Tropic Marin Pro Salt and maintaining proper ALK

[Ky_acc]

Hi everyone, (also looping in @Lou Ekus)

I have been running my reef for about 3.5 months now using tropic Marin pro reef salt. (Red Sea Max E170 - about 40 gallons volume).

I am about to start adding corals in about 2 weeks and this has got me researching more into dosing and maintaining an appropriate ALK.

to keep things as simple as possible I plan on dosing TM all-for-reef (all in one cal/ALK/mag solution) so that I can use just one dosing pump.

That said I have read that TM all-for-reef is not good for raising ALK and Calcium, but for maintaining it.

As I have been using TM Pro reef salt my ALK is about ~7, which is on the low end of most reefs. I was also reading into this a bit more and it looks like TM pro reef salt is formulated for reefs running a calcium reactor.

that leaves me with a few questions:

1) since TM all-for-reef is not good for raising ALK but more for maintaining existing levels. Is there any reason that maintaining an ALK of ~7 (what my salt mixes at) would be detrimental? I worry about not having enough cushion between 7 and dangerously low levels...

2) why would using a CA reactor necessitate a lower ALK salt mix vs. dosing? (Hence the purposefully lower ALK in TM Pro salt)

3) as I don’t run a Calcium reactor (only plan on using TM all-for-reef to cover all my major/minor dosing needs) should I switch to a different salt such as HW Marine which has an ALK of ~9? I really like TM pro and how it mixes and the high Calcium it has, but worried about the low ALK values.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Let’s not get too focused on generalizations like it’s not for raising levels. That’s not exactly right.

The reason that is partly true is at least in part due to the fact that alk and calcium are tied together, so you get both, even when you want just one.

That is a bigger issue when raising calcium than alk. You can use the all for reef to boost alk by 2 dKH if you are happy with a 15 ppm boost to calcium (which is nearly always ok).

if not, then just use baking soda for the alk boost.

 

[Ky_acc]

Let’s not get too focused on generalizations like it’s not for raising levels. That’s not exactly right.

The reason that is partly true is at least in part due to the fact that alk and calcium are tied together, so you get both, even when you want just one.

That is a bigger issue when raising calcium than alk. You can use the all for reef to boost alk by 2 dKH if you are happy with a 15 ppm boost to calcium (which is nearly always ok).

if not, then just use baking soda for the alk boost.

thanks Randy, that makes sense. Maybe they are saying it’s not for raising levels as all three are tied together so you need to be careful not to overdo one or the other.

 

[Gareth elliott]

There is no issue with an Alkalinity Between 7dkh and 11 dkh. The main importance is stability. The early days of a reef try to test alkalinity at least weekly so can gauge your dosing needs, to maintain as close to possible the dkh your tank wants to reside throughout the day. Around and less than .5dkh variation most people find success keeping most corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

thanks Randy, that makes sense. Maybe they are saying it’s not for raising levels as all three are tied together so you need to be careful not to overdo one or the other.

Alk is really the one that gets overdone if trying to boost calcium. It’s the same issue with kalkwasser or a CaCO3/CO2 reactor. The other way around, raising alkalinity. generally works ok and calcium doesn’t get too high.

 

[Rubblereefer]

All for reef can definitely raise your dkh. Nothing wrong with running at 7dkh thoug, that’s about what natural sea water is.

 

[Intense37754]

If you like tropic marin you could look at other lines other than pro, like their classic. It has a higher elements and you could keep them maintained with all for reef. I’ve seen on here that a few systems have crashed with an auto doser overdosing however it happend and I just prefer to test and dose an avg of 2.5ml every other day to maintain.

 

[Mattj815]

I just switched from TM pro reef after running into the same issue. I gave it a shot based on the info of a LFS.

After neglecting my tank for a few months I got back on track and found my dkh @ 5.1.

I am not really ready for dosing all the time yet so I went back to red sea salt which is known to mix higher.

I have it back up at around 7.8 right now through water changes and light dosing of alk. My coral load is low right now so I will probably stop using the alk until I need it.

Side question, not to hijack, but now that I have 2 different salts is it ok to go back and forth between the red sea and TM to try and balance out the alk while using my leftover TM salt? I dont know if thats a dangerous game but being one is high and one is low I figure every other WC would be ok to switch?

 

[gearhead]

I run tropic Marin pro and my alk is 10dkh. I use fritz alk additive to up my dkh in the mixing vat before adding to my main vat for auto water changes. So there is nothing wrong with adjusting the dkh cal or mag to make it match your parameters. Once you know how much it is simple to do each time you mix. I run triton other methods which are 4 parts but 3a and b can be mixed for 3 parts in the end and it is the same way it contains trace elements in all but the calcium additive so balanced dosing is essential so adjustments must be made in salt before adding.

 

[Hypnotoad]

One thing to keep in mind with all for reef is that, while it can easily raise your alk, it won’t do it immediately like other alk additives. Since the formate needs to get metabolized by bacteria in your tank to release carbonate, it can take like a day for the change to occur. This is important to know so you don’t over dose trying to chase a number

I tried it when I moved everything into my upgraded setup and couldn’t get my alk stable. I was too dumb/impatient to figure out how to use it correctly and deal with the aforementioned delay, so I switched back to 2 part.

I would highly recommend picking up a Hanna alk checker. Besides an ATO, that was the single biggest game changing piece of equipment I ever bought It made the difference between testing every day and essentially never testing.

Also, regarding the one dosing pump thing, for over a year I used 2 part (reef fusion) and only had the alk portion on a dosing pump, I’d just add calcium manually every week or so.

if you use 1 DKH a day (it’ll probably take you a bit to get there), that’s only about 7 ppm calcium. After a week, that’ll only take you from 450 to ~400 ppm calcium, which is still in an acceptable range and easily brought back up with a few capfuls of the calcium portion of your 2 part.

 

[Ky_acc]

One thing to keep in mind with all for reef is that, while it can easily raise your alk, it won’t do it immediately like other alk additives. Since the formate needs to get metabolized by bacteria in your tank to release carbonate, it can take like a day for the change to occur. This is important to know so you don’t over dose trying to chase a number

I tried it when I moved everything into my upgraded setup and couldn’t get my alk stable. I was too dumb/impatient to figure out how to use it correctly and deal with the aforementioned delay, so I switched back to 2 part.

I would highly recommend picking up a Hanna alk checker. Besides an ATO, that was the single biggest game changing piece of equipment I ever bought It made the difference between testing every day and essentially never testing.

Also, regarding the one dosing pump thing, for over a year I used 2 part (reef fusion) and only had the alk portion on a dosing pump, I’d just add calcium manually every week or so.

if you use 1 DKH a day (it’ll probably take you a bit to get there), that’s only about 7 ppm calcium. After a week, that’ll only take you from 450 to ~400 ppm calcium, which is still in an acceptable range and easily brought back up with a few capfuls of the calcium portion of your 2 part.

Thanks for this, that's actually what got me more into researching the all for reef -I wasn't aware that it can take some time to show up on an ALK test