I think what Lou is saying is that if you goto one of TM preferred LFS's you would be able to order a 5 gallon bucket from that LFS.
Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. I'm switching 180g system over to AFR dosing next week and this all helps a lot. Based on your advice I will be basing dosing off Ca levels instead of alkalinity. Does this help keep magnesium levels up as well? I've heard a few times that people basing dosing off alkalinity measurements end up with low Mg. I'm a little nervous making this switch on a larger system. I hope it isn't too damaging a transition.
Are you saying you were dosing 200mL/day on a 200L system and the calcium was only at 345?
I was using AFR but moved over to 2 part with trace elements because I found Mag to be on the low side but with my new 2 part dosing if I dose the same amount from each part makes my Ca and Mag are high, so I will be going back to AFR and running the Ca higher to keep Mag up.
In your case, why not go back to the AFR and just use a little Mg additive once in a while? That still ends up only being two additives instead of 3 or 4. The amount of Ca, alkalinity, Mg and trace elements in AFR is fixed due to it being a single solution. So if your tank needs a little more of something, you can still use the AFR to maintain everything else, and just add a little of the extra thing when needed.
It does help to maintain a proper Mg concentration of you start with it at the right concentration. That being said, all tanks might use more of one thing or another. So you still have to monitor Ca, alkalinity and Mg and supplement what is needed if the AFR is not keeping up with your particular range of consumption. For instance, the AFR might do a great job maintaining your Ca and your Mg, but your tank might need more alkalinity than what is ion the AFR. In that case a periodic addition of some Balling B solution (sodium bicarbonate) would make up the difference. In many tanks, the consumption matches the AFR ratios very closely. I those systems the AFR maintains everything, and no additional additives are needed.
I will Lou, thanks.
That makes sense. I will continue to monitor all 3. My last concern after what you mentioned though is that testing alkalinity isn't as accurate? I understand it takes at least 24-48 hours to 'show up' but you mentioned even that isn't very accurate. If I'm basing AFR dosing on calcium but am getting inconsistent alkalinity readings due to this, how will I know when I need to dose more DkH or if it's just not an accurate reading?
50mL on a 200L system per day. That is supposed to be the max amount by directions.
Ah, my bad. I thought I had seen it as 200mL. I ask because I have a 650L system and am concerned it won't be very economical. Honestly it doesn't seem that bad to me though but I'm kind of concerned about having to still manually dose things. That kind of gets away from the reason I want to switch away from 2-part.
I didn't mean to imply that the alkalinity reading will be "inaccurate". Alkalinity tests are pretty accurate in general. What I mean is that, since the alkalinity, resulting from the addition of AFR, goes largely directly into the coral polyp, it does not show up in the water column. So unlike adding sodium carbonate or bicarbonate and seeing the dkH rise, then the coral uses it and you see it drop. The alkalinity goes more directly to the coral and the polyps don't take it out of the water column. So it is not as effective to raise the alkalinity as it is at maintaining the alkalinity. And you don't see the normal rise and fall and rise again with addition. The result of measuring the alkalinity in the water column is still accurate. You just won't see the rise like you would with other alkalinity additives.
Ah, that actually seems rather ideal in comparison. I take this to mean that water changes and the inherent alkalinity level of the salt mix (or whatever the beginning amount was) actually ends up dictating what your readings will maintain at then. That tracks with some statements I've seen others make about their alk levels not moving much on tests. Again, thank you for the clarification. I'm very excited to switch over but it's a little nerve-wracking on a large established system.
Thanks.
