Help mixing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef Powder

[nim6us]

I'm mixing up the All-For-Reef powder into a solution. The directions say add 160g to 1L of water. However I know sometimes things can be translated poorly into English. With other products like Triton you would actually mix the powder into 750ml of water to start and then after displacement top it up until you hit the 1L mark.

I'm hoping @Lou Ekus is lurking and can clarify for me?

 

[coralfishreef]

Post #19 in the linked thread has the DIY All-for-reef instructions from Hans-Werner.

Hans’ instructions are slightly different from BRS’ instructions. I’ve found that the solution mixes quickly when following Hans’ instructions.

The 100 ml of each, A- and K+ Elements is the what brings the solution to 1000 mL.

Ca and Alk in the same supplement? How does this work?

So Tropic Marin has announced a combined calcium and carbonate supplement: https://reefbuilders.com/2018/05/14/carbo-calcium-by-tropic-marin-redefines-the-meaning-of-concentrated/ How does this work? I thought if you mixed them they'd just precipitate out.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[coralfishreef]

Just saw another post that said there is a newer all powder version. The above link is for the older version with powdered carbocalcium, powdered Mg, and liquid A and K elements.

With the original DIY recipe adding the extra 50 mL of RODI that Hans has in his instructions allowed the carbocalcium and Mg powders to completely dissolve. I would trust the 1000 mL specified in the instructions.

@Hans-Werner

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm mixing up the All-For-Reef powder into a solution. The directions say add 160g to 1L of water. However I know sometimes things can be translated poorly into English. With other products like Triton you would actually mix the powder into 750ml of water to start and then after displacement top it up until you hit the 1L mark.

I don't think that partial addition makes the dissolution any easier, just perhaps the mechanics of stirring it.

 

[nim6us]

As always thanks for the insightful nugget of wisdom Randy! However what I'm after is when you mix the powder and the RO water is the end goal 1L of solution spot on? Or do you start with 1L of RO water, which after adding the powder will yield 1.2L (approx) of solution.

I mean I guess it doesn't matter long term as long as you mix you batches consistently. I'm just curious like a cat and wonder what the "official" Tropic Marin method is. ;Cat

EDIT: And for clarity I'm using the all powder version from TM not the DIY

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As always thanks for the insightful nugget of wisdom Randy! However what I'm after is when you mix the powder and the RO water is the end goal 1L of solution spot on? Or do you start with 1L of RO water, which after adding the powder will yield 1.2L (approx) of solution.

I mean I guess it doesn't matter long term as long as you mix you batches consistently. I'm just curious like a cat and wonder what the "official" Tropic Marin method is. ;Cat

EDIT: And for clarity I'm using the all powder version from TM not the DIY

If you believe what they have written exactly, it is water measured before addition. it also may not matter much.

"6 level measuring spoons (approx. 160 g) All-For-Reef Powder are dissolved in 1 l of reverse osmosis water to create the liquid mineral blend"

 

[Lou Ekus]

As always thanks for the insightful nugget of wisdom Randy! However what I'm after is when you mix the powder and the RO water is the end goal 1L of solution spot on? Or do you start with 1L of RO water, which after adding the powder will yield 1.2L (approx) of solution.

I mean I guess it doesn't matter long term as long as you mix you batches consistently. I'm just curious like a cat and wonder what the "official" Tropic Marin method is. ;Cat

EDIT: And for clarity I'm using the all powder version from TM not the DIY

Sorry this took me so long to respond. I only saw the post right now.

@nim6us you are right on in your assumption. When mixing the AFR Powder, you want to mix 160g (I think that is 6 level scoops) into RO/DI water to result in a full 1000 ml solution. We recommend starting with about 900 ml of RO/DI water (it makes it easier to dissolve the powder) and then add as much is needed. It is almost always about an additional 50 ml that is needed. That means that you can also start with 950 ml of RO/DI water, if you would like, and you will almost always end up right on the full 1000 ml solution.

It is also true, however as @Randy Holmes-Farley said, that it doesn't make very much difference. As you can see it is only a matter of about 50 ml one way or the other. This makes very little difference in the concentration of the final solution. That would be true even if you started with the full 1000 ml of RO/DI water, you would only end up with about 1050 ml of final solution.

But for us OCD types, the 900 ml and topping off after dissolving is the best way to go and bee 100% accurate.

 

[nim6us]

Thanks for the clarifcation @Lou Ekus as I am one of those OCD types.

 

[legionofdoon]

Is the powder going to be available in the US?

 

[coralfishreef]

Bulkreef has it in stock.

All-For-Reef - Powder Mix

Tropic Marin All-For-Reef revolutionized aquarium additive dosing with their original pre-mixed solution, and now this same formula is available in an ultra-concentrated crystalline form that you can easily mix at home, making it more economical for systems of all sizes. All-For-Reef powder...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[rueric]

Bulkreef has it in stock.

All-For-Reef - Powder Mix

Tropic Marin All-For-Reef revolutionized aquarium additive dosing with their original pre-mixed solution, and now this same formula is available in an ultra-concentrated crystalline form that you can easily mix at home, making it more economical for systems of all sizes. All-For-Reef powder...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Got the powder, doing the mixing but it’s not the same tint of blue.. it’s more of a brown tint.. any ideas?

 

[muffinmanX]

I am also mixing the solution as it is more cost efficient. problem is that the powder doesnt completely dissolves and get all over the tank.. i gave it a very good shake when mixing and the dosing compartment has a powerheard to stir things up when dosing into the sump.

i started off with 25ml per day 2 weeks ago and now im dosing 50ml for a 500li tank and so far my kh is always around 6.5 and the calcium only 330. magnesium looks fine..

not to mention that my torches seem to be unhappy and my leaf montipora died over 2 nights..
my gsp were closed when i first started dosing.. i stopped for a few days and increased the kh to 8. they seem fine now..


am i doing something wrong here?

 

[rueric]

I have mine scheduled my first dose at 5ml tomorrow morning.. I'll check in and see if it dissolves and report back

 

[attiland]

There is no rocket science involved here. Just add the powder (160g) to the water (1000 ml ) and shake it wait a little and sake it again. Warmer water works faster but I wouldn’t use higher temperature than the tank. Takes relatively long to dissolve but that’s life.

 

[arking_mark]

The older DIY takes at least 20+ minutes of mixing to fully dissolve the salts. I ended up getting a magnetic stirrer to save me some elbow grease.

 

[Lou Ekus]

I just wanted to add to this thread to try to help and increase information about the AFR Powder. If you are having trouble getting the powder to dissolve, then please check your quantities of powder and water. I know that sounds "basic", but we have not seen any difficulty in getting the powder to dissolve fully in the ratio given for mixing.

Also, the resulting AFR liquid is not the same "blue" tint as the regular AFR liquid. You will notice that the DIY recipe, the regular AFR Liquid and the AFR liquid result of the AFR powder mixing, are all a little different in color. This does NOT indicate any problem or inconsistency. In fact, all three are exactly the same in the functional components.

I hope this is helpful and answers a few questions.

 

[ReefHorse]

i had no issues mixing the powder doing the following........I mixed the entire 1600g container with 2.64 gallons (10liters) of water. Placed a powerhead in the container for about an hour and all powder was dissolved. Been dosing with this for 11 days so far......my Alk is steady at 9 and Calcium stays between 430-440 (been testing daily). So far, appears to be the real deal! At my current dosing rate, the 1600g container will last just over 180 days which is pretty sweet.

 

[Digitalfirex]

Random question... is the mixing instructions basic math to scale it back? Like if I only want to make 500ml, do I use 3 scoops instead of 6? If I want 250ml do I use 1.5 scoops? Didn't find this info anywhere else, thank you.

 

[nim6us]

I can’t find anything official from Tropic Marin but that logic checks out to me. If you adjusted the water and the powder equally like in your examples you should be fine.

 

[Digitalfirex]

I can’t find anything official from Tropic Marin but that logic checks out to me. If you adjusted the water and the powder equally like in your examples you should be fine.

It makes sense in my head lol just wanted to see if there was any verified data or official knowledge on this... crazy its not available. I just ran out of the 500ml liquid bottle and wanted to refill it (because why not?) I originally purchased for my 20g tank... dosing at 10ml daily I don't need to make 1L lol