher alk demand.

 

[Necrodaemus]

Best way is once you see a drop in alk is to not try and increase your alk with AFR but to use baking so do or similar to get your alk back to the correct lvl, then you will just need to increase your AFR slightly to keep up with the higher alk demand.

Excellent. I’m going to try another bottle of Hanna reagent to help rule out that being part of the equation (just put a fresh battery in as well). Thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Up until the past few weeks, All For Reef was maintaining my system at 8.5 kH, 420ppm Ca and 1380ppm Mg. Now I’m seeing 7.5kh. I tried increasing the AFR dosage but the only result is Calcium increased while alkalinity stayed the same. Has anyone experienced something similar?

If you increase the dose enough, alk will certainly rise.

The calcium rise from 7.5 dKH to 8.5 dKH with AFR is only about 7 ppm, so I see no reason to worry about a calcium rise.

 

[exnisstech]

I've read that AFR can take up to 24 hrs to show up on an alk test using AFR . I'm just mentioning that to make sure your not testing too soon after increasing the amount. AFR dosage amount will need to be gradually increased as coral grow and consume more similar to 2part. It's not a set it and forget it amount, it needs tweaked every so often. As an example when I started AFR I was at 10ml per day and 7 months later I'm dosing 35ml daily. After I started using AFR I did use some 2 part alk to raise alk when it dropped and have read of many people doing this. I don't see anything wrong with this method since it really isn't much different that what TM says to do before starting AFR.
I've since started doing as Randy recommends and increasing the AFR amount. I increase it then wait a few days to test.

 

[Necrodaemus]

I've read that AFR can take up to 24 hrs to show up on an alk test using AFR . I'm just mentioning that to make sure your not testing too soon after increasing the amount. AFR dosage amount will need to be gradually increased as coral grow and consume more similar to 2part. It's not a set it and forget it amount, it needs tweaked every so often. As an example when I started AFR I was at 10ml per day and 7 months later I'm dosing 35ml daily. After I started using AFR I did use some 2 part alk to raise alk when it dropped and have read of many people doing this. I don't see anything wrong with this method since it really isn't much different that what TM says to do before starting AFR.
I've since started doing as Randy recommends and increasing the AFR amount. I increase it then wait a few days to test.

Right. I’ve been using it for 2 years now, across 2 systems. I just found it interesting that the alk dropped while calcium was increasing…but that very well could be testing error with calcium.

 

[rishma]

I keep repeating this because I learned a hard lesson, so forgive me if I am being redundant.

The reagent for the Hanna alk checker goes bad after a while once open. Keep it in the refrigerator!

I had an unexplained drop in Alk which stayed persistently low with increased AFR dosing. When I opened a new bottle of reagent the Alk was sky high. I then verified with a Red Sea test kit. Animals very extremely unhappy.

hope you get your alk issue sorted out.

 

[Necrodaemus]

I keep repeating this because I learned a hard lesson, so forgive me if I am being redundant.

The reagent for the Hanna alk checker goes bad after a while once open. Keep it in the refrigerator!

I had an unexplained drop in Alk which stayed persistently low with increased AFR dosing. When I opened a new bottle of reagent the Alk was sky high. I then verified with a Red Sea test kit. Animals very extremely unhappy.

hope you get your alk issue sorted out.

Yes! I keep it in the fridge as soon as it’s opened. I was thinking the same and decided to rule out the reagent possibly being “off”. Picked up another bottle yesterday and tested using both, previous bottle and new. I got the exact same result.