All For Reef Dosing Questions

[rtparty]

I’m around 6-7ml a day on my 25g but that may need to go up with the SPS starting to grow like crazy

I just dose it all at once whenever I remember. I should really setup the doser

 

[edsbeaker]

10ml is probably a bit much sir. The starting dose is 5ml per 100 liters (26 gallons). Are you checking your alk/cal levels?
Also, keep in mind, this does nothing for magnesium. You will need to dose magnesium to keep that in check as well.
@Randy Holmes-Farley has a great 2 Part DIY that includes magnesium if you want to go that route.

All For Reef doses Magnesium as well as Alk, Calcium and Trace elements.

 

[twentyleagues]

10ml is probably a bit much sir. The starting dose is 5ml per 100 liters (26 gallons). Are you checking your alk/cal levels?
Also, keep in mind, this does nothing for magnesium. You will need to dose magnesium to keep that in check as well.
@Randy Holmes-Farley has a great 2 Part DIY that includes magnesium if you want to go that route.

All for reef is a complete dosing source.
https://www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com/?lang=en
@Fish Fan with the amount you are dosing dose it all at once. Even if you were dosing as much as @Troylee or as much as Sunny x you could dose it all at once as it takes time to be available. I like to refer to it as time release (yes I know its not exactly that).

 

[twentyleagues]

All For Reef doses Magnesium as well as Alk, Calcium and Trace elements.

Work slows my posting time..... I see you beat me to it lol stupid work.

 

[Rocks reef]

All For Reef doses Magnesium as well as Alk, Calcium and Trace elements.

If you search R2R, you will find numerous threads where people dosing AFR and not adding extra magnesium run into issues with their corals and/or tank crashes. The mag in AFR isn't at dosing levels.

 

[edsbeaker]

If you search R2R, you will find numerous threads where people dosing AFR and not adding extra magnesium run into issues with their corals and/or tank crashes. The mag in AFR isn't at dosing levels.

Got it! Thanks

 

[BriDroid]

I've asked this question over on the Tropic Marin Facebook group, and I was told my Tropic Marin employees that it just needs to be done in one shot in the morning. They said that there is no benefit to splitting it up throughout the day. I dose all of mine through my dosing pump at "dawn" in my lighting schedule.

 

[Fish Fan]

All for reef is a complete dosing source.
https://www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com/?lang=en
@Fish Fan with the amount you are dosing dose it all at once. Even if you were dosing as much as @Troylee or as much as Sunny x you could dose it all at once as it takes time to be available. I like to refer to it as time release (yes I know its not exactly that).

Thank you for your help here, that's a good way to think about it

 

[Fish Fan]

I've asked this question over on the Tropic Marin Facebook group, and I was told my Tropic Marin employees that it just needs to be done in one shot in the morning. They said that there is no benefit to splitting it up throughout the day. I dose all of mine through my dosing pump at "dawn" in my lighting schedule.

I think I'm going to do mine around mid morning to give the lights a chance to come on for a couple hours, based on RHF's advice that the AFR product can lower oxygen in the system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

10ml is probably a bit much sir. The starting dose is 5ml per 100 liters (26 gallons). Are you checking your alk/cal levels?
Also, keep in mind, this does nothing for magnesium. You will need to dose magnesium to keep that in check as well.
@Randy Holmes-Farley has a great 2 Part DIY that includes magnesium if you want to go that route.

AFR dues include magnesium in its composition.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What are you trying to keep you alk at? Natural seawater is between 8-9dKh. Some reefers keep their tanks higher though, some of those ranges are 8-12dKh.

That is not correct. Natural seawater has less than 7 dKH of alkalinity.

 

[BriDroid]

I think I'm going to do mine around mid morning to give the lights a chance to come on for a couple hours, based on RHF's advice that the AFR product can lower oxygen in the system.

My lights start ramping up at 7:50. Mobius says that my "sunrise" is at 9:00am, so that is when my pump goes off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you search R2R, you will find numerous threads where people dosing AFR and not adding extra magnesium run into issues with their corals and/or tank crashes. The mag in AFR isn't at dosing levels.

Like any additive, the amount of magnesium may or may not be optimal for the given tank. That is because coralline uses about 1/10th as much magnesium as calcium, while many hard corals use much less.

AFR strikes a balance, adding about half that which coralline uses, but more than many hard corals.

In my RMM method, I recommend magnesium at 5-10% of the calcium dosed, and AFR is near the lower end of that range.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/
From it:

3. ANY time that you add calcium, add 5-10% as much magnesium (so for 10 ppm calcium, add 0.5 - 1 ppm magnesium). If coralline is the main user of alk in your tank, use the 10%, if corals are, use 5%. A lot of products, like commercial two parts, AFR, CaCO3/CO2 reactors with suitable media, and my DIY two part systems all add magnesium for you, without measurement.

 

[twentyleagues]

If you search R2R, you will find numerous threads where people dosing AFR and not adding extra magnesium run into issues with their corals and/or tank

I was posting something about mag and @Randy Holmes-Farley method. I got busy at work (again) and never finished. I see he posted above.

 

[Miami Reef]

When calcium exceeds normal limits with AFR, I read it’s best switching to sodium-based alkalinity additives until it decreases back.

However, will doing so cause an imbalance in sodium levels? Since sodium is the largest ion in seawater, the slight increase might be negligible, but I’d like to confirm.

In addition, does doing so dilute magnesium overtime?

Water changes alleviate these concerns, but what about for tanks where the changes are absent?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’m a bit late, but I wanted to say I dose kalk and all for reef. I start my morning by dosing a large amount of kalk at 9am right when lights come ons this boosts my ph right when corals are waking up.
Than around 10:30 I dose about 20ml of AFR to give the reef some trace elements. Through out the day I monitor ph and aFR I may hit kalk again before 12, but by 12 I have 8.2-8.3 ph so I continue the rest of the day with AFR. I stop AFR when lights go out and switch back to kalk to get that PH boost. :) good
Luck!

 

[reefpanda]

I dose all at once in the morning

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

When calcium exceeds normal limits with AFR, I read it’s best switching to sodium-based alkalinity additives until it decreases back.

However, will doing so cause an imbalance in sodium levels? Since sodium is the largest ion in seawater, the slight increase might be negligible, but I’d like to confirm.

In addition, does doing so dilute magnesium overtime?

Water changes alleviate these concerns, but what about for tanks where the changes are absent?

It’s not enough ion imbalance to be an issue, IMO.

 

[Miami Reef]

It’s not enough ion imbalance to be an issue, IMO.

Thanks!

 

[Fish Fan]

Thanks again everyone, good info here for sure