Difficulty getting Tropic Marin products and starting Kalk reactor in response

[sharis100]

So, we use DIY all for reef and finding all the Ingredients has been getting more and more difficult. Lou at Tropic Marin did not give me much hope in this problem being resolved anytime soon. So thinking maybe to start using the giant MRC Kalk reactor as a way to keep doing alk cal and some mag in the meantime. Any thought on kalk - do you dose it with pH monitor or run via ATO meaning it doses when the ATK is triggered? I know BRS did a whole thing on this, so leaning towards doser method. Does anyone know a secret place to get diy all for reef ingredients?
Thank

 

[ichthyoid]

How long does 1 large batch of AFR last you?

 

[sharis100]

How long does 1 large batch of AFR last you?

Go through it every 2-3 weeks.

 

[civics14]

Why not do a calcium reactor?

 

[sharis100]

Why not do a calcium reactor?

No experience and always dosed. And don’t want to lower pH. Many folks use Kalk instead of calcium reactor.

 

[civics14]

No experience and always dosed. And don’t want to lower pH. Many folks use Kalk instead of calcium reactor.

There Learning curve is with anything new but it keeps all your parameters so stable, its worth it. As far as PH, I think it may have lowered mine .1 at most. But the benefit of stability from running a calc reactor outweighs the minimal ph drop.

 

[ichthyoid]

If you have significant amount of acro’s then kalk won’t keep up, due to evaporation limit.

Many use kalk to offset the pH drop from cal reactor caused by the CO2

 

[Dmac]

Wanna see where this goes. Wanted to switch to tropic marin as well, but can't deal with the uncertainty of availability. Don't wanna do the calc reactor right now. Any supplement close to tropic Marin a&k out there?

 

[sharis100]

If you have significant amount of acro’s then kalk won’t keep up, due to evaporation limit.

Many use kalk to offset the pH drop from cal reactor caused by the CO2

Yes I get that but looking for solutions without a reactor.

 

[ichthyoid]

Maybe something like this? It’s kind of a Balling method in a couple of bottles & can be automated with dosing pumps at alternate times/hours per day.

ATI ESSENTIALS PRO TWO-PART

ATI Essentials Pro - Complete Reef Supplement Set

ATI Essentials Pro takes advantage of recent advances, going beyond traditional 2-part solutions to meet the complete elemental needs of your reef while maintaining the simple two part dosing strategy. Simply dose the pre-mixed solutions in equal parts and your tank will be provided with 28...

www.marinedepot.com

 

[gainesvillereef]

I use Kalk and 2 part or AFR. I dose saturated kalk up to the evaporation limit and make fine adjustments with 2 part and/or AFR. You can do it easy with 2 dosing pumps one for kalk and one for AFR.

 

[Dmac]

I use Kalk and 2 part or AFR. I dose saturated kalk up to the evaporation limit and make fine adjustments with 2 part and/or AFR. You can do it easy with 2 dosing pumps one for kalk and one for AFR.

I'm curious. If you're using 2 part, why the kalk too? And what do you dose for trace elements?

 

[Cook]

If you decide to move to BRS two part or something similar. I have the balling C component you can have new in the box.

 

[k3nnyp]

I am in the same boat waiting for DIY to come available and I might have 1 more liter of mix left. I just ordered 3 ( to meet minimum order ) of the 1600g containers from Sewetec in Germany since it doesn't seem to be available yet in the US. Hopefully this stuff is as good as the DIY AFR. I'm not for sure how fast this stuff takes to ship but I find "Delivery time: approx. 1-2 working days" much quicker than I would expect. It's shipped via "DHL Premium". Luckily I'm not in a rush.

 

[gainesvillereef]

I'm curious. If you're using 2 part, why the kalk too? And what do you dose for trace elements?

I use 2 part or AFR to cover what the kalk cannot provide when I reach the evaporation limit. I do dose the TM A- and K+ for trace. Kalk alone may provide all the Alkalinity and Calcium that you need. It depends on the tank. I always use kalk 1st and then supplement if I can't keep up. The ph benefits are great.