New to Dosing Help with all for Reef

[saltypuffer]

Hi all,

I’m new to dosing and I picked up some All For Reef by tropic Marin to make things a little easier on me. My tank is 155 gallons (total volume). I’ve been getting by with water changes up until now but I’ve recently added too many corals to keep up. My test just came back at 6.5dKH and I’m looking to be in the 9dKH range. According to the label I should be initially dosing 30ml to start and add from there. Can anyone give me input on if I’m overthinking this or is it just a matter of testing everyday?

If anyone with roughly the same size tank can let me know how much AFR they go through daily that would be great just to get a ballpark estimate! Also I should mention that I will be manually dosing until I get a doser, that being said is it harmful to dose the whole dose at once?

 

[Duane family]

I am going to throw in another question and since we are both new to AFR perhaps we can learn at the same time.
When is it best to dose the AFR solution and what is the reason for the preferred timing ?

 

[KK's Reef]

Follow the directions on the label and dose according to your tank's actual water volume. Test every day. After a week, you will see a trend. Your alk will likely rise gradually from your 6.5 starting point, depending on the dose. If you haven't reached your target Alk, you can then increase it by X ml and test every day again. Rinse and repeat. (I don't think this is recommended, but) If your first couple of days of testing is not showing a significant increase, you can increase the dosage. I was able to peg mine after about 10 days.

The best time to dose AFR is whatever time you pick and sticking to that time. Same goes for testing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In a case where you do not know the daily demand, I'd recommend starting with a dose of about 30 mL per day, which will add 0.3 dKH. Don't bother checking alk for a few days because the rise is too small to reliably detect initially and doesn't show up instantly anyway. Don't bother checking anything else (such as calcium) for a good while.

After a few days, check to see if you see an alk rise. If not, up the dose. Eventually you will arrive at a dose that keeps the alk fairly stable.

I do not recommend following the TM directions that suggest dosing based on calcium. That's a poor idea, IMO. It moves too slowly and test kits have enough variabiltiy to make it difficult.

 

[rishma]

You’ve been given some good advice for getting started. Come back and share your Alkalinity test results and dose amounts after a few days or a week.

Once things are trending in right direction we can help you get alkalinity to stabilize at your target 9 dKH.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Hi all,

I’m new to dosing and I picked up some All For Reef by tropic Marin to make things a little easier on me. My tank is 155 gallons (total volume). I’ve been getting by with water changes up until now but I’ve recently added too many corals to keep up. My test just came back at 6.5dKH and I’m looking to be in the 9dKH range. According to the label I should be initially dosing 30ml to start and add from there. Can anyone give me input on if I’m overthinking this or is it just a matter of testing everyday?

If anyone with roughly the same size tank can let me know how much AFR they go through daily that would be great just to get a ballpark estimate! Also I should mention that I will be manually dosing until I get a doser, that being said is it harmful to dose the whole dose at once?

Not sure if someone has already said this as I didn't read through all the other comments, but I would recommend getting up your parameters (Cal, Alk, Mag) where you want them first, before dosing AFR. Once those params are where you want them, then just follow instructions and test your dkh for a few days.

 

[rishma]

Not sure if someone has already said this as I didn't read through all the other comments, but I would recommend getting up your parameters (Cal, Alk, Mag) where you want them first, before dosing AFR. Once those params are where you want them, then just follow instructions and test your dkh for a few days.

This is not bad advice, but not necessary in my experience. AFR is quite capable of raising parameters. If the OP has just started dosing for the first time they probably don’t have other forms of supplements laying around. Rather than going and buying separate Cal, Alk, Mag, I think it’s fine just to use AFR to raise the values.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

This is not bad advice, but not necessary in my experience. AFR is quite capable of raising parameters. If the OP has just started dosing for the first time they probably don’t have other forms of supplements laying around. Rather than going and buying separate Cal, Alk, Mag, I think it’s fine just to use AFR to raise the values.

Good point! AFR is pretty expensive, was just thinking of using a cheaper supplement to get levels up.

 

[buruskeee]

Good point! AFR is pretty expensive, was just thinking of using a cheaper supplement to get levels up.

If it’s the powdered form, AFR is pretty cheap for the convenience. A 1600g bucket goes for $75 and makes 10,000L. At 100ml/day, that would last 100 days which would be just over $20/month and probably where I’d start supplementing with another source. For most people starting it, they’ll be dosing much less. Even at 50ml/day it’s just barely over $10/month.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

If it’s the powdered form, AFR is pretty cheap for the convenience. A 1600g bucket goes for $75 and makes 10,000L. At 100ml/day, that would last 100 days which would be just over $20/month and probably where I’d start supplementing with another source. For most people starting it, they’ll be dosing much less. Even at 50ml/day it’s just barely over $10/month.

When you break it down like that, it doesn’t sound so bad. But that’s if you’re comfortable with using the powder AFR. Not everyone wants to mix up their own batches, and it can be daunting if you’re new to the hobby.

I’ll stop playing devils advocate

 

[rishma]

Good point! AFR is pretty expensive, was just thinking of using a cheaper supplement to get levels up.

Very true. It’s not cheap. The OP will use 250 ml to go from dKH 6.5 to dKH 9 (not all in one dose!!!!) plus additional ml to account for whatever daily consumption is.

 

[buruskeee]

When you break it down like that, it doesn’t sound so bad. But that’s if you’re comfortable with using the powder AFR. Not everyone wants to mix up their own batches, and it can be daunting if you’re new to the hobby.

I’ll stop playing devils advocate

It’s easier than mixing salt water. I don’t understand this comment lol. Unless that person also gets their salt water premade, then sure.

 

[buruskeee]

If anyone with roughly the same size tank can let me know how much AFR they go through daily that would be great just to get a ballpark estimate! Also I should mention that I will be manually dosing until I get a doser, that being said is it harmful to dose the whole dose at once?

This all depends on how much consumption your current tank has. I have a 150g system, and when I started with 30 or so small frags, I was barely consuming 20ml of AFR per day. Today have a few decent sized colonies and majority larger mini colonies ready to take off. I’m currently dosing about 90ml/day.

My advice, as Randy already instructed, start at 30ml and after 2 days see if your trend is going down or up.

Make sure you’re testing at the same time every day. If it goes down 0.1 dkh, add 10ml. If it goes up 0.1 dkh, reduce 10ml. Every 10ml should equate to 0.1 dkh for a 150g tank.

 

[rishma]

Make sure you’re testing at the same time every day. If it goes down 0.1 dkh, add 10ml. If it goes up 0.1 dkh, reduce 10ml. Every 10ml should equate to 0.1 dkh for a 150g tank.

This is good advice AFTER you have reached your target alkalinity.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

It’s easier than mixing salt water. I don’t understand this comment lol. Unless that person also gets their salt water premade, then sure.

That's what I'm getting at. When you're new to the hobby, mixing your own saltwater is less of a thing (I could be wrong). I didn't start mixing my salt water until tank #2.

 

[saltypuffer]

This is not bad advice, but not necessary in my experience. AFR is quite capable of raising parameters. If the OP has just started dosing for the first time they probably don’t have other forms of supplements laying around. Rather than going and buying separate Cal, Alk, Mag, I think it’s fine just to use AFR to raise the values.

That's what I'm getting at. When you're new to the hobby, mixing your own saltwater is less of a thing (I could be wrong). I didn't start mixing my salt water until tank #2.

I mix my own salt water and I will be mixing my own all for Reef, I just like the ease of dosing everything at once because it seems like less to wrap my head around as a beginner

 

[saltypuffer]

This all depends on how much consumption your current tank has. I have a 150g system, and when I started with 30 or so small frags, I was barely consuming 20ml of AFR per day. Today have a few decent sized colonies and majority larger mini colonies ready to take off. I’m currently dosing about 90ml/day.

My advice, as Randy already instructed, start at 30ml and after 2 days see if your trend is going down or up.

Make sure you’re testing at the same time every day. If it goes down 0.1 dkh, add 10ml. If it goes up 0.1 dkh, reduce 10ml. Every 10ml should equate to 0.1 dkh for a 150g tank.

This is great because I dosed 30 ml last night and I will check alk again today and dose accordingly

 

[saltypuffer]

If it’s the powdered form, AFR is pretty cheap for the convenience. A 1600g bucket goes for $75 and makes 10,000L. At 100ml/day, that would last 100 days which would be just over $20/month and probably where I’d start supplementing with another source. For most people starting it, they’ll be dosing much less. Even at 50ml/day it’s just barely over $10/month.

I’m willing to pay extra for convenience, but out of curiosity how much cheaper is it to dose separate additives?

 

[saltypuffer]

You’ve been given some good advice for getting started. Come back and share your Alkalinity test results and dose amounts after a few days or a week.

Once things are trending in right direction we can help you get alkalinity to stabilize at your target 9 dKH.

Perfect this is what I plan on doing. Thanks for the help so far!

 

[rishma]

This is great because I dosed 30 ml last night and I will check alk again today and dose accordingly

Alkalinity from AFR takes 1-2 days to show up on test. Fine to check today, must just remember there is a lag.