Tropic Marin All for Reef supplement

[AZReef13]

The tank itself is a year and half old but all the rock is from a previous tank and all from the ocean with the exception of two pieces and about 3 years old. ARF balances mag and cal very well but with all the growth I have had in the last 8 months it’s using a wee bit of Alk to the point I have to correct a .5-.7 drop every 4-5 days. The SPS growth lately has been substantial. I have been dosing since dec and when I started dosing I got all 3 right where I wanted them ( cal 450, Alk 9, mag at 1440) and like I said has done well. I believe I remember in a video from TM that said that you will prob have to dose Alk and or cal to catch up periodically when I was researching AFR before starting. I don’t mind hand dosing 7ml or so of Alk every week or so it’s still worth it. I test Alk daily with Hanna at the exact time every morning and have a pretty solid trend where as I test cal and mag weekly and it’s usually withinn 10-20 points which could be the test kit. My tank is loaded and sucks up cal mag and Alk like crazy as well as no3 and po4 to the point where it’s hard to keep nutrients up and I dose Red Sea AB+ daily. Here is what it looks like and with he stability AFR gives me everything is happy and I have not had any losses since A goni died in November.

Your Tank looks Amazing... What are you using to supplement ALK and CA... Had to order more reagents for my hanna's..

 

[Waynerock]

Your Tank looks Amazing... What are you using to supplement ALK and CA... Had to order more reagents for my hanna's..

The AFR keeps cal solid as well as mg, I have leftover seachem reef fusion 2 part from before all for reef and that’s what I top off my Alk weekly with. Like I said I usually dose 7 ml or so of the part 2 and that brings the 8.5 back up to 9 where I like it. That usually takes a week but I started dosing a little more AFR this week to stop that and I am up to dosing 23 ml a day. I tell ya All For Reef and the X1 doser is a match made in heaven. Super cheep and very reliable. I do recalibrate once a week. Best 40.00 doser ever. If my tank was 30 gallons bigger I don’t think AFR would be cost effective but even then I would consider it, something to be said about simplicity. About to do a ICP to see if AFR is maintaining trace like they advertise. I believe it is I have great colors and none of the corals look to be lacking any thing.

 

[ichthyoid]

I love using AFR! I am dosing 23 ml a day in my tank which is only 65 gal but stuffed with corals. Mag and Cal stays rock solid but every 3 days I need to dose 6-9 ml of Alk from my old 2 part. It goes from 9 to 8.5-8.3. I dont mind dosing extra at all. Before I had 2 X1 dosers dosing Reef Fusion part 1&2 every day. It costs me about 33 dollars every 50 days or so and its worth it. Especially when I only have to worry about I dosing pump and AFR has so much more in it besides alk,cal,and mag. It is loaded with trace too and one less thing to worry about dosing or overdosing.

@Waynerock I’m interested in your results because I’m building a 75 gallon system & will be dosing ARF.

It’s actually an IM50 display + an IM25 frag tank, tied to a common sump. However, since our total system volumes are similar I hope to learn some things from your experience.

 

[ichthyoid]

Also, I don’t know if you buy the AFR premixed, or make the DIY using the dry CarboCalcium & BioMagnesium plus A- & K+ liquids.

In any case, the DIY version is about 1/3 the cost of premixed. So, I estimate my cost at about $20/mo. based on typical consumption rates per gallon of system volume. BRS did a video below-

 

[WiscoFishNut]

This week I switched from using BRS alkalinity and Calcium supplement to All for Reef. Anyone have experience with starting to use this? I have used the BRS supplements for the last year and a half and my parameters have been pretty stable. I switched because despite the expense, the premixed single additive saves time. I have a 155 gallon mixed reef aquarium. The alkalinity is usually around 9 with the BRS supplements but is falling since the switch to 7.8-8.0. I am following the manufacturer's direction for initiating All for Reef, which is 5 mls per 26 gallon of aquarium water. They suggest increasing weekly by 2.5 mls/26 gallon, but I am a little nervous about the drop in alkalinity and pH down to 7.8, so I was thinking I would accelerate the dosing adjustments, and maybe increase it by 2.5 mls/26 gallon every other day until the alkalinity and pH show an upward trend. Anyone suggestion by anyone who has used All for Reef is much appreciated.

I've been using AFR for 3 weeks now in my 60g mixed reef tank. I wasn't dosing anything before, so I can't really compare to other methods. I started with daily doses of 10ml, which was bringing Alk up by approx .2 every day. I was coming from ~6.5-6.6, so I had a ways to go to get the levels back up to where they should be. Currently Alk is at 8.1-8.2 and pH is at 8.15. I honestly haven't been measuring Ca & Mg as they were fairly low to begin with and the feeling I got from reading a lot of posts is that I probably didn't need to check them that often since there aren't any weird imbalances in my tank parms.

Lovin the product so far as its super easy to dose manually, and I've seen a noticeable difference in my corals and a resurgence of coraline algae growth which had been going the opposite direction lately.

 

[Waynerock]

@Waynerock I’m interested in your results because I’m building a 75 gallon system & will be dosing ARF.

It’s actually an IM50 display + an IM25 frag tank, tied to a common sump. However, since our total system volumes are similar I hope to learn some things from your experience.

Sweet ask any questions you might have. I have seen the DIY but my days are full after work and kids and I would rather pay a little more and get the pre made stuff. Knowing me I would screw something up. Pretty cool that the company releases there recipe on how to make it. With there own stuff of course but still pretty cool of TM

 

[Broutilde]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm about to switch to All4Reef as I just received my 10l kit. I have a 25 gallons tank that I've been dosing with soda ash and calcium chloride from the beginning.
What advice can you give me for the swap?
Currently my alk is at 9, Ph 8.01,calcium 420, magnesium 1320.
Should I expect a Ph drop by switching from soda ash to All4Reef?
Thanks
E.

 

[ichthyoid]

If it were me, I would gradually transition by reducing 2 part while increasing AFR, with the goal of keeping alk constant.

Some, flip the switch over to AFR & just follow the label.

I think this video was a good investment of my time, ...a couple of times -

 

[bcarl77]

Any updates on how the tank is doing? Going to switch my 130 gallon from BRS 2 part later this week.

 

[quaker]

Any updates on how the tank is doing? Going to switch my 130 gallon from BRS 2 part later this week.

Started Tropic Marin All for Reef supplement at the package recommended starting dose of 5 mls/25 gallon aquarium water on July 14. My tank is 150 gallon including the sump water, so I started with 30 mls delivered by Apex doser over 24 hours. Initially there was a little dip in alkalinity to between 7-8, so I increased the dose more quickly than the package instructions of 2.5 mls/ 25 gallon per week. I increased AFR by 2.5 mls/gallon every 2-3 days until the alkalinity was consistently above 8 I was dosing 90 mls/day by the end of the second week. Calcium stayed stable between 430-450. Currently I am dosing 110 mls/day and the alkalinity is stable at around 9.

Now the bad stuff. I had a coral die off, mostly SPS, initially only on one rock near the top of the aquarium. This occurred like a wave and progressed across the rock, but there were several SPS not affected. From previous experiences, I think this may be a bacterial issue and not necessarily related to switching to AFR. But could be, since we know that corals do not like change. A week or so later it happened on another rock, but only affected 2 corals.

The other bad thing, that could have caused the corals to die off, is that the pH is running low at 7.8-8.0. My tank has always run a low pH, usually 7.9-8.1, but in summer, with the central air conditioner running, it tends to drop even lower, and I think this has to do more with higher carbon dioxide levels in the house with no fresh air coming in. So again, I don't think that the lower pH is because of switching to AFR necessarily. I've been changing out CO2 scrubber media every week to keep the pH of the tank from dropping below 7.8 at night.

Fish are doing fine, no algae issues. 85% of corals are doing fine and showed no ill affects from the change to AFR. The one down side is the cost. One 1000 ml bottle of AFR lasts me 9-10 days at $33 a bottle. BRS supplements are certainly much less expensive. I changed to AFR because I am using Tropic Marin salt and I don't have to dose trace elements hopefully. Also, I spend way to much time on maintaining my aquarium, so even the elimination of those few minutes it takes to mix up the BRS alkalinity and calcium supplements seemed desirable.

Good luck with your transition.

 

[bcarl77]

Interesting. I have a 110 gallon by water volume by Alk demand on 2 part is .6dKH daily. So I guesstimate 40ml of AFR, i dose about 50mls of two part currently, on my Dos. 150MLs seems like a ton?

 

[SPitts6654]

Started Tropic Marin All for Reef supplement at the package recommended starting dose of 5 mls/25 gallon aquarium water on July 14. My tank is 150 gallon including the sump water, so I started with 30 mls delivered by Apex doser over 24 hours. Initially there was a little dip in alkalinity to between 7-8, so I increased the dose more quickly than the package instructions of 2.5 mls/ 25 gallon per week. I increased AFR by 2.5 mls/gallon every 2-3 days until the alkalinity was consistently above 8 I was dosing 90 mls/day by the end of the second week. Calcium stayed stable between 430-450. Currently I am dosing 110 mls/day and the alkalinity is stable at around 9.

Now the bad stuff. I had a coral die off, mostly SPS, initially only on one rock near the top of the aquarium. This occurred like a wave and progressed across the rock, but there were several SPS not affected. From previous experiences, I think this may be a bacterial issue and not necessarily related to switching to AFR. But could be, since we know that corals do not like change. A week or so later it happened on another rock, but only affected 2 corals.

The other bad thing, that could have caused the corals to die off, is that the pH is running low at 7.8-8.0. My tank has always run a low pH, usually 7.9-8.1, but in summer, with the central air conditioner running, it tends to drop even lower, and I think this has to do more with higher carbon dioxide levels in the house with no fresh air coming in. So again, I don't think that the lower pH is because of switching to AFR necessarily. I've been changing out CO2 scrubber media every week to keep the pH of the tank from dropping below 7.8 at night.

Fish are doing fine, no algae issues. 85% of corals are doing fine and showed no ill affects from the change to AFR. The one down side is the cost. One 1000 ml bottle of AFR lasts me 9-10 days at $33 a bottle. BRS supplements are certainly much less expensive. I changed to AFR because I am using Tropic Marin salt and I don't have to dose trace elements hopefully. Also, I spend way to much time on maintaining my aquarium, so even the elimination of those few minutes it takes to mix up the BRS alkalinity and calcium supplements seemed desirable.

Good luck with your transition.

Why not mix it yourself, it’s much cheaper.

 

[quaker]

Interesting. I have a 110 gallon by water volume by Alk demand on 2 part is .6dKH daily. So I guesstimate 40ml of AFR, i dose about 50mls of two part currently, on my Dos. 150MLs seems like a ton?

I would suggest to just follow the package directions and you should do ok.

 

[Reef.]

I've been using AFR for 3 weeks now in my 60g mixed reef tank. I wasn't dosing anything before, so I can't really compare to other methods. I started with daily doses of 10ml, which was bringing Alk up by approx .2 every day. I was coming from ~6.5-6.6, so I had a ways to go to get the levels back up to where they should be. Currently Alk is at 8.1-8.2 and pH is at 8.15. I honestly haven't been measuring Ca & Mg as they were fairly low to begin with and the feeling I got from reading a lot of posts is that I probably didn't need to check them that often since there aren't any weird imbalances in my tank parms.

Lovin the product so far as its super easy to dose manually, and I've seen a noticeable difference in my corals and a resurgence of coraline algae growth which had been going the opposite direction lately.

I’m just about to start using AFR, I thought you were meant to start with the alk where you wanted it, then start dosing? The AFR is meant to be getting you back to where you started from? Or does it not matter?