All-For-Reef Help

BonnieAndClyde

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Hi,

I'm trying to start up all for reef in my tank. I have a Red Sea Reefer 170 so just under 40 Gallons of system volume. Im having a lot of trouble getting my daily dose right. I tried the recommended 10ml per day and my alkalinity skyrocketed. I have dosed none for the the last week and my tank is dropping steadily .3 dkh a day.

Does anyone have a formula or idea as to the right dose for my system?

Thanks in advance.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Hi,

I'm trying to start up all for reef in my tank. I have a Red Sea Reefer 170 so just under 40 Gallons of system volume. Im having a lot of trouble getting my daily dose right. I tried the recommended 10ml per day and my alkalinity skyrocketed. I have dosed none for the the last week and my tank is dropping steadily .3 dkh a day.

Does anyone have a formula or idea as to the right dose for my system?

Thanks in advance.

This calculator shows the amount to use of many different alk products to add 0.3 dKH per day:

 

arking_mark

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In order to dose AFR you need to know your Ca/Alk consumption.

Since Ca/Alk are consumed almost equally, and Alk measurements are much more precise with hobby grade testing most people use Alk measurements to understand their CaCO3 consumption. Generally, if you measure your Alk at the same time everyday, you can see your tanks demand.

Once you know your tanks consumption, you can use TM's AFR dosing calculator:


However, because Formate (the Alk component in AFR) requires a biological process to convert to CO3 it will take time for you to see the effects of dosing (several hours to days).

My initial experience with AFR had unexpected results so I actually started with very low dosing that I ramped up over time. I used 2-part dosing while I ramped up AFR and as the tank adjusted I ramped down 2-part. Now my tank is able to "convert" AFR into measurable Alk in about 6 hours.
 

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