Dosing all for reef

[ChickReef]

Hello,

I’ve recently decided to start dosing my nano tank. It’s a 13 gallon and I’ve chosen all for reef. I’ve been testing calcium and I’m using a Hanna tester ppm. I test at the same time, which is 8:30pm and since I’ve started my numbers are not going up. I actually have some slight declines. I don’t have a dosing pump. I’m open for recommendations. I currently pour 5ml of all for reef at 9pm. Am I doing something wrong? I need some advice.

Thank you

 

[fishface NJ]

Do you have corals in the tank? Did you test your Alk, Mg and Ca? What were the numbers?

 

[Lavey29]

Typically never need to dose nano tanks. Just weekly water changes.

 

[Idech]

5 ml is a lot, especially if the tank has few corals. I dose 12-14 ml per day in my 75 gallons.

You need to know your cal-mag-alk levels first and then adjust them to what you want before dosing. AFR will only keep them stable, not increase them.

 

[ChickReef]

I didn’t think I needed to dose. I’ve been testing calcium. These are my last three days

144ppm = 8.05dkh

126ppm = 7.04dkh

133ppm = 7.435dkh

I’m trying to get it to go up to10dkh

 

[Idech]

I didn’t think I needed to dose. I’ve been testing calcium. These are my last three days

144ppm = 8.05dkh

126ppm = 7.04dkh

133ppm = 7.435dkh

I’m trying to get it to go up to10dkh

Yes, you need to bring your alkaliny and/or calcium up with a different product. AFR is not meant to increase, just maintain.

 

[ChickReef]

Yes, you need to bring your alkaliny and/or calcium up with a different product. AFR is not meant to increase, just maintain.

So how do I bring it up?

 

[Idech]

So how do I bring it up?

Sodium bicarbonate is a popular choice for alkalinity. For calcium and magnesium I use EBV but there are other products.

Search on the forum for the exact recipe for sodium bicarbonate and others. Or use this calculator : https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Also, doing weekly water changes will keep your parameters stable. Your tank is small, so it’s easy to do a 10% weekly WC.

 

[ChickReef]

 

[Idech]

Your tank looks nice, so what you’re doing works. Be careful not to make sudden changes, or too many changes. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it !

 

[ChickReef]

Sodium bicarbonate is a popular choice for alkalinity. For calcium and magnesium I use EBV but there are other products.

Search on the forum for the exact recipe for sodium bicarbonate and others. Or use this calculator : https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Also, doing weekly water changes will keep your parameters stable. Your tank is small, so it’s easy to do a 10% weekly WC.

So I test all three until I have it where I want it and then use all for reef to maintain

 

[PocketGoose]

Not to cause any confusion but I disagree with the statement that you couldn’t use AFR to increase your alkalinity. The reason you’re not seeing an increase immediately is because of the fact that the AFR formula is meant to be metabolized by organisms in your system. Sometimes it will take a week or two to show up.

I will say it may be EASIER to raise with a different solution and then maintain with AFR…but don’t think that it’s not working

 

[bushdoc]

I would like to simplify your approach and here's my 2c:

• I am dosing All-for-Reef in my 20 gal frag tank and managed to overdose both Ca and Alk (500/14 respectively), so notion that this product is not going to increase levels might not be valid. Since then I managed to balance it
• You should rather concentrate on measuring dKH and to lesser extend Ca and I would forget about Mg for some time
• Consumption of Magnesium is a mere fraction of Alkalinity/Calcium
• Consumption of Alkalinity is the one which should guide your dosing
• Best is to use Tropic Marin guidelines available on their website
• All-for-reef is ideally suited for small tanks, like yours and for those who want to keep dosing simple
• There might be something wrong with your test kits-I would suggest Salifert or Aquaforest for Alkalinity and Calcium
• It is not necessary to keep dKH around 10 and values around 8 and slightly higher are OK, especially for beginners
• Yes, you can use Sodium Bicarbonate to raise alkalinity, you can find calculator on BRS website

 

[lil sumpin]

My system is not very old yet but about same volume as yours, it's a 15g cube mixed reef. For livestock I have a small CUC of 6 ceriths and 6 scarlet hermits and around 15 softie and lps frags. Currently aiming to see alk, cal and mag hovering around the same levels for a few months before starting to dose AFR. After weekly dosing ~2.5ml of Seachem's Reef Carbonate and Reef Complete for a few weeks I'm seeing alk around 10.5 dKH, cal of 400ppm and mag at 1300ppm. I'm going to wait a few more months, maybe even until 2024 to begin All for Reef. I would like to see these parameters consistently for a few more months before using AFR, from what I understand it works to maintain not raise.

Your tank looks great! As someone else had mentioned, it would probably be best to do 10% water changes weekly and continue testing parameters 2-3 times a week.

 

[Lavey29]

I would like to simplify your approach and here's my 2c:

• I am dosing All-for-Reef in my 20 gal frag tank and managed to overdose both Ca and Alk (500/14 respectively), so notion that this product is not going to increase levels might not be valid. Since then I managed to balance it
• You should rather concentrate on measuring dKH and to lesser extend Ca and I would forget about Mg for some time
• Consumption of Magnesium is a mere fraction of Alkalinity/Calcium
• Consumption of Alkalinity is the one which should guide your dosing
• Best is to use Tropic Marin guidelines available on their website
• All-for-reef is ideally suited for small tanks, like yours and for those who want to keep dosing simple
• There might be something wrong with your test kits-I would suggest Salifert or Aquaforest for Alkalinity and Calcium
• It is not necessary to keep dKH around 10 and values around 8 and slightly higher are OK, especially for beginners
• Yes, you can use Sodium Bicarbonate to raise alkalinity, you can find calculator on BRS website

This is correct. Alk consumption is the primary focus to determine if any dosing required. Cal will generally decrease proportionate to alk and magnesium consumption is 1/10th of alk and cal consumption.

 

[Idech]

Not to cause any confusion but I disagree with the statement that you couldn’t use AFR to increase your alkalinity. The reason you’re not seeing an increase immediately is because of the fact that the AFR formula is meant to be metabolized by organisms in your system. Sometimes it will take a week or two to show up.

I will say it may be EASIER to raise with a different solution and then maintain with AFR…but don’t think that it’s not working

I agree. AFR will eventually raise alk but IMO not in a fully controlled manner. That’s why I like to use sodium bicarbonate once and be done with it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree. AFR will eventually raise alk but IMO not in a fully controlled manner. That’s why I like to use sodium bicarbonate once and be done with it.

Why isnt it controlled?

Just keep upping the dose slowly to arrive at 10 dKH should be fine, especially since the current alk is already fine.

 

[Poulpo]

I use all for reef in a much larger system (200 ml/day in a 250 gal system) and my experience is that this product is perfect if you check your parameters very frequently. I dose a few ml every hour and if a change is needed I increase or decrease by 0.1 or 0.2 (x24). If there is a problem that you want to correct fast (empty bottle, dead dosing pump). It is difficult to monitor because the effect of a larger dose will only be visible 24 to 36 hours later...

 

[Idech]

Why isnt it controlled?

Just keep upping the dose slowly to arrive at 10 dKH should be fine, especially since the current alk is already fine.

What I meant was (in my case at least), AFR ended up increasing my alkalinity without me wanting to. The maintenance daily dose I needed to keep everything stable had that affect, and my alkalinity is higher than I wish.

 

[NotoriousDMC]

I use all for reef in a much larger system (200 ml/day in a 250 gal system) and my experience is that this product is perfect if you check your parameters very frequently. I dose a few ml every hour and if a change is needed I increase or decrease by 0.1 or 0.2 (x24). If there is a problem that you want to correct fast (empty bottle, dead dosing pump). It is difficult to monitor because the effect of a larger dose will only be visible 24 to 36 hours later...

Agree with all of this. I dose 55ml/24 hours in an 80G total tank. I used to test daily with a Trident, but it crapped out. Parameters were always stable. Now, I’m just not testing much. The only time I get concerned is when I notice something like a dosing clog or empty bottle.