All for reef question

[USMA36]

I’m dosing the powder version of AFR. I am dosing 100ml a day in my 200 gallon total volume reef. I am also dosing 1200 ml of saturated Kalk via a dosing pump to help with pH. I read someplace that the alk from afr isn’t readable? What does that mean? Next question with my current dosing I’m sitting at 7.5 dkh. If I wanted to increase to 8.5 and maintain that 8.5 how do I math out that increase. The calculators can show me how much to dose as a single dose but not how to dose and maintain that level. Is there anything I should know about how Kalk and afr work together? I hope that my questions made sense.

 

[arking_mark]

I use AFR and Kalk.

AFR is basically calcium formate with some major/minor elements.

Calcium formate is a form of carbon dosing and requires bacteria to break it down. When broken down, you get rhe Alkalinity. So unlike many other Alk supplements the increase in Alk is not immediate.

In my experience it would initially take about 24hr or more to register. Once my tank acclimated to AFR (bacteria population) its taking roughly 6hrs to register.

There are dosing calculators for both Kalk and AFR.

Kalk is best added via slow drip because of its high-pH impact while AFR can be dosed all at once due to its relatively slow conversion to Alk.

Personally, I drip Kalkwasser to slightly below my tanks evaporation limit and incrementally dose AFR for my remaining Alk/Ca demand.

 

[PeterC99]

I use AFR and Kalk.

AFR is basically calcium formate with some major/minor elements.

Calcium formate is a form of carbon dosing and requires bacteria to break it down. When broken down, you get rhe Alkalinity. So unlike many other Alk supplements the increase in Alk is not immediate.

In my experience it would initially take about 24hr or more to register. Once my tank acclimated to AFR (bacteria population) its taking roughly 6hrs to register.

There are dosing calculators for both Kalk and AFR.

Kalk is best added via slow drip because of its high-pH impact while AFR can be dosed all at once due to its relatively slow conversion to Alk.

Personally, I drip Kalkwasser to slightly below my tanks evaporation limit and incrementally dose AFR for my remaining Alk/Ca demand.

Great information @arking_mark !!!

Curious - I assume you are dripping the Kalk all 24 hours but are you also dosing AFR all 24 hour too or do you dose the AFR at specific periods?

Thank you!

 

[USMA36]

Thanks for the info! Yea I’m dripping both through an apex dos over 24 hours.

 

[arking_mark]

Great information @arking_mark !!!

Curious - I assume you are dripping the Kalk all 24 hours but are you also dosing AFR all 24 hour too or do you dose the AFR at specific periods?

Thank you!

Kalk is on 24hr drip.

AFR is dosed 7x a day.