Tropic Marin All for reef dosing calculations

[TaylorP78]

So I have a 20g water box cube and my dkh drops about .2 per day. How much of the tropic Marin all for reef will increase it? But with all my rocks and coral it’s probably more like 17-18 gallons.

 

[Spare time]

I've used this calculator https://www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com/all-for-reef?lang=en

You'd be looking at about 3ml a day.

In a 20 gallon, 3.79ml all for reef raises KH by 0.28 and calcium by 2ppm

 

[welsher7]

I dose 3mL to my 20g long daily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Remember the dose may not show as alk for a while since the form dosed is not detectable.

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

Remember the dose may not show as alk for a while since the form dosed is not detectable.

How long would it take to show up on a tester such as the Hanna Checker ?

 

[happyhourhero]

It took me a week to dial it in. Any change you make will basically show up in 3 days. My 25 is full of sps and I am dosing 9ml a day to keep up. I spiked my alk bad when switching from 2 part. I love it now tho.

 

[Jeeperz]

So where does the alk come from on the ingredients list? Is this why some say to dose based on calcium? My calcium seems to be dropping but alk is rising, although very minimal. I'm only dosing 3.75ml/d on my 20

 

[Dennis Cartier]

So where does the alk come from on the ingredients list? Is this why some say to dose based on calcium? My calcium seems to be dropping but alk is rising, although very minimal. I'm only dosing 3.75ml/d on my 20

The alkalinity is part of the calcium formate. When the formate gets metabolized by bacteria, the calcium and alkalinity are released. The need to be metabolized is what causes the lag in being able to detect the alkalinity. Yes, this is why some say to dose on calcium. However, I would not suggest it. Calcium is so slow moving, and test kit noise, can obfuscate the movement, so dosing on alkalinity is what I would suggest. Just be patient at the startup and wait a day or 2 to see the effect of your changes.

 

[Jeeperz]

The alkalinity is part of the calcium formate. When the formate gets metabolized by bacteria, the calcium and alkalinity are released. The need to be metabolized is what causes the lag in being able to detect the alkalinity. Yes, this is why some say to dose on calcium. However, I would not suggest it. Calcium is so slow moving, and test kit noise, can obfuscate the movement, so dosing on alkalinity is what I would suggest. Just be patient at the startup and wait a day or 2 to see the effect of your changes.

Ok, thank you. Wish the makers of products would do a little better job of explaining how their stuff works and what to look for when using it. Even the instructions on the package differ from their website

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

I wonder the same. Why wouldn’t they just add the amount of mL to add in order to increase 0.1 dKH per whatever amount of gallons?

I would say it would take the guess work out of dosing.

I am going to set up a nano 10 G nuvo soon and am planning on going 3 part balking method from Red Sea since it is easy to dose , once you know how much your reef needs.

I will probably switch to A4R once I have my tank set up after a while in order to dose those trace elements into my reef.

I will use the mathematical reference one of these guys stated to guess the amount of mL of A4R to add to my reef and test every other day once I dose A4R, but from what I can see , using this product takes some guess work and when it comes to reefing , guess work makes me anxious lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I wonder the same. Why wouldn’t they just add the amount of mL to add in order to increase 0.1 dKH per whatever amount of gallons?

I can only speculate, but I expect it is because they recommend dosing based on calcium, not alk, due to the lack of immediate increase in alk when dosing it.

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

I can only speculate, but I expect it is because they recommend dosing based on calcium, not alk, due to the lack of immediate increase in alk when dosing it.

Definitely Randy ! It is better than not having an idea of how much alk is going in !

I really hope they’ll find a way to give us a better idea on how much alk will be increased over time , regardless I know that’s easy for me to say with no knowledge of chemistry haha

 

[Reef Jockey]

So I have a 20g water box cube and my dkh drops about .2 per day. How much of the tropic Marin all for reef will increase it? But with all my rocks and coral it’s probably more like 17-18 gallons.

I would figure out your daily consumption first and test daily until your alk is stable.
I have a small 13g tank that's likely <10g net and i dose 4ml/day of AFR. Alk stays stable at about 8.5

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

I would figure out your daily consumption first and test daily until your alk is stable.
I have a small 13g tank that's likely <10g net and i dose 4ml/day of AFR. Alk stays stable at about 8.5

I would love to hear more input on this topic. So from what I can see , if we would like to see the mal dosage per .1 alk increase, in your case we could divide

4 / 85 = .047 mL per .1 dKH

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would love to hear more input on this topic. So from what I can see , if we would like to see the mal dosage per .1 alk increase, in your case we could divide

4 / 85 = .047 mL per .1 dKH

I'm not understanding that calculation.

It is not hard to determine how much alk and calcium All for Reef adds from their info provided to resellers, even if it is written with some technical problems:

All-For-Reef

Tropic Marin All-For-Reef is a revolutionary approach to dosing, combining calcium, alkalinity, and other trace elements into a single, easy to use solution. It's no longer necessary to maintain two, three, or four solutions, or a complicated reactor. All-For-Reef is a balanced source of calcium...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Specifications (per 500 mL)

• Carbonate Hardness Concentration: 2,800 dKH
• Calcium Concentration: 20,000 mg Ca
• Magnesium Concentration: 950 mg Mg

Ignore the technical issues with that statement, one would most credibly interpret it to mean it is 40,000 ppm in calcium and 5600 ppm in alkalinity.

Thus, adding 0.1% of the tank volume boosts alk by 5.6 dKH and calcium by 40 ppm.

You can use this calculator and use the entry for Randy's Recipe #1, then multiply the amount needed for an alk boost by 0.91 and for a calcium boost by 0.93 since it is a little more potent than my two part.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[Angel_V_the_reefer]

I'm not understanding that calculation.

It is not hard to determine how much alk and calcium All for Reef adds from their info provided to resellers, even if it is written with some technical problems:

All-For-Reef

Tropic Marin All-For-Reef is a revolutionary approach to dosing, combining calcium, alkalinity, and other trace elements into a single, easy to use solution. It's no longer necessary to maintain two, three, or four solutions, or a complicated reactor. All-For-Reef is a balanced source of calcium...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Specifications (per 500 mL)

• Carbonate Hardness Concentration: 2,800 dKH
• Calcium Concentration: 20,000 mg Ca
• Magnesium Concentration: 950 mg Mg

Ignore the technical issues with that statement, one would most credibly interpret it to mean it is 40,000 ppm in calcium and 5600 ppm in alkalinity.

Thus, adding 0.1% of the tank volume boosts alk by 5.6 dKH and calcium by 40 ppm.

You can use this calculator and use the entry for Randy's Recipe #1, then multiply the amount needed for an alk biist by 0.91 and for a calcium boost by 0.93 since it is a little more potent than my two part.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

Oh okay I see now !!!!

so in a sense we can calculate how much alk is being added to the reef, however we have to also note that the alk wI’ll be delayed on results.

okay makes sense. In that sense all the info is given to us by TM.

Will definitely be giving TM A4R a shot in my next 10 G Euphyllia dominated build and will post results of corals a few months from now !

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oh okay I see now !!!!

so in a sense we can calculate how much alk is being added to the reef, however we have to also note that the alk wI’ll be delayed on results.

okay makes sense. In that sense all the info is given to us by TM.

Will definitely be giving TM A4R a shot in my next 10 G Euphyllia dominated build and will post results of corals a few months from now !

Yes.

Happy reefing.

 

[Hooz]

It should be noted that the "alk lag" only really happens when you first start using AFR. Just like cycling your tank, once the bacteria that metabolizes the formate is established, you can see the alk increase a lot faster (i.e. Daily testing instead of every 2-3 days).

 

[Jeeperz]

Is there a time of day it's best to add all for reef? I add as lights go off, since I don't have a dosing pump

 

[Reef_Curiosity]

Is there a time of day it's best to add all for reef? I add as lights go off, since I don't have a dosing pump

Hi,
Not really. I also manually dose all my tanks, and they get it late afternoon.
If you begin to surpass the maximum recommended dosage, dosing once a day would be best before the lights turn on.