I've started hand dosing All For Reef and found that my calcium is constantly high but my alk drops like normal. I'm dosing the 5ml/100l that the bottle reccomends starting with, but am not sure if I should keep going to get the alk to where it should be with the calcium so high. Ca is currently about 510-20 and alk is 6.2. Anybody have any insight on this stuff?
All For Reef Alk and Ca
- Thread starter joeyprice
- Start date
AFR is recommended to maintain normal levels. It is not intended to correct them.
You should first correct the imbalances, like doing water changes to reduce your calcium & raise alk.
Once levels are normal, then start the AFR.
You should first correct the imbalances, like doing water changes to reduce your calcium & raise alk.
Once levels are normal, then start the AFR.
I have had a similar experience. In my case, Calcium is maintained at normal levels but I keep having to dose Alk to get the levels up. The Alkalinity present is AFR is in a form that needs to be broken down and it takes awhile for it to start showing up. I'm not sure how long that time is but I've been dosing 15mL per day, Calcium stays good and steady but I still need to do Alk on a level similar what it required when I wasn't dosing AFR. My fear is that I've got so much AFR alkalinity in the tank that when it starts to "free" itself and show up in the tank my level is going to spike.
How long you been dosing the 15ml, and what are you dosing for alk?
I dose Seachem's Reef Builder for Alkalinity and I started dosing AFR late summer 2020 at 10mL per day. I recently upped the dose to 15mL. There is some Alk that I've been getting from the AFR, just not enough to eliminate dosing all together. I do have to dose less Reef Builder though but still more than I planned on. I started dosing the AFR because I had a single doser head and wanted to use it to help automate this particular tank. I recently did an ICP test, Magnesium and all other trace elements were looking good so the AFR has been keeping up with that.
Eric_n_Ga
Well-Known Member
I dose about 18ml daily in my 75 split into 3 ,6 ml doses . My calcium is a little high but the ALK is steady . I do a 15 gallon water change 1 time a month .
Try a water change at alk closer to what you want, make sure your bacterial population is good- dose seed or something similar, and follow dosing calculator Tropic Marin has posted for dosing correct levels. Hopefully that will help bring your levels in line. Also, make sure your tests are not the issue if all coral and fish are happy.
How about a FTS of the display? That will help people understand the coral bioload.
I'll try to get one when the lights come back on. It's a pretty light load, as the tank is new. I wouldn't be dosing at all, but it's the only thing that seems to keep my gorgonian happy. ReefRoids alone were not doing it so somebody suggested dosing stuff. Thing came right out of dormancy. Maybe just coincidence?
With a light coral load the system isn't going to use Alk & Cal at a high enough level to require full on dosing. You'll need to reset the balance by doing a very large water change or two. 50% volume or more at one time. Then once the Alk & Cal are balanced you need to test over several days to see what the system is using.
Newer systems tend to use alk a little heavier than Cal. If there's very little stoney coral, the Cal depletion could be next to nothing. Then all that's needed is a little soda ash or sodium bicarb to keep the Alk up. You just need to be very careful about precipitation that can happen when dosing only Alk. The doses need to be smaller volumes and spread out over time it's also best to only do manually only when needed.
Newer systems tend to use alk a little heavier than Cal. If there's very little stoney coral, the Cal depletion could be next to nothing. Then all that's needed is a little soda ash or sodium bicarb to keep the Alk up. You just need to be very careful about precipitation that can happen when dosing only Alk. The doses need to be smaller volumes and spread out over time it's also best to only do manually only when needed.
The LPS are a 3 head branching hammer, a 3 head frogspawn, a tiny plating monti frag, small candy cane frag and 3 or 4 encrusting frags in a 4x2 100g. The rest are leather, polyps, mushrooms etc.
Yea, probably a bit early for AFR or any other balanced dosing. Rebalancing the system to bring the Cal down as raise the Alk is going to be your best bet. Once things are leveled out you can continue to raise the Alk with soda ash or sodium bicarb. If you need help dosing let us know after you've done a water change or two and report back your levels.
Changed 15 present or so today, will do another one next week. I'll keep you updated on the chemistry
If a big change is out of the question then very slowly raising the Alk can help. Do you have any of the products to do that?
Not out of the question, just didn't see the 50% suggestion till after I did it. I can do another, bigger one today if that will help, otherwise a half vol change is going to take a week or so
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The problem with smaller water changes is the replacement water has Cal in it, so a 15% may have only dropped it to the 500-505 range. Let's say you do a big 50% change now, you're likely to be in the 450 to 475 range afterwards depending on how much Cal is in your salt mix. Then wait several hours or even till the next day and test both again. The Alk should at least be in the 7's now. From there you can try to bump it 0.5dkh a day and that will likely pull the Cal down a little more. To raise the Alk you're going to need soda ash or a good quality baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) on hand.
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