ESV 2 Part vs TM All For Reef

[Noodles_Jefferson]

Both methods are good choices.

ESV can raise pH while the AFR will not.

You may want to consider a trace element mix with the ESV since it does not add trace elements against organism depletion, while the AFR tries to do that.

With AFR, you may need alk and calcium solutions on hand in case your tank does not use alk and calcium in the ratio provided, and if demand is low (such as in a soft coral tank), you may want to use a trace element mix with AFR as well.

Thank you. question, if i use the bionic and supplement it with a trace elements solution do i risk adding too much trace elements into the tank. i know you mentioned that too much copper is bad for inverts.

 

[mzlskink]

Using them together is perfectly fine, just don't combine any parts outside the tank. Especially don't put the alk part of ESV into AFR or you will precipitate calcium carbonate. I do not know if you can put AFR into the calcium part of ESV. That might be OK.

@Randy Holmes-Farley Could use your expertise here, you might be just the one to save the tank

History
2 months ago I overdosed kalkwasser, there were white gunk stuck all the algae (which is literally everywhere, think of the upside-down from stranger things). Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that is what is considered to be alk precipitation (tho others have said it's bacterial bloom) which caused tank alk to drop to 3.5 - even today, I don't know if it was bacterial bloom or alk precipitation.

To "fix" the tank, I used a combination of mechanical removal of gunk with filter sock, 50% water change, rebuilt the entire rock structure of my 40gal acropora tank (about 40 frags).

Today
Fast forward to today, I am dosing trace with moonshiners + oceamo-MS icp. I been using All for Reef but it seems like Alk is always the one consistently dropping to 7. My concern is that AFR may be introducing too much trace yet I would ONLY like to increase alkalinity, is ESV B-ionic 2 part the best way to do in combination with AFR?

Tank Setup
Tropic marin pro reef salt, weekly 10% water change
I test daily with salifert and hanna kits:
Alk: 7 to 7.7
Cal: 430-450
Mg: 1230 - 1390
PH: 8
Nitrate: 8-12ppm
Phosphate: 0.05-0.08 ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley Could use your expertise here, you might be just the one to save the tank

History
2 months ago I overdosed kalkwasser, there were white gunk stuck all the algae (which is literally everywhere, think of the upside-down from stranger things). Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that is what is considered to be alk precipitation (tho others have said it's bacterial bloom) which caused tank alk to drop to 3.5 - even today, I don't know if it was bacterial bloom or alk precipitation.

To "fix" the tank, I used a combination of mechanical removal of gunk with filter sock, 50% water change, rebuilt the entire rock structure of my 40gal acropora tank (about 40 frags).

Today
Fast forward to today, I am dosing trace with moonshiners + oceamo-MS icp. I been using All for Reef but it seems like Alk is always the one consistently dropping to 7. My concern is that AFR may be introducing too much trace yet I would ONLY like to increase alkalinity, is ESV B-ionic 2 part the best way to do in combination with AFR?

Tank Setup
Tropic marin pro reef salt, weekly 10% water change
I test daily with salifert and hanna kits:
Alk: 7 to 7.7
Cal: 430-450
Mg: 1230 - 1390
PH: 8
Nitrate: 8-12ppm
Phosphate: 0.05-0.08 ppm

How long ago was the precipitation event?

There’s nothing wrong with 7 dKH. What is your target?

 

[mzlskink]

How long ago was the precipitation event?

There’s nothing wrong with 7 dKH. What is your target?

it was about 2 months ago

My target would be around 8.5-8.8, so there's some wiggle room but seems hard to get there and I don't want to keep dumping in so much NaCO3. Today calcium is 460, mg 1290, but kH is 7.7

Would ESV B-ionic 2 part (alk) the safest way to do in combination with AFR (trace)? With weekly 10% water change for acros?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you see any white precipitate left? It can be nucleating more precipitation.

You could raise it with AFR or just the alk part of the B-ionic.

 

[mzlskink]

Do you see any white precipitate left? It can be nucleating more precipitation.

You could raise it with AFR or just the alk part of the B-ionic.

No I got all the precipitation (so you think it is alk precipitation that caused 3.5kH) with water change and I scrapped it off the glass, replaced all the rock structure, and sifted sand over 5um filter sock to remove them

To raise alk, you mentioned "could raise it with AFR or just the alk part of the B-ionic." If I just do Alk part it would be addomg NaCO3 right? Would 10% weekly water change be sufficient to balancing out the extra Na ions?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No I got all the precipitation (so you think it is alk precipitation that caused 3.5kH) with water change and I scrapped it off the glass, replaced all the rock structure, and sifted sand over 5um filter sock to remove them

To raise alk, you mentioned "could raise it with AFR or just the alk part of the B-ionic." If I just do Alk part it would be addomg NaCO3 right? Would 10% weekly water change be sufficient to balancing out the extra Na ions?

Extra sodium from what? ESV is ionically balanced so I would not worry about excess sodium, even when making unbalanced corrections.

 

[sgrosenb]

Reviving an old thread here. I'm switching from ESV B-Ionic 2-part to All-for-Reef. @Randy Holmes-Farley I can't seem to do the math right - I'm currently adding 84ml of ESV daily to my 200g tank (84ml of each, alk and cal). Thoughts on how much that would equate to for AFR on a daily basis? Thanks.

 

[exnisstech]

Reviving an old thread here. I'm switching from ESV B-Ionic 2-part to All-for-Reef. @Randy Holmes-Farley I can't seem to do the math right - I'm currently adding 84ml of ESV daily to my 200g tank (84ml of each, alk and cal). Thoughts on how much that would equate to for AFR on a daily basis? Thanks.

I had the same question answered by Randy then dumbed down so I could understand it lol.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/esv-2-part-to-afr-calculation.1111150/

 

[sgrosenb]

awesome - thanks so much @exnisstech exactly what I needed!