DIY All-For-Reef Recipe from Tropic Marin! Thanks Zack!

[User1]

Bump! Plan to do this on my new office 20 cube! This video is a must watch and does mention this method.

Actually that is a great video. I didn't see it before so thank you for sharing it. Really great.

 

[Shooter6]

Bump! Plan to do this on my new office 20 cube! This video is a must watch and does mention this method.

This is not an accurate way to dose as the evaporation is not always the same

 

[Shooter6]

Maybe try dissolving each thing individually then mixing it together?

I did. I put the carbocalcium in heated water and hand mixed for an hr, before getting tired and adding the other 3. I ended up adding another 1000ml of rodi and it fully desolved so i may end up having to dose at a higher ml level then the recommended.
My original post was to verify the measurements as the video looks to have more then 750ml of water in the container. Im hoping this gets checked and verified. My mix measurements of 1500 mil rodi looks like about as much water as the in the video which was half the amount being made.

 

[Shooter6]

Did you know you could make your own Tropic Marin All-For-Reef....cheaper than the premixed solutions??

@Zack@BRS put together the list of ingredients and demonstrates how to mix your own All-For-Reef for a fraction of the cost and the BEST part is that it's scaleable! Make a little or make a LOT, you can choose how much you need for your own tank needs!

Can you please verify the measurements? A cording to the carbo calcium 3bls container 6 level scoops of the included spoon equal 140grams of carbocalcium. That did not desolve in heated 750ml of water. The container of water in the vid looks like more then 750ml.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Can you please verify the measurements? A cording to the carbo calcium 3bls container 6 level scoops of the included spoon equal 140grams of carbocalcium. That did not desolve in heated 750ml of water. The container of water in the vid looks like more then 750ml.

You are correct that the video shows more than 750mL of water. We were making a double batch for the office, so it was actually 1,500mL of RODI. However, all of the material measurements were doubled as well. I added 280 grams of carbocalcium, 24 grams of bio-mag, and 200mL each of A & K. So in the video I was using double, but the recipe we provided to make a liter of solution is correct.

Hope that helps to clarify!

-Zack@BRS

 

[Shooter6]

Ok i appreciate the response. So i was attemptind the same mix only i could not get the full desolve of the carbocalcium untill i added more rodi. Im wondering if the directions on the 3bls container were wrong or i missunderstand them.
It says 6 level scoops equal 140gr.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Hmm, that part I'm not sure on, but it's worth checking. I actually used a gram scale to measure out the dry materials.

I will say that there was a very tiny amount of undissolved material left after mixing in my case, but I mixed it at room temp and the leftover material after all components were added equated to a light dusting on the bottom.

-Zack@BRS

 

[Shooter6]

Ok i need to pull out my scale and check, unless you dont mind verifying the scoop to scale accuracy. My mixture after 24 hrs had a 1/16th inch layer on the bottom of a large container. As i said i used a little return pump as a mixer.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Let me see what I can do. I used up the last of my container of carbocalcium and have to get a new one off the shelf.

-Zack@BRS

 

[dhof]

I'm excited about this possibility of making DIY All-For-Reef recipe. I've been using BRS two-part with Red Sea Trace Colors for about 2 years, and my ICP testing is spot on. The idea of using only 1 dosing head for everything would really be a big winner over what I'm currently doing, and would free up additional DOS heads for me to dose other things.

I am currently dosing 75mL (each) of BRS Soda Ash and Calcium Carbonate on my 55 gallon water volume per day, which corresponds to a 1.9dkh utilization per day.

The Tropic Marin All-For-Reef dosing calculator shows that for 55 gallons of water volume, 10.41mL per day yields a 0.28dkh addition. Extrapolating this, it looks like I would need to dose 70.63mL per day of the All-For-Reef product to hit 1.9dkh of addition. 70.63mL exceeds (by a lot) what the Tropic Marin calculator lists for maximum dosage (52.04 ml max).

Does the All-For-Reef Alkalinity addition behave differently than soda ash (like is my calculation of 70mL off because of some non-linear relationship)? If not, I think I'm probably not going to be able to use All-For-Reef due to my tank demand is too high....

 

[Shooter6]

I'm excited about this possibility of making DIY All-For-Reef recipe. I've been using BRS two-part with Red Sea Trace Colors for about 2 years, and my ICP testing is spot on. The idea of using only 1 dosing head for everything would really be a big winner over what I'm currently doing, and would free up additional DOS heads for me to dose other things.

I am currently dosing 75mL (each) of BRS Soda Ash and Calcium Carbonate on my 55 gallon water volume per day, which corresponds to a 1.9dkh utilization per day.

The Tropic Marin All-For-Reef dosing calculator shows that for 55 gallons of water volume, 10.41mL per day yields a 0.28dkh addition. Extrapolating this, it looks like I would need to dose 70.63mL per day of the All-For-Reef product to hit 1.9dkh of addition. 70.63mL exceeds (by a lot) what the Tropic Marin calculator lists for maximum dosage (52.04 ml max).

Does the All-For-Reef Alkalinity addition behave differently than soda ash (like is my calculation of 70mL off because of some non-linear relationship)? If not, I think I'm probably not going to be able to use All-For-Reef due to my tank demand is too high....

I was wondering about this also, as to why the max dosage is there with the all for reef. I was thinking it may have to do with the trace elenents, and possible overdising them.
If thats the case using less of them mat be the answer, for the mix.

 

[Shooter6]

I'm excited about this possibility of making DIY All-For-Reef recipe. I've been using BRS two-part with Red Sea Trace Colors for about 2 years, and my ICP testing is spot on. The idea of using only 1 dosing head for everything would really be a big winner over what I'm currently doing, and would free up additional DOS heads for me to dose other things.

I am currently dosing 75mL (each) of BRS Soda Ash and Calcium Carbonate on my 55 gallon water volume per day, which corresponds to a 1.9dkh utilization per day.

The Tropic Marin All-For-Reef dosing calculator shows that for 55 gallons of water volume, 10.41mL per day yields a 0.28dkh addition. Extrapolating this, it looks like I would need to dose 70.63mL per day of the All-For-Reef product to hit 1.9dkh of addition. 70.63mL exceeds (by a lot) what the Tropic Marin calculator lists for maximum dosage (52.04 ml max).

Does the All-For-Reef Alkalinity addition behave differently than soda ash (like is my calculation of 70mL off because of some non-linear relationship)? If not, I think I'm probably not going to be able to use All-For-Reef due to my tank demand is too high....

I dosed 50ml of my currently mixed diy all for reef, which im not 100% curtain is mixed correctly. If the measurements are right on the carbocalcium, then i have 2500ml of rodi
200ml of each a & k 280 grams of carbocalcium & 24g if mag.
Therfore my mix should be diluted.
Im stuck hand dosing for the next couple of days as my bubble magnus doser stopped dosing.
Anyway my current mixture dosed at 50ml to my 280gal system increased alk by 0.08 Dkh. So i doubt you need 70ml of it if my mixture is diluted.

 

[Drneil]

Going to try this in the next few weeks. Planning on 800ml RO for carbocalcium and leaving out the Mag as All-for-reef raised the Mag and being a bit on the high side I'll leave it out till it comes back down.

I was always under the impression the Trace A- and Trace K+ are two separate products to prevent the cation and anion elements from binding to one another in solution? What is preventing this from happening in this solution? I’m guessing there is some solution as All-for-reef accomplishes the same thing.

I think Lou mentioned on another thread that because Trace A- and Trace K+ are mixed with a large volume of RO(carbocalcium) the binding was not an issue.

Hopefully @Lou Ekus can help clarify. Also I had a question about an earlier all for reef as I was sure it said it only include Trace A- and I bought and dosed Trace K+. This is not an issue now as I'm about to move to this DIY solution.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

I'm excited about this possibility of making DIY All-For-Reef recipe. I've been using BRS two-part with Red Sea Trace Colors for about 2 years, and my ICP testing is spot on. The idea of using only 1 dosing head for everything would really be a big winner over what I'm currently doing, and would free up additional DOS heads for me to dose other things.

I am currently dosing 75mL (each) of BRS Soda Ash and Calcium Carbonate on my 55 gallon water volume per day, which corresponds to a 1.9dkh utilization per day.

The Tropic Marin All-For-Reef dosing calculator shows that for 55 gallons of water volume, 10.41mL per day yields a 0.28dkh addition. Extrapolating this, it looks like I would need to dose 70.63mL per day of the All-For-Reef product to hit 1.9dkh of addition. 70.63mL exceeds (by a lot) what the Tropic Marin calculator lists for maximum dosage (52.04 ml max).

Does the All-For-Reef Alkalinity addition behave differently than soda ash (like is my calculation of 70mL off because of some non-linear relationship)? If not, I think I'm probably not going to be able to use All-For-Reef due to my tank demand is too high....

@dhof Your calculation sounds about right. On my 60 cube here at the office, I'm currently dosing about 75ml per day. My alk consumption is pretty similar to yours. Yes, this does exceed TM's recommended max dosage. I believe this is there to create an upper threshold for people to picture a reasonable upper dosage limit when starting. Otherwise people might just go nuts and dose way too much too quickly and see issues.

I can tell you that I started by working my way up to the max dosage on my tank and was still not maintaining alk, so I kept going up, slowly, until I got stable parameters. I ended up around 75mL per day where things seem to have settled with where I am keeping my colonies pruned at. I've been dosing All-For-Reef now since January of this year, and my tank had zero hiccups.

I'd been running Triton "Other" for a handful of months prior to that, just to see how my system reacted to that, and prior to that my system had been on BRS 2 part and Red Sea Trace Colors for over 2 years. Tank is now over 4 years old.

-Zack@BRS

 

[Shooter6]

Going to try this in the next few weeks. Planning on 800ml RO for carbocalcium and leaving out the Mag as All-for-reef raised the Mag and being a bit on the high side I'll leave it out till it comes back down.



I think Lou mentioned on another thread that because Trace A- and Trace K+ are mixed with a large volume of RO(carbocalcium) the binding was not an issue.

Hopefully @Lou Ekus can help clarify. Also I had a question about an earlier all for reef as I was sure it said it only include Trace A- and I bought and dosed Trace K+. This is not an issue now as I'm about to move to this DIY solution.

Yes this would work also just the same as dosing carbocalcium and a/k separately.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Ok i need to pull out my scale and check, unless you dont mind verifying the scoop to scale accuracy. My mixture after 24 hrs had a 1/16th inch layer on the bottom of a large container. As i said i used a little return pump as a mixer.

So, interesting result. With my gram scale, I measured out 6 scoops of carbocalcium, and this came out to just a hair over 120 grams. 7 scoops got me almost exactly 140 grams.

-Zack@BRS

 

[GMay]

I have been using Carbo-Calcium to dose alk and Ca for over a year now, but have been adding trace elements separately. I like the idea of a single solution. One thing that I thought of was if you could replace the the Bio-Mag and two element solutions with component C from the Balling method. This is supposedly Magnesium and trace elements. This would be very simple and much cheaper as well. I will need to do some reading and calculations to see if it can work.

 

[Drneil]

I have been using Carbo-Calcium to dose alk and Ca for over a year now, but have been adding trace elements separately. I like the idea of a single solution. One thing that I thought of was if you could replace the the Bio-Mag and two element solutions with component C from the Balling method. This is supposedly Magnesium and trace elements. This would be very simple and much cheaper as well. I will need to do some reading and calculations to see if it can work.

Read a few topics on this, but I believe this might have been covered in the attached thread. In summary Part C is only used to to achieve ionic balance with the two part and not enough trace elements for the coral uptake. So A- and K+ are required instead of part C.

Any one doing Tropic Marin Balling system?

Not recommended. If you want to supplement trace elements use Tropic Marin Trace A and Trace K. Can the following be said... Trace A and K is better...If you want to add trace for anything other than when using TM balling A and B, ie because your using a carx or 2 part only delivering ca /...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Bulk Reef Supply]

Read a few topics on this, but I believe this might have been covered in the attached thread. In summary Part C is only used to to achieve ionic balance with the two part and not enough trace elements for the coral uptake. So A- and K+ are required instead of part C.

Any one doing Tropic Marin Balling system?

Not recommended. If you want to supplement trace elements use Tropic Marin Trace A and Trace K. Can the following be said... Trace A and K is better...If you want to add trace for anything other than when using TM balling A and B, ie because your using a carx or 2 part only delivering ca /...

www.reef2reef.com

@Drneil @GMay This is my understanding as well. Part C only has concentrations of elements that will balance out the addition of sodium chloride resulting from dosing 2 part (Sodium carbonate and Calcium Chloride), and is not specifically in concentrations to match the ratio of of alkalinity and calcium.

 

[Bryknicks]

Does anyone know if A- and K+ can be mixed together to dose with BRS 3 part. I have been wanting to dose trace for a while and have been looking into multiple options. This seems to be the best bet but I only have one head left on my doser. I saw in the video they were added in solution for the final All-For-Reef recipe but can they be mixed together by themselves?