I think moving to 2 part would be an ok plan, but if I were in the same situation, I wouldn't do it.
I view AFR as being similar to 2 part, except simpler and superior. By giving up AFR, you're giving up minor and trace elements. You're adding more equipment to operate it, and creating more complexity in managing the dose of multiple additives.
Those are the things you lose by moving away from AFR but I'm not sure what you gain. You mentioned not needing to wait a week to test Alk if you're not using AFR any longer but that's not accurate. You don't need to wait a week to test when using AFR. There is a delay that should be considered due to the calcium formate, but it's about a 5 hour delay, not 1 week.
Also, to expand that point a little further, if you have the AFR on a doser, there's nothing wrong with testing Alk daily if you wish to. Your test results are valid because you have the AFR going in hourly (assumably). Even if you do a single dose each day, the tests are valid each day as long as the time you test remains consistent.
If you just want to make a change with your system, then that's one thing. But the fact that your Alk has raised does not seem like any reason to bail on AFR. It's simply a reason to adjust your dosage (which you'll have to tweak forever anyway).
Definitely don't want to make a change to make a change. The desire is coming from a point of frustration with the AFR not working the way I understand it should it my head.
Is that correct 6ml of all for reef and 1300ml of kalk ? If your only dosing 6ml of all for reef I wouldn't switch to 2 part. I think when your dosing allot of all for reef it makes $ sense to change to 2 part. On the other hand 1300ml of kalk per day on a 60 gallon seems like allot. Seems like you could pull back on the kalk dosage. Are you dosing kalk through top off?
This is correct. I mix 2 tsp Kalk/gallon of water and dosed it to my max evaporation threshold via dosing pump. The AFR is supplementing what I can't add back via Kalkwasser (without upping the concentration of Kalk). Dosing pump delivers hourly for pH boost.
Because the OP specifically said he was considering switching from AFR to 2-part and wanted feedback.
see below.
I agree, there clearly seems to be some misunderstanding going on here.
I think the OP's issue is that he adjusted his dosage way down and yet the tank didn't seem to respond to those changes for a week.... Not that he couldn't make changes for a week....
see below.
Does AFR contain organic sources of ALK ? If so, perhaps changing to something that used an inorganic source of ALK would help the OP?
Correct, my tank didn't seem to respond to adjustments quickly (atleast, not in my case).
For example, let me give you some data and dosing amount. I had originally started just dosing 2 mL a day, Alk was still dropping, I doubled to 4 mL/day, still dropping, then 6 mL/day. At this point Alk started going higher than a wanted (8 ish), so I tried to find the sweet spot between 4-6 mL/day. Note when this started, 4 mL/day Alk was dropping, by the end of this 4 mL/day is too much-weird.
May 23- May 30 - Alk was relatively stable around 7-7.5, then it started climbing.
June 1 - Alk 7.7 ( 6 mL)
June 2 - Alk 8.0 ( 5.8 mL)
June 3 - Alk 8.1 (5.8 mL)
June 4 - Alk 8.2 (5.7 mL)
June 5 - Alk 8.4 (5.7 mL)
June 6 - Alk 8.5 (5.7 mL)
June 7 - Alk 8.7 (5.4 mL)
June 8 - Alk 8.7 (5.4 mL)
June 9 - Alk 8.8 (5.4 mL)
June 10 - Alk 9.1 (4.8 mL)
June 11 - Alk 9.1 (4.8 mL)
June 12 - 9.0 (4.6 mL)
June 13 - 9.2 (4 mL)
June 14 - Alk 9.0 (4 mL)
June 15 - Alk 9.1 (4 mL)
June 16 - Alk 9.2 (3.6 mL)
June 17 - Alk 9.2 (3.2 mL)
I do realize there is some testing error here, but it seems despite the decreasing dose, it's not being reflect in the Alk results. Certainly not in hours or even 3 days. The general trend was the Alk was still increasing despite decreasing doses.
Kalk and afr is already I little bit complicated. Moving to two part makes it more so.
So, why?
As noted above of you dose afr thru the day, and test at about same time every day, you’re fine.
The reason it took so long for all to drop is that you’re at such a low afr volume
I actually dose Kalk hourly via doser and AFR manually once a day while running tests & feeding. Perhaps the volume being so small is this the issue and why I am not seeing changes quickly. Perhaps I'm being too "precise" with it.
I find all for reef changes to show up in less than 24 hours after dosing, making daily alk testing easy.
This hasn't been my experience with it, but perhaps again it is the small dosing volume making it more confusing for me.
I appreciate all your feedback.
