All For Reef Overdosing Trace Elements?

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 14, 2021

I have a question about All For Reef.
So my lightly stocked 7-month-old tank has been using a fair amount of Alk. I try to keep it at 9dKH. A little over 2 months ago I decided to start using All For Reef to maintain my Alk levels, which it does quite well. Alk, Calcium, Magnesium are all stable. However, since dosing I have noticed my corals look a little less healthy. Not dying or withering but less perky. So, I am curious if it is possible I am overdosing trace elements for which I can't test.

I only suspect AFR because I stopped dosing for 2 weeks and things started to perk up again.

Thoughts?

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 14, 2021

Alk 9
Calcium 420
MG 1300
Nitrate 5ppm
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78

TheDragonsReef · Mar 14, 2021

Send out an icp. Only way to really know for sure.

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 14, 2021

I do plan on doing that soon. I guess I was more curious if others had a similar experience or if AFR even contains enough of the trace elements that it would even be possible to overdose them.

brewandreef · Mar 14, 2021

I have a high demand 30 gallon sps tank which is on 43 mLs of AFR daily. I lost some stuff when I switched from kalk to AFR, but I think that was expected as I had a bunch of alk swings. I noticed that most acros are doing really well now and have some decent colors and great growth, but a few of my montis/digis had better colors and more polyp extension when I was dosing kalk in the ATO. I'm not sure if it's due to overdosing trace elements as you said, or if they just preferred the higher pH.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

I wondered about that also as I dose 40ml/day into a roughly 50g frag system with primarily LPS. Been meaning to do an ICP just for kicks to see where trace elements are at. Everything seems to be doing well though and alk is stable around 8.8ish. Ca is over 500 though so makes me wonder if I am overdosing but I want to keep alk around 8.8-9 so it matches my DT which is in that range with a CaRx.

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 14, 2021

Thanks for the replies. I am even more intrigued now. I was curious how an all-in-one could maintain levels without causing others to be elevated. Maybe it can't?

The Opinionated Reefer · Mar 16, 2021

Switch to carbocalcium and dose the trace independently based on lcp testing

Waynerock · Mar 16, 2021

Revnobody said:
I have a question about All For Reef.
So my lightly stocked 7-month-old tank has been using a fair amount of Alk. I try to keep it at 9dKH. A little over 2 months ago I decided to start using All For Reef to maintain my Alk levels, which it does quite well. Alk, Calcium, Magnesium are all stable. However, since dosing I have noticed my corals look a little less healthy. Not dying or withering but less perky. So, I am curious if it is possible I am overdosing trace elements for which I can't test.

I only suspect AFR because I stopped dosing for 2 weeks and things started to perk up again.

Thoughts?

I have been using for a year and a half and I am up to 35 ml a day. No issues and ICP either comes in on the money or a little low. I think it’s something else. All I dose is AFR and a little aminos but I am going to start Kent Iodide because it’s always low On the salifert test. SPS is killin it and I don’t too heavy just very even

brewandreef · Mar 16, 2021

Waynerock said:
I have been using for a year and a half and I am up to 35 ml a day. No issues and ICP either comes in on the money or a little low. I think it’s something else. All I dose is AFR and a little aminos but I am going to start Kent Iodide because it’s always low On the salifert test. SPS is killin it and I don’t too heavy just very even

Very nice brother!

Waynerock · Mar 16, 2021

brewandreef said:
Very nice brother!

I forgot to say please drop using AFR, it’s no good...haha if I get more people to stop using it I can find it for sale online somewhere!! Getting low and nervous, can’t even get the DIY kit

Big E · Mar 17, 2021

Why mess with iodide dosing when the corals are doing so well? This is how people mess up a good thing.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 17, 2021

Revnobody said:
I only suspect AFR because I stopped dosing for 2 weeks and things started to perk up again.

Thoughts?

Unlikely, IMO, for it to be overdosing trace elements to a degree that causes coral problems.

But it is certainly easy to experiment with other calcium and alk products and see if things get better for whatever reason.

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 17, 2021

Waynerock said:
I have been using for a year and a half and I am up to 35 ml a day. No issues and ICP either comes in on the money or a little low. I think it’s something else. All I dose is AFR and a little aminos but I am going to start Kent Iodide because it’s always low On the salifert test. SPS is killin it and I don’t too heavy just very even

Thanks for the reply. It's good to know that your ICP is coming back where it should. That helps alleviate some of my concerns.
The tank looks great!

JohnnyBlowfish · Mar 17, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Unlikely, IMO, for it to be overdosing trace elements to a degree that causes coral problems.

But it is certainly easy to experiment with other calcium and alk products and see if things get better for whatever reason.

Hi Randy! Thanks for the reply. I will resume my AFR dosage and see how the corals react. If negatively, I will just go back to 2 part.

The tank is still very young so it could be a coincidence that PE improved after stopping AFR.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 17, 2021

Might also be that some corals do not want alkalinity provided by formate.

The Opinionated Reefer · Mar 24, 2021

Waynerock said:
I have been using for a year and a half and I am up to 35 ml a day. No issues and ICP either comes in on the money or a little low. I think it’s something else. All I dose is AFR and a little aminos but I am going to start Kent Iodide because it’s always low On the salifert test. SPS is killin it and I don’t too heavy just very even

How big is your tank?

Joe's Coral Reef · Mar 24, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Might also be that some corals do not want alkalinity provided by formate.

Once again, when I think I know something Randy just proves I dont,lol. I'm off to search alk by formate.

bcarl77 · Mar 24, 2021

I had the similar response when I switched from BRS 2 Part, to a homemade AFR. It was a gradual change but some corals really didn't like it. As soon I switched back everything was fine. I run the BRS/TM Hybrid now with low traces and have no issues.

I love the concept of the AFR but my tank didn't take well to it for whatever reason.

DIAZ REEF · Mar 24, 2021

Waynerock said:
I forgot to say please drop using AFR, it’s no good...haha if I get more people to stop using it I can find it for sale online somewhere!! Getting low and nervous, can’t even get the DIY kit

lol