Decisions. Switch from afr?

[Notsolostfish]

right now im at 10ml ot afr everyday. Dosed hourly like seeprate doses that makes a total of 101 at the end kf the day. And i dose 22ml of redsea alk. To keep my system stable. But its been hard my calc been dropping and mag. Should i switch from afr and go full redsea kit they have? Genuinely not sure what to do here? Or should i go over 101ml of afr

 

[Notsolostfish]

Bump

 

[Uncle99]

The chart indicates that CA is being used more, than the replenishment, assuming the readings are accurate.

Alk appears relatively stable at current dosing rate so only CA needs attention to hold 420-450ppm.

Me, I just found it easier to dose all three, individually. Then I can dial up any level easily.

AFR while maybe easier, meant I was kinda stuck with CA and MG levels that resulted from maintaining ALK level, or supplemental doses to go outside of that.

 

[Notsolostfish]

The chart indicates that CA is being used more, than the replenishment, assuming the readings are accurate.

Alk appears relatively stable at current dosing rate so only CA needs attention to hold 420-450ppm.

Me, I just found it easier to dispose all three, individually. Then I can dial up any level easily.

Mag dropping too. Idk should i get the red sea bundle with traces

 

[rishma]

Why are you dosing alkalinity separately from AFR? Why not just increase the AFR dose if you want more alkalinity and also more calcium and magnesium?

 

[Notsolostfish]

Why are you dosing alkalinity separately from AFR? Why not just increase the AFR dose if you want more alkalinity and also more calcium and magnesium?

Because im at 101ml and i was holding just fine for calc and mag but only alk was droppping. But now everything else kinda dropping too

 

[Uncle99]

Mag dropping too. Idk should i get the red sea bundle with traces

It depends more on what’s always available and at a fair price. Once I use a product be it Red Sea, Seachem or ESV…..I don’t want to change it as each manufacturers mix is slightly different. That means more adjustment.

The only adjustment I want to make is for increases, across all three every 6 months right now.

Whatever you chose, (I’ve had great success with all three) you need ALK, CA and MG.

I do use RED SEA trace ABCD but not sure if it does anything at all, but it’s not made anything unhappy.

Regular water changes can replenish the used trace elements so your choice.

 

[rishma]

I see. AFR is best dosed to maintain stable alk.

Calcium will drift up slightly over time when using AFR to maintain stable alk. It’s just like kalkwasser in that way. It’s easily dealt with.

AFR provides the right amount of magnesium for most tanks.

There are lots of good systems, I’ve used them, and I currently use AFR.

 

[Uncle99]

Because im at 101ml and i was holding just fine for calc and mag but only alk was droppping. But now everything else kinda dropping too

If everything is dropping then increase AFR to hold your desired DKH, then tweak CA only if still low. You should not have to do that unless you want to hold higher levels of CA than the product delivers.

The whole point on AFR is easy dose, but both ALK and CA should deplete relatively the same.

It seemed the Alk never varied more than .25dkh over 4 days. That’s pretty good in my mind.

I might use a different test on CA to ensure probe readings are in fact, accurate.

 

[RajM]

I would stop Alk dose and dial in AFR again, then if Alk need increase dose additional Alk as needed. Usually with all in one Alk, cal and mag are dosed in proportion to consumption but one of them may be used more than others during certain phases of tank. So use AFR to get cal doing correct

Note: TM recommends using cal to dial in since alk is dependent of bacterial activity

 

[underwaterwonders]

The ca and mg kits are not always accurate either, you can vary a few % just testing back to back. All for reef works great, get your ca/mg/alk at levels you want, then start afr. Only test alk, if it’s low, up your daily dose, if high, lower your daily dose.

One thing to mention is water changes can throw off your ratios too if your using a high Kh salt, or a ca rich salt. Have to keep that in mind. Beneficial when using afr to bump your salt water wc to the same ratios as your tank goals using a simple 3 part from BRS.

 

[Notsolostfish]

I would stop Alk dose and dial in AFR again, then if Alk need increase dose additional Alk as needed. Usually with all in one Alk, cal and mag are dosed in proportion to consumption but one of them may be used more than others during certain phases of tank. So use AFR to get cal doing correct

Note: TM recommends using cal to dial in since alk is dependent of bacterial activity

And go over 101ml a day?

 

[Bartanto]

And go over 101ml a day?

No problem. I did what you were doing for a while with the sipplimental Alk. It prevented AFR from leveling CA and Mg. I’d ditch the supplemental alk, dial AFR. I’m at 110ml daily now but have been to 140ml.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

You never (unless I missed it) mentioned how big your system is. On my display, I use AFR and tweek with ESV. Both have trace. Every system is different. I have one tank that I am battling Alk issues because there is not enough water volume vs. amount of coral. Not only do I have to tweek my amount of alk, but I have to increase the distribution through out the day so the depletion stays constant.

 

[RajM]

And go over 101ml a day?

I moved away from AFR due to PH issues but when I was using I was dosing 35ml is a 13g water system dominated by SPS and used to dose KZ supplements on top. Thats 2.5x recommended max dose for my system.
I was also concerned and had messaged TM. Hans replied saying the dose is balanced should not cause build up or toxicity and that was true for my tank.

 

[rishma]

I won’t bother with a big debate on this but I’ll share the following in hopes it’s useful. Often when people think their system is consuming elements in different ratios it’s more likely due to imprecision in testing. Differences in new saltwater used in water changes can also give the appearance of changes in consumption.

Calcification in seawater reliably consumes major elements in the following proportions: 2.8 dKH/18-20 ppm Ca/1-2ppm Mg.

Possible variation from these proportions can happen with big swings in nitrate. For example, if 50 ppm nitrate is dosed and consumed it will raise alkalinity by about 2.3dkH.

Magnesium home test kits are the most misleading. Calcium tests are good for ballpark but calcium changes are small relative to test kit precision. One should be cautious about trying to determine a trend over small measurement differences.

 

[exnisstech]

I like simple so I dose AFR. I'm currently at 68ml on a 60g tank. A couple of months ago I made some changes that gave me a pH bump and coral took off. My AFR went from 35ml to 65ml in 2 months. Like @TangerineSpeedo I tweak with ESV when I'm dialing in AFR. I only test calcium once a month and I never tested mag.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Why are you dosing alkalinity separately from AFR? Why not just increase the AFR dose if you want more alkalinity and also more calcium and magnesium?

I did what u told me and im not seeing stability in alk at all i went from 101ml to 120 and the difference i saw was very minimal in fact my alk dropped to 8.33 and lowest 8.24 and i expect it to drop even more. I even did increase my calc to 430-440. As you can see afr didnt contribute much to the alk even at 120ml. Cal fixed. Do i go back to redsea apk dosing

 

[rishma]

I did what u told me and im not seeing stability in alk at all i went from 101ml to 120 and the difference i saw was very minimal in fact my alk dropped to 8.33 and lowest 8.24 and i expect it to drop even more. I even did increase my calc to 430-440. As you can see afr didnt contribute much to the alk even at 120ml. Cal fixed. Do i go back to redsea apk dosing

8.33 vs 8.24 dKH alkalinity is extremely stable. I’m not sure how stable you are trying to achieve. Considering natural test inaccuracy those results are basically the same number.

I don’t think you have a problem