Help with using All-For-Reef

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Test often, try to baseline your alk before you dose and then add slowly until you reach a level of stability. Lou at TM says he prefers to track via Calcium but I respectfully disagree and track AFR solely with Alkalinity despite the aforementioned delayed Alk change.

I agree with you. it does cause a delay in detection, but calcium testing is, IMO, prone to larger errors and smaller daily changes than is alkalinity.

 

[exnisstech]

Test often, try to baseline your alk before you dose and then add slowly until you reach a level of stability. Lou at TM says he prefers to track via Calcium but I respectfully disagree and track AFR solely with Alkalinity despite the aforementioned delayed Alk change.

Hope you don't mind a couple of questions. I'm getting ready to switch from ESV 2 part on one tank. I dose two part via doser 12ml alk and 17ml calcium daily, it just works to keep them consistant at varying amounts. Do I need to stop dosing 2 part and recalculate my consumption or could I just stop 2 part and start AFR? My alk and cal have been very constant over the last few months alk 8.8 - 9 cal 430 - 440. I have a bunch of sps frags that are just not doing much lately and figure maybe the trace element in AFR may help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt and will be a single thing to dose vs two.

 

[vlangel]

Deepnds on what the demand ends up being.

If you need more than 0.2 dKH worth of alk per day, I'd dose every day. Rising and falling alk is not ideal.

Worse, the AFR will begin bacterial decomposition when diluted. The TM folks do not recommend such a use, nor do I.

Ya stay away from using AFR with top off.

AFR is a great product but it can be tricky to dial in due to the formate needing to be metabolized. You can't dial in your parameters simply by dosing and testing, it will take time for the AFR to take effect.

Test often, try to baseline your alk before you dose and then add slowly until you reach a level of stability. Lou at TM says he prefers to track via Calcium but I respectfully disagree and track AFR solely with Alkalinity despite the aforementioned delayed Alk change.

Thanks all, I will not add to top off. In regards to my tank, I have depended on weekly water changes to replenish alk, cal and mag. I only use IO salt which is lower in elements, but the coral I keep must not be too sensitive to some swing. I am hoping to just use enough AFR to make up for me not doing as many water changes so it's probably not very much.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hope you don't mind a couple of questions. I'm getting ready to switch from ESV 2 part on one tank. I dose two part via doser 12ml alk and 17ml calcium daily, it just works to keep them consistant at varying amounts. Do I need to stop dosing 2 part and recalculate my consumption or could I just stop 2 part and start AFR? My alk and cal have been very constant over the last few months alk 8.8 - 9 cal 430 - 440. I have a bunch of sps frags that are just not doing much lately and figure maybe the trace element in AFR may help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt and will be a single thing to dose vs two.

Stop one and start the other is fine.

 

[apb03]

Hope you don't mind a couple of questions. I'm getting ready to switch from ESV 2 part on one tank. I dose two part via doser 12ml alk and 17ml calcium daily, it just works to keep them consistant at varying amounts. Do I need to stop dosing 2 part and recalculate my consumption or could I just stop 2 part and start AFR? My alk and cal have been very constant over the last few months alk 8.8 - 9 cal 430 - 440. I have a bunch of sps frags that are just not doing much lately and figure maybe the trace element in AFR may help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt and will be a single thing to dose vs two.

Agreed with Randy, no issues that I can see with swapping out. May take a week or so to dial in, but it's not much of a bother. On the thought of whether the trace elements may help your SPS, it's worth a shot for sure. That said, TM doesn't advertise it as a complete Trace replacement, but with steady water changes and AFR I've had no issues with traces except the usual suspects like Iodine and Manganese.

I know folks don't all agree on this, but something that boosts your pH like kalk or a Co2 scrubber on top of AFR is magic in my opinion. The one thing aside from the delayed effect of AFR that you miss out on is a pH boost, so worth considering that as well.

Currently, I'm doing 4L Kalk + 50ml AFR per day in my 110gal. PH comes in around 8.3 - 8.4 at peak.

 

[exnisstech]

Agreed with Randy, no issues that I can see with swapping out. May take a week or so to dial in, but it's not much of a bother. On the thought of whether the trace elements may help your SPS, it's worth a shot for sure. That said, TM doesn't advertise it as a complete Trace replacement, but with steady water changes and AFR I've had no issues with traces except the usual suspects like Iodine and Manganese.

I know folks don't all agree on this, but something that boosts your pH like kalk or a Co2 scrubber on top of AFR is magic in my opinion. The one thing aside from the delayed effect of AFR that you miss out on is a pH boost, so worth considering that as well.

Currently, I'm doing 4L Kalk + 50ml AFR per day in my 110gal. PH comes in around 8.3 - 8.4 at peak.

Thanks, do you think I should give it a week or so after starting AFR before I even bother testing?
I don't really need a pH boost as I stay around 8.3 on all the tanks when tested but do not monitor so I'm sure there is some fluctuation but it's ussualy only 8.1 or so in the morning.
I have a CO2 scrubber that I won a while back but have never invested in everything I would need to hook it up.
I'm in the process of setting up a new tank to replace my aging 180g. I have a basement sump and dose 7200 ml kalk a day using a brute container as storage. I'll be giving up the basement sump as well as the brute storage space so I may try one of the methods you mention on that tank once everything is transferred over.

 

[Anxur]

What Tahiti said. Also i recommend getting a magnetic stirrer. It takes a while to fully dissolve and you can get a magnetic stirrer off amazon for $25 and let it do all the work. All-for-reef includes trace elements so if you were already dosing trace elements you won't need to anymore or you risk overdosing.

But, incredibly, don't have potassium

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

But, incredibly, don't have potassium

Since my tank never depleted potassium, and unless one is dosing N and P, there's no reason to assume tanks will deplete potassium, it is best, IMO, to not put a sometimes nondepleting chemical into an additive that folks use who are mostly not doing advanced testing for things like potassium. Othwerise, there's a risk of it rising too much.