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Thanks I appreciate itRajV will talk to Lou at Macna as I always do to find out the info.![]()
How long since you switched ? Can you comment on any visible or measurable difference? Are you able to maintain low nitrate and phospate? How are you dealing with it?After reading these threads, I decided to start using calcium formate - I bought a 250 ml bottle of Tropic Marin's All-In-Reef (calcium formate plus some trace minerals). My rationale: a one part balanced additive that didn't precipitate or require apparatus like kalkwasser was appealing, and I don't have room for a doser in my sump. I went from kalkwasser in the ATO (precipitation and clogging of ATO) to kalkwasser in a dripper with an IV roll clamp (a pain to adjust and where the drip rate changed a lot as the container emptied) to adding straight 2 part (alkalinity in the ATO, calcium would be added in the sump near the return pump but with my high calciums it's still 450 after months of just alkalinity additions - it started around 500-510 with my Fritz salt mix). If this doesn't work, I'll probably go back to 2 part with alk in the ATO and calcium in the sump.
Assuming my calculations are accurate - a 250 ml bottle of this stuff has 1,400 dKH of alkalinity. That means that every ml has 5.6 dKH (presumably per gallon), or for a 43 gallon system (32 gallon tank + sump), 0.13 dKH per ml of additive. Since my alk demand is currently 0.5 dKH in 8 days (9.1 dropping to 8.6 per my Salifert test kit), that's roughly 4 ml of additive weekly.
Cost-wise, that works out to 20 cents per week (with the 250 ml bottle from BRS), or 60 cents per week if I use my older 1.5 dKH alkalinity drop per week. It also means that a 250 ml bottle will last me 60+ weeks, or more than a year (at 0.5 dKH per week).
Not bad for something you just measure and dump in the sump; no precipitation that I saw (although I admit that I didn't look very closely). We'll see how it goes.
I'm also not sure that simple liquid CarboCalcium (same without the trace minerals) isn't a better idea, since you can add trace stuff separately.
My concerns about this method:
1) I don't particularly want to carbon dose, as I'd like to run with somewhat higher nutrients (I could prune my chaeto, which I do need to do) as I like soft corals/zoas/Ricordea/macroalgae in the display. That's also why I picked this over calcium acetate
2) Cost, although for my needs it isn't much at all. I don't know how this would scale compared to other commercial additives; I suspect that the cost of calcium flake and baking soda or Mrs. Wage's would be dramatically cheaper in the long run
How long since you switched ? Can you comment on any visible or measurable difference? Are you able to maintain low nitrate and phospate? How are you dealing with it?
Good luck , do keep updatingI have few answers for you at the present -
1) I started with it yesterday
2) I typically run low nitrate/phosphate from chaeto
3) no visible changes
I plan on pruning my chaeto shortly, which will probably change my parameters more than the dosing would. I may try to be more precise in the coming weeks as to nitrate/phosphate levels . . .
@Orm Embar would love to hear your progress. Something interesting from an earlier post from you caught my attention. You say "presumably" your calcium is being consumed proportionately . Have you measured over a few days your ca and alkalinity drop ? It appeared as though you are monitoring alk and dosing . Not all tanks consume at that absolute proportion . Given this , you may land up with excess ca or even mg . These are 2 part additives bundled into one , therefore I feel there needs to be a checkpoint in the cycle to understand overall chemistry
Many of the slightly older bottles of both All-For-Reef and Cabocalcium have a small amount of undissolved solids on the bottom of the bottle. This is because the solution is super saturated. The solids are not harmful and do not represent any kind of growth. The product is perfectly fine. And can be used 3cactly as directed with no problem. These undissolved solids will not hurt anything. This left over undissolved solid shows up less in newer bottles.There are some small, light brown clumps on the bottom of the bottle - I've read that someone else had the same thing happen to them. I don't know if it's mold or something else, or if it's harmful. I haven't had any issues using the same bottle, though