Dosing All-for-reef and Calcium

[BanZI29]

Good evening all!
I have a 25 AIO ( soon to upgrade to a 40 gal AIO). I currently dose 17 mL of all for reef daily. I can keep my levels consistent and where they need to be except the calcium.
current levels:
pH = 8.2
kH = 9-10
Phos = .133 ( yea I know but everyone is happy)
Nitrite = 3-5
Salinity = 1.025
Calcium = 360

I can not get my calcium above 400. I'f I dose more AFR. my other levels get too high and make th corals a little unhappy.
SO With that being said, would dosing calcium separately be something I can do? I love AFR and don't wanna change it.
What do you all do or what do you all suggest?
Thank you fro any help you can give

 

[Dav2996]

Good evening all!
I have a 25 AIO ( soon to upgrade to a 40 gal AIO). I currently dose 17 mL of all for reef daily. I can keep my levels consistent and where they need to be except the calcium.
current levels:
pH = 8.2
kH = 9-10
Phos = .133 ( yea I know but everyone is happy)
Nitrite = 3-5
Salinity = 1.025
Calcium = 360

I can not get my calcium above 400. I'f I dose more AFR. my other levels get too high and make th corals a little unhappy.
SO With that being said, would dosing calcium separately be something I can do? I love AFR and don't wanna change it.
What do you all do or what do you all suggest?
Thank you fro any help you can give

I personally ran into that problem using all for reef and stopped using it. I have same size tank as you. I switched to Bionic 2 part got the exact parameters dosing different doses to keep stuff stable. I got a lot of coral now and use both 2 part and kalkwasser.

 

[Dav2996]

Good evening all!
I have a 25 AIO ( soon to upgrade to a 40 gal AIO). I currently dose 17 mL of all for reef daily. I can keep my levels consistent and where they need to be except the calcium.
current levels:
pH = 8.2
kH = 9-10
Phos = .133 ( yea I know but everyone is happy)
Nitrite = 3-5
Salinity = 1.025
Calcium = 360

I can not get my calcium above 400. I'f I dose more AFR. my other levels get too high and make th corals a little unhappy.
SO With that being said, would dosing calcium separately be something I can do? I love AFR and don't wanna change it.
What do you all do or what do you all suggest?
Thank you fro any help you can give

You could just get 1 doser use b-ionic calcium to raise it.

 

[BanZI29]

can you please give me a link to where you can get the bionic 2part? looked on BRS adn it just shows calcium buffer

 

[BanZI29]

I personally ran into that problem using all for reef and stopped using it. I have same size tank as you. I switched to Bionic 2 part got the exact parameters dosing different doses to keep stuff stable. I got a lot of coral now and use both 2 part and kalkwasser.

I was thinking about using kalkwasser too but need to find a mixer that is not the price of a small gold bar

 

[BanZI29]

You could just get 1 doser use b-ionic calcium to raise it.

is that just 1 bottle? I saw 2 on BRS

 

[Dav2996]

is that just 1 bottle? I saw 2 on BRS

Yea it’s one bottle works good with kalk. I don’t use a stir with kalk mix once

 

[Reef.]

AFR is designed to keep alk, calcium and mag in the correct ratio, if you start using AFR when your lvls are where you want before starting AFR, but some tanks may use a little more calcium or mag than the average tank, so you need to check your lvls every month or so to see if you need to add a little calcium or mag to get your lvls back to the correct lvls.

All you need to do is add a little calcium then carry on with your AFR.

 

[Dav2996]

is that just 1 bottle? I saw 2 on BRS

My 20$ bottle of kalk can produce 80 gallons of kalk when mixed. Kalk gets even cheaper in larger bottles. My bottle is one of the smallest bottles of kalk too haha. Get sodium hydroxide kalk it is highest ph kalk you can buy

 

[Shooter6]

First off 380 is about where they set it. So normal.
Second yes you can dose other calcium, alk or mag sources to get the parameters you want.

My current 1200g system I dose kalkwasser on a continuous drip. 12ml of all for reef per hour and on top of that I dose redsea 3 part alk,cal and mag.

I chase magnesium myself. I have to dose about 8 pounds of dry mag a month to keep it stable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any hobby brand of calcium chloride or decent quality DIY material from amazon is suitable for a one time correction to calcium like this.

Raising the salinity will also help. Going to 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264) will boost calcium from 360 to 380 ppm.

 

[Reefahholic]

I can not get my calcium above 400. I'f I dose more AFR. my other levels get too high and make th corals a little unhappy.

Common problem. You’ll need to supplement with another product.