Help with all for reef

[jcook54]

When I've used All-For-Reef (AFR) I had the exact same experience. CA would be maintained but I still had to dose Alk to keep it up. Based on research and conversations with people smarter than me, here's what I believe is happening:

AFR is balanced in the correct ratio of CA/Alk for corals to take it up. However, there are a lot of processes in our reef tanks that take up carbonate besides coral. If it was just coral growing, the AFR would be sufficient. Corals take CA/Alk up in a known and balanced ratio but the rest of my the tank uses carbon from Alkalinity to grow and doesn't have anything to do with Calcium. After a few weeks of dosing it, the disparity became less and less but once I got my AFR dose "dialed in" I would still test and dose Alk a few times a month to keep the levels where I wanted them.

 

[Dmac]

Calcium is at 430 and alk is still 6.8. based on my calcium starting at 450, it sounds like it's dropping within acceptable ranges along with the alk

 

[Dmac]

Got my salifert test kit in. After a small alk dose last night, Hannah reads 7.4 and salifert reads 7.7. I'll just keep testing daily and adjusting my all for reef dosing amounts as necessary. Thanks for the help guys and gals

 

[Dmac]

When you guys dose all for reef, do you split it up throughout the day like 2 part?

 

[sharis100]

When you guys dose all for reef, do you split it up throughout the day like 2 part?

We use a doser controlled by APEX and spread it out on a timed pattern throughout the day. You can dose all at one time if using only a small amount, but once you need to dose significant quantities, a timed doser works much better and prevents spiking of your measurements.

 

[90gDreams]

I've got a cheapo jebao that doses 13ml 4x per day. I was doing it by hand but that got old quick.

 

[Dmac]

We use a doser controlled by APEX and spread it out on a timed pattern throughout the day. You can dose all at one time if using only a small amount, but once you need to dose significant quantities, a timed doser works much better and prevents spiking of your measurements.

Right now I'm dosing about 67ml/day and I'm still having to dose alk to keep up

 

[Reefer-Madness]

I do 12 doses throughout the day while the lights are on to split it up. The Kamoer X1 is perfect for it. It’s an inexpensive and reliable dosing pump.
My system also isn’t perfectly balanced so sometimes I do need a little more alk than calcium. I just dose enough All For Reef to keep my calcium steady and make up the alk by adding a tiny amount of soda ash to my top off water. That’s usually enough keeps things balanced.

 

[Adam]

It looks like your just at 4 weeks and according @sharis100 it may take 6-8 weeks to stabilize with continued dosage tweaks.

I think @Reefer-Madness has the right approach with having the Calcium stable with AFR and adjusting the Alk to where you want it to be. It seems like that Alk will always need adjusting but hopefully you'll be able to get to the point where it will only be occasional bumps by April.

Good luck with it and keep us updated.

 

[sharis100]

I would look into automating your dosing at this point to help stabilize your system. And agree with above posts.

 

[Dmac]

I guess I should have clarified, lol. I've been auto dosing for probably a year and a half. Dosing by hand got old real quick