Tropic Marin All-For-Reef: Any downsides to it?

[hllb]

One side has the built in measuring part that you can measure ml with the other side allows you to pour freely if you need a larger dose.

Ah, cool set up. Thanks!

 

[hllb]

Well interestingly, I just added up all the Red Sea stuff I use and it is currently costing around $11.55 per month. Interesting.

 

[hllb]

I've read a couple of reviews that talk about lower pH with this product, or bottoming out nutrients. My pH is already low (7.65 to 8 - my scrubber isn't working, probably because my skimmer is tiny and not powerful enough) and my nutrients are generally where I want them - po4 around .05 and nitrates between 5 and 10.

 

[Reef.]

I did some calculations and it looks like I’d need to dose 4.75ml a day on my current tank to match consumption so around $5.85 a month.

dumb question though - why does the bottle have two spouts?

Use the powder, it’s way cheaper and just the same stuff, you add the water instead of Tropic Marin, I did the calculation above your post and it’s no where near the cost you came up with.

 

[Ross Petersen]

I've read a couple of reviews that talk about lower pH with this product, or bottoming out nutrients. My pH is already low (7.65 to 8 - my scrubber isn't working, probably because my skimmer is tiny and not powerful enough) and my nutrients are generally where I want them - po4 around .05 and nitrates between 5 and 10.

My pH thus far with all for reef has been stable (a month in).

Nutrients do seem a bit low but I have no control tank for comparison. All for reef will increase bacterial growth and therefore nutrient reduction, but Tropic Marin reports this will be negligible. To be determined…

 

[newbie2014]

Use the powder, it’s way cheaper and just the same stuff, you add the water instead of Tropic Marin, I did the calculation above your post and it’s no where near the cost you came up with.

Yep.
Bought the 1600g powder for 8ml/day dosing. I think it comes out to $1.68 a month in cost.

 

[Reef.]

Yep.
Bought the 1600g powder for 8ml/day dosing. I think it comes out to $1.68 a month in cost.

is there a use by date in the powder?

 

[Acros]

My pH thus far with all for reef has been stable (a month in).

Nutrients do seem a bit low but I have no control tank for comparison. All for reef will increase bacterial growth and therefore nutrient reduction, but Tropic Marin reports this will be negligible. To be determined…

It is impossible for me to keep detectable nutrients while dosing all for reef. My tank is only 2.5 months old, that might have to do something with it.

 

[uhgster1]

My pH thus far with all for reef has been stable (a month in).

Nutrients do seem a bit low but I have no control tank for comparison. All for reef will increase bacterial growth and therefore nutrient reduction, but Tropic Marin reports this will be negligible. To be determined…

I dose 50 ml a day in my reef along with kalkwasser from my ATO. Keeps my ph right at 8.3. I experimented with straight ro/di from my top off for a week and my ph dropped to 7.8.

 

[newbie2014]

is there a use by date in the powder?

i don’t think so.

 

[Ross Petersen]

It is impossible for me to keep detectable nutrients while dosing all for reef. My tank is only 2.5 months old, that might have to do something with it.

100% has something to do with a new tank - I've experienced this in other systems dosing other products (likely due to new algae consuming nutrients, and rock absorbing them). Keep the world updated though on how things go

 

[Risk1994]

There has been some discussion about balancing alk/ca...is there any issue dosing alk or ca separately after a while if one of them starts to drift? I imagine it would only need to be a manual dose or one or the other from time to time.

 

[Acros]

No problems with corrective dosage according to tropic marin website. https://www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com/all-for-reef?lang=en

 

[Shirak]

There has been some discussion about balancing alk/ca...is there any issue dosing alk or ca separately after a while if one of them starts to drift? I imagine it would only need to be a manual dose or one or the other from time to time.

No issue. I run AFR as recommended based on Ca level. I find I need to bump my Alk a little each week to keep it around 8.5 range I prefer to run

 

[Reef.]

There has been some discussion about balancing alk/ca...is there any issue dosing alk or ca separately after a while if one of them starts to drift? I imagine it would only need to be a manual dose or one or the other from time to time.

It’s normal to have to dose one element extra, if using AFR for a prolonged period.

 

[Reef.]

No issue. I run AFR as recommended based on Ca level. I find I need to bump my Alk a little each week to keep it around 8.5 range I prefer to run

Doesn’t AFR recommend to dose it based on ALk not calcium, you can choose to follow calcium but I don’t think it’s their recommendation as you say.

 

[Acros]

Doesn’t AFR recommend to dose it based on ALk not calcium, you can choose to follow calcium but I don’t think it’s their recommendation as you say.

The official recommendation is to go by CA levels. I have never tested my CA and dose based on ALK.

 

[Reef.]

The official recommendation is to go by CA levels. I have never tested my CA and dose based on ALK.

Yes you are correct, looking more into it, apparently it’s because calcium test kits are more reliable? (Not in my experience they are far less accurate), they say you can use either but to adjust based on calcium.

To be fair, their instructions are a little mixed up, as they start by saying Increase the daily dosage – by continuous control of the alkalinity – weekly by 2.5 ml per 100 litres (26 US-gal) of aquarium system volume, until a constant carbonate hardness of 7 to 9 °dH is reached
But then later in the small print go on to say to follow calcium for dosing regulation.

I’m with you, I know where I want my alk, not to bothered if my calcium is a little off.

 

[areefer01]

To be honest the only downside is the yearly cost. And that will be only for systems that have a heavy daily ML dosing amount. Probably medium to large displays with a higher uptake in Alk, Ca, and Mg.

To be honest we need more companies like Tropic Marin. The initial version, prepackaged bottle, was a game change to our hobby but also on the expensive side of the scale. This limited it to smaller displays. Being ahead of the game Tropic Marin provided the DIY recipe for us which lowered the cost, substantially mind you, and opened its use for a wider display and coral biotype. This is unheard of and showed that TM cared more about the hobbyist needs rather than revenue. Small I know but still it needs to be noted. Then one thing lead to another and I'm not sure what drove the final solution we now have a powder that comes in two sizes. Yet another sign that Tropic Marin is both listening and wise in their product development to help us, the hobbyist. These are just my opinions and probably a bit of personal bias as I'm a TM user.

Ok - so to my point about possible downside being yearly cost. Depending on the daily dosing needs it should be noted that today the larges size we can buy of the powder is 1600 mg. Doing some basic math we can see how many ML's that will create. Now look at your displays daily dose requirement and do some more math (who says math isn't fun) to find how long that container will last. Then look at your reefing budget (you have a reefing budget, right?) and see if it works out. Or if not is there anywhere you can change. Thus my comment about possible downside and price.

Few small notes:
1. Tropic Marin may come through again after they assess the products demand and supply and give us yet another larger size to lower cost. This is my hope.
2. Supplement dosing to lower AFR's daily - may be an alternative solution
3. TM AFR being a single product frees up dosing heads to be used for other things or spares

That is about all I have to offer here. I'm at 85 ml / day in my display and projecting ending at 100 ml within a month or so. I've already run some numbers and 100 / ml a day is sort of my line to go through line items 1 and 2 above.

 

[Shirak]

Yes you are correct, looking more into it, apparently it’s because calcium test kits are more reliable? (Not in my experience they are far less accurate), they say you can use either but to adjust based on calcium.

To be fair, their instructions are a little mixed up, as they start by saying Increase the daily dosage – by continuous control of the alkalinity – weekly by 2.5 ml per 100 litres (26 US-gal) of aquarium system volume, until a constant carbonate hardness of 7 to 9 °dH is reached
But then later in the small print go on to say to follow calcium for dosing regulation.

I’m with you, I know where I want my alk, not to bothered if my calcium is a little off.

Yes it is a bit confusing. My Ca is around 500ish measured by various test kits and a trident. I have never had my alk stable at 8.5 dkh range with the AFR. I could up the dose but I was concerned I might be overdoing the other stuff too not just the Ca. This is roughly a 50g frag system.

As it is now I dose AFR 30ml/day and I have to add about .5dkh/week of Alk. I go through about 5g of ATO water during that period most weeks.. Sometimes I just toss a few grams of bicarbonate into the ATO. Other times I just dose it back to 8.5-8.8 over the span of a day.