New to dosing and Low ALK

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

@Randy Holmes-Farley tried to send you PM but I was unable to. You probably would have a flood of messages from everyone lol. Hopefully I haven't said something upsetting. I wanted to get your opinion/advice on this so I will just paste here what I had planned on sending and is on my tank thread.

Paste start:
Since I am getting ready to be a new dad, I am looking at ways to cut cost and mess. I am looking to change my setup in phases for my 7.1gallon, or 5.2 display.

Currently I am looking to remove all debris off bottom. I am currently bare bottom as when I add sand things go south and corals receed with sand. so looking at gyres and wave makers. I also just tested my parameters in over a year for first time. I have the following:

Salifert
Calcium 400
Magnesium 1350
ALK 5.7
Phosphates 0

API
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 0

I usually watch my elegance as it does not like detritus build up and will let me know. What I also plan is to go down to weekly or even biweekly water changes of about 1 gallon. Depending on depletion I can dose or eventually get a doser. I may add a protein skimmer if nutrients get to high as well with the lack of water changes. I am curious about my alk being low and your thoughts. Feel free to respond here or my thread. I would like to chat on thread so others can also see thoughts.

Also curious if you have any other ideas as well. This is for a UNS 30A dual AIO.

Talking with another reefer @Justfebreezeit and reading through, I dosed last night 1.25ml AFR I already had. My plan is to start slow and that the bacteria somehow converts the calcium formate (waiting on explanation for this) into ALK. I was told it can take several days. Is allforreef a good approach?

Any information you provided will be appreciated.

 

[Kooma]

I setup a ecotech versa with AFR, and honestly the best thing I have done for my tank.

Adding sand will drop your ALK, I went through that and Randy advised its expected. Riding it out with dosing it eventually evens out. I manually dosed each element to get where i needed to be once my AFR was consistent, made getting to the numbers I wanted much easier.

I started with dosing AFR and daily ALK testing to find the usage, then a week later once stable, I started with the Mag and Cal dosing to line it all up. Been rock solid since.

Dad of a 2 year old, I get it. ATO, AFR on a smart doser like the versa, inkbird and radion light has automated my tank and made it much more enjoyable while being a dad first. All I have to do now is test weekly, fill the ATO res, and feed daily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

AFR is a fine way to go. And using it to slowly get alk to about 7-8 dKH is what I would do. You may then need to reduce the dose considerably.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I setup a ecotech versa with AFR, and honestly the best thing I have done for my tank.

Adding sand will drop your ALK, I went through that and Randy advised its expected. Riding it out with dosing it eventually evens out. I manually dosed each element to get where i needed to be once my AFR was consistent, made getting to the numbers I wanted much easier.

I started with dosing AFR and daily ALK testing to find the usage, then a week later once stable, I started with the Mag and Cal dosing to line it all up. Been rock solid since.

Dad of a 2 year old, I get it. ATO, AFR on a smart doser like the versa, inkbird and radion light has automated my tank and made it much more enjoyable while being a dad first. All I have to do now is test weekly, fill the ATO res, and feed daily.

Thank you. Yeah, funds will be tight and while my water changes did great, it's time to adapt and lower cost in long run.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

AFR is a fine way to go. And using it to slowly get alk to about 7-8 dKH is what I would do. You may then need to reduce the dose considerably.

Thank you. So seems I am on the right track. I was trying to message you but unable. Figured this would be better to post.

So is the 1.25ml a good starting dose then for my tank size minus displacement? I understand also depends on consumption as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you. So seems I am on the right track. I was trying to message you but unable. Figured this would be better to post.

So is the 1.25ml a good starting dose then for my tank size minus displacement? I understand also depends on consumption as well.

Right, I don’t do pm’s for purposes of reef questions. They are best done by thread for others to see.

That will boost alk by about 0.15 dKH in 13 gallons total volume. That’s an ok rate, or you can double it. Something in that range.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Right, I don’t do pm’s for purposes of reef questions. They are best done by thread for others to see.

That will boost alk by about 0.15 dKH in 13 gallons total volume. That’s an ok rate, or you can double it. Something in that range.

Ok so this is roughly about 5 to 5.5 gallons with displacement so it will boost roughly .3ish then which would essentially be double. Then ramp down once it reaches to about 7.5? Or at what point would be a good point to hit so I don't overdose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok so this is roughly about 5 to 5.5 gallons with displacement so it will boost roughly .3ish then which would essentially be double. Then ramp down once it reaches to about 7.5? Or at what point would be a good point to hit so I don't overdose?

Yes, that sounds good. :)

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Yes, that sounds good. :)

Thank you. Since this sounds like a daily thing at this point just ordered a dosing pump.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Just update, while things are heading in right direction a few corals are a bit unhappy with the new routine. I also needed to move some from higher to lower and vice versa for flow. Just an update currently

Dosing AFR and AF power Elixir.

Mag 1425
Cal 415
Alk 7.3 over the course of several days could also be causing them to be upset.
Phos 0 just need to do less cleaning lol. And may pickup something to raise phosphate.
PH 8.2
Nitrate 0

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

So while the tanks parameters improved, something foul happened. I would like to know if an expired bottle of AF Elixir from beginning this year and opened last year and happened to have a few drops get into the AFR by cross contamination could be poisoning or causing a toxic reaction. All corals seem to be effected. I did a full water change last night but doser dosed again. There was also brownish slime in bottom of AFR.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Slime or precipitate in the AFR? Iron might settle out.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

It is a brown slime. I remembered seeing a bit come out when I was preloading the doser. But rest was clear so just flushed it thought nothing of it. I looked in the AFR as things went south with initially stn I did a full water change and everything to seem to be perking up. Even after doser added. This morning some things looked off. And now wife sent update picture and things look terrible.

My only thing I can pinpoint is the AFR and the AF Elixir. I wouldn't think AFR would do this and so can only point to the Elixir. Seemed when I dosed before I had issues. Just wanted to get your view of if this is possible for some sort of bad reaction. Getting new bottle of AFR today.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Was the AFR diluted? That can allow bacterial growth.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Was the AFR diluted? That can allow bacterial growth.

No dilution. What happened is I was dosing elixir and would have one for it and the AFR. I believe that I mixed them up a couple times and when clearing out bubbles from draw, I ended up pushing elixir into it. I did not add anything purposefully to the bottle that would dilute. So far dosing has been a nightmare with lower water changes.