All-for-Reef Dosing Question(s)

[Hooz]

I have a few nano reef tanks that I've just been maintaining by doing regular water changes. I've run into the issue of my nitrate and phosphate bottoming out due to the frequent water changes. I need to keep the numbers up (LPS and softies), so my plan is to change water LESS, but then I'll need to do some sort of dosing as my alk drops pretty constantly .15 a day.

I have All-for-Reef, I have a Kamoer X1 Pro 2 and I have no clue where to start as far as the amount. If I was using 2-part, I could just use a calculator to figure how much to use for my water volume and alk needs. But, the AfR calculator is only based on water volume... No clue what sort of numbers they are based on. Is it all just trial and error and adjusting as you go? Are the recommended doses designed to hold? Raise? Lower?

They recommend 3.8ml for 20g of water volume. Should I start lower and just work up based on my actual numbers (shooting for the 9-ish range for alk)? Start with the recommended amount and adjust down if needed? Just wondering how I should approach it.

 

[Oldreefer44]

I would start by following the directed dosing amount and then adjust from there. I have used it for quite some time and have found that I have had to supplement extra ALK so if anything you will probably have to adjust upwards going forwards.

 

[blasterman]

Also, manual dose at first. Don't worry about the doser until you have some solid numbers.

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

Start low, dose, then test. Get a feel for how much the tank is consuming each day. If its way off you can dose to adjust it to the value you want, then put doser on, next day test, adjust, then next day test.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

I dose 1ml or less in my 10 gallon nano at the moment to give you an idea where to start dosing. I started with .5ml. It’s potent stuff a little goes a long way.

 

[Hincapiej4]

Get the alk part of a 2 part.

Do this with Kamoer. No reason not to.

Dose AFR, adjust with Alk 2 Part.
Check ALk, Dose AFR with adjusted amount, adjust left over with 2 part.
Check Alk, dose afr with previous amount. Still low? Dose adjusted AFR, add to tomorrows tally. Adjust with 2 part.
CHeck alk. Dead on? Dose afr with previous amount. No 2 part needed.
CHeck Alk. Still dead on? Sweet.

 

[arking_mark]

AFR is a little tricky to get started with since the Alk part is formate which requires biological processes to free the Alk. Unlike most other Alk supplements, this means that the Alk won't show up on your testing until sometime later.

 

[steven325]

All for reef has a dosing calculator on their site.

 

[lelandmarine]

Heres a link to dosing

All for Reef Dosing Calculation Help

I'm using the DIY All-for-Reef which uses 140g of Carbocalcium. Per tropic Marin, "100 g (3.5 oz.) of Carbocalcium Powder containing more than 30,000 mg of calcium and more than 4,000 °dH." So, 140g of Carbocalcium used in the DIY contains 1.4 x 4000dKH = 5600dKH in 1000ml solution. To raise a...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[steven325]

I dose 3.5 ml a day over the course of 24 hours. Doser comes on 6 times a day. I have a 20 gal mixed reef. Keeps alk at 8.9 dkh. Cal 450 an mag was last tested at 1500.

 

[Hincapiej4]

For me, I have to help my afr with alk 2 part.

I had an issue with prazi pro and oxygen issues, so my uptake slowed. I'm working on getting my AFR back up slowly and lowering my alk 2 part use. But yea...it's very lopsided for me.

I'm also starting to manually dose CAL. Which means, my raising the AFR dosage will help cal as well. Just gotta do it slowly because I literally don't know how much I AFR I need to dose and don't want a spike.

The big dip is from changing out reagents and calibrating.

 

[dvgyfresh]

For me, I have to help my afr with alk 2 part.

I had an issue with prazi pro and oxygen issues, so my uptake slowed. I'm working on getting my AFR back up slowly and lowering my alk 2 part use. But yea...it's very lopsided for me.

I'm also starting to manually dose CAL. Which means, my raising the AFR dosage will help cal as well. Just gotta do it slowly because I literally don't know how much I AFR I need to dose and don't want a spike.

The big dip is from changing out reagents and calibrating.

I’ve run into the same issue, I still need to dose 2 part alkalinity with AFR , currently 50 gal and dosing 10ml of afr a day which doesn’t maintain alkalinity (still dropping .8 dkh a day)

 

[Hincapiej4]

I’ve run into the same issue, I still need to dose 2 part alkalinity with AFR , currently 50 gal and dosing 10ml of afr a day which doesn’t maintain alkalinity (still dropping .8 dkh a day)

Yea, I originally thought it was something to do with PH. But it's obviously not.

It started after we had a week power outage, really weird timing.

It's literally the reason I bought an Apex. I was rock solid stable before then. I think it's just growth and looks lopsided to me because of testing error. But adding more AFR should fix it a bit, just gotta be slow. I see a downward trend in both mag and cal with ALK, so it's def uptake.

 

[attiland]

I dose AFR together with 2 part (3 part) I have found this gets me better results to maintain parameters

 

[dvgyfresh]

Yea, I originally thought it was something to do with PH. But it's obviously not.

It started after we had a week power outage, really weird timing.

It's literally the reason I bought an Apex. I was rock solid stable before then. I think it's just growth and looks lopsided to me because of testing error. But adding more AFR should fix it a bit, just gotta be slow. I see a downward trend in both mag and cal with ALK, so it's def uptake.

Thinking of going back to two part dosing + essential elements because I thought AFR would be all I need but it’s not quite working for me , I’ll up the dosage and see if that helps

 

[Oldreefer44]

Due to the availability issues as well as the cost I am in the process of switching over to Reef Pro 2 part and appears that supplemental dosing will still be a necessity.

 

[Hooz]

Heres a link to dosing

All for Reef Dosing Calculation Help

I'm using the DIY All-for-Reef which uses 140g of Carbocalcium. Per tropic Marin, "100 g (3.5 oz.) of Carbocalcium Powder containing more than 30,000 mg of calcium and more than 4,000 °dH." So, 140g of Carbocalcium used in the DIY contains 1.4 x 4000dKH = 5600dKH in 1000ml solution. To raise a...

www.reef2reef.com

TThat helps a TON! So the recommended dose for my tank would basically raise my alk by 1. So if my tank consumes less than 1 in a day, I'd likely need to dial it back from there.

Some other great info in here too regarding manual dosing to start, etc.

One more question... how long until I start seeing my numbers change? I mean, how many days should I dose at one level before deciding if I need more or less? Is 3 days enough? A week?

 

[Hincapiej4]

I think for me it's about 24 -48 hours before it would show.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

TThat helps a TON! So the recommended dose for my tank would basically raise my alk by 1. So if my tank consumes less than 1 in a day, I'd likely need to dial it back from there.

Some other great info in here too regarding manual dosing to start, etc.

One more question... how long until I start seeing my numbers change? I mean, how many days should I dose at one level before deciding if I need more or less? Is 3 days enough? A week?

Beware of one of the main complexities/disadvantages of dosing organic forms of alkalinity, as in All for Reef. They do not immediately show up as alkalinity, and possibly may not show up at all.

Thus that "add 1 dKH" is not necessarily going to be observed, even if you have a lot of the formate accumulated in the tank.

 

[Hooz]

Ok. My target alkalinity is 9. That's what my salt mixes at, and everything in my tank seems to do well there, so thats the number I'm shooting for.

I have dosed All for Reef 3 times now, testing and recording my alk numbers BEFORE each dose (Hanna checker), and at the same time each morning. TM recommends 3.8ml for my water volume but, wanting to err on the side of caution, I'm starting at 2.5ml.

Day 1 - 8.7dkh before dosing
Day 2 - 8.8dkh before dosing
Day 3 - 8.9dkh before dosing

Based on my numbers so far, it seems that 2.5ml is raising my alk by .1 each day, and before dosing, I was getting a decrease of .1 or more each day. So it looks like I need to cut my dose so I don't end up way over shooting my target of 9.0dkh... but how much should I dial it back?