All for reef, alk and calcium.

[Notsolostfish]

My ali have dropped from 9.5 to 8.9 while calcium holding 450-460 been using afr for over a year. And everything is doing great. My question is do i increase afr? Even though calcium is not dropping? Or just add seperate alk additive?

 

[fishface NJ]

I add alk daily at night. I dose AFR 4 times a day

 

[56longroof]

My experience with AFR is the opposite. Alk is rising with calcium and mag holding steady.

 

[crazyfishmom]

This is very typical when using AFR. Typically, yes you would raise AFR dose to maintain alkalinity.

 

[Notsolostfish]

This is very typical when using AFR. Typically, yes you would raise AFR dose to maintain alkalinity.

And what about calcium not droppint)

 

[crazyfishmom]

And what about calcium not droppint)

Randy Holmes-Farley has written about this in the past. AFR is a little calcium heavy so when alkalinity consumption goes up in your tank you may not see calcium consumption increase at the same rate as alkalinity.

This was an observation I made in my own tank. Eventually I switched to a lower calcium salt mix and performed 20% water changes to “readjust”. Made it easy to work with.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My ali have dropped from 9.5 to 8.9 while calcium holding 450-460 been using afr for over a year. And everything is doing great. My question is do i increase afr? Even though calcium is not dropping? Or just add seperate alk additive?

If you want to maintain alk at 9.5 dKH dose more. If you want it lower, dose less. The calcium will hardly change either way.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My experience with AFR is the opposite. Alk is rising with calcium and mag holding steady.

That’s not the norm and may relate to water changes with a mix not matching the tank, or your having an addition of alk you are not accounting for.

I’d dose less to stabilize alk.calcium may still appear to hold steady. It moves up and down far more slowly than alk.

 

[Notsolostfish]

If you want to maintain alk at 9.5 dKH dose more. If you want it lower, dose less. The calcium will hardly change either way.

Im dosing 55ml right now. 24 hours dose 2.2ml/hour how much i should increase it for? To maintain 9.5 alk

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Im dosing 55ml right now. 24 hours dose 2.2ml/hour how much i should increase it for? To maintain 9.5 alk

I cannot decide for you your alk target. Anything between 7 and 11 dKH is fine, with folks having individual preferences throughout that range. But I’d say most prefer a value below 9.5 dKH, and allowing it to drop and stabilize with your current dosing is certainly a reasonable and easy approach.