New to TM All for Reef

[Sophie"s mom]

So I have a quick question. I have never used All for Reef before, but I am considering it. I do not have a dosing pump of any kind. Can I just manually dose it daily? My tank is 90 gallons, when considering rock, it is about 80 gallons in actual volume.

 

[Quietman]

Sure I manually dosed for a year before I switched to automated dosing.

 

[twentyleagues]

Yup I manually dose daily. 18ml right around 6pm.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Sure I manually dosed for a year before I switched to automated dosing.

Awesome. SO would I just follow the instructions, but dose the daily amount all at once in a high flow area rather than it being spread out thru out the day?

 

[Patx]

Awesome. SO would I just follow the instructions, but dose the daily amount all at once in a high flow area rather than it being spread out thru out the day?

what is your average daily alk consumption ?

 

[twentyleagues]

Awesome. SO would I just follow the instructions, but dose the daily amount all at once in a high flow area rather than it being spread out thru out the day?

I dose mine in between my skimmer and return area in the "bubble trap". All at once. Do you know what you consumption is?

 

[Quietman]

Awesome. SO would I just follow the instructions, but dose the daily amount all at once in a high flow area rather than it being spread out thru out the day?

Yes, when I was manually dosing I did it all at once. Start out with recommended amounts and test and adjust based on tests.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

what is your average daily alk consumption ?

I honestly do not know. I am just getting into corals. My ALK so far has be steady between 8 and 8.5

 

[twentyleagues]

I would start with the lowest dose for the tank for a couple days, test and see where you are. My consumption is around .4 daily.

If you dont have much consumption dont dose yet. If you do regular w/c you may not need to. keep an eye and when your w/c is not keeping up then start dosing.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I would start with the lowest dose for the tank for a couple days, test and see where you are. My consumption is around .4 daily.

If you dont have much consumption dont dose yet.

Perfect, and thank you.

 

[Cell]

Better yet, don't dose at all yet until you figure out your consumption.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Better yet, don't dose at all yet until you figure out your consumption.

Yeah, that is really the whole point in this convo, is to help me figure this out. I was not planning on dosing yet, Just needed to know if manual was possible. So for now, the plan is to check ALK daily over a 3 day period to see what my tank consumes, then go from there. Most of my corals are soft, but I do have 2 favia's, and one acro. Does this plan make sense to you.

 

[twentyleagues]

Yeah, that is really the whole point in this convo, is to help me figure this out. I was not planning on dosing yet, Just needed to know if manual was possible. So for now, the plan is to check ALK daily over a 3 day period to see what my tank consumes, then go from there. Most of my corals are soft, but I do have 2 favia's, and one acro. Does this plan make sense to you.

Water change schedule? Coralline growing? 2 favias and one acro are not going to put much of a dent in your alk, calc, mag. Soft corals will use some trace elements but I doubt youll notice at all.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Water change schedule? Coralline growing? 2 favias and one acro are not going to put much of a dent in your alk, calc, mag. Soft corals will use some trace elements but I doubt youll notice at all.

I do a 25% WC every other weekend, and yes plenty of coralline growing everywhere. I have several zoa's, a toadstool, and a couple mushrooms. As well a very healthy CUC, and a skunk cleaner shrimp.

 

[twentyleagues]

I do a 25% WC every other weekend, and yes plenty of coralline growing everywhere. I have several zoa's, a toadstool, and a couple mushrooms. As well a very healthy CUC, and a skunk cleaner shrimp.

Keep an eye on the consumption. If it starts to drop more then your w/c supplies then start dosing. I had issues with the w/c schedule on mine it was causing nitrate and phosphate to be too low so I backed off weekly went to every 2-3 weeks and that was borderline needing to dose then stuff started to grow and dosing became needed.

 

[Quietman]

Sounds like a plan. You have a low demand tank (possibly midrange with the coralline). Add something in range of recommendation and check daily for a week and then adjust. Adjust sooner if out of range high. If low, give it another day as AFR has delayed alk response.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Keep an eye on the consumption. If it starts to drop more then your w/c supplies then start dosing. I had issues with the w/c schedule on mine it was causing nitrate and phosphate to be too low so I backed off weekly went to every 2-3 weeks and that was borderline needing to dose then stuff started to grow and dosing became needed.

Ahh, I see, so as little as everything is right now, I am probably fine. I will do my 3 day thing to see what it looks like, but what you are saying makes absolute sense to me.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Sounds like a plan. You have a low demand tank (possibly midrange with the coralline). Add something in range of recommendation and check daily for a week and then adjust. Adjust sooner if out of range high. If low, give it another day as AFR has delayed alk response.

Thank you for the help. I am new to corals in general, and just got my first ever SPS last week. So this side of things is very foreign to me.

 

[areefer01]

Better yet, don't dose at all yet until you figure out your consumption.

This is spot on.

OP - no need to rush as you stated "you are just getting into corals". So you need to understand your consumption rate. A water change may be enough. It may not. I don't want to assume but if you haven't read Tropic Marins instructions as they recommend getting water chemistry for Alk, Ca, and Mg to desired levels before starting. I try and match my water to the salt I use in case I have an emergency the display and salt is close and I don't need to stress or manually correct.

 

[Doctorgori]

I do a 25% WC every other weekend, and yes plenty of coralline growing everywhere. I have several zoa's, a toadstool, and a couple mushrooms. As well a very healthy CUC, and a skunk cleaner shrimp.

with that low demand stocking it’s plausible that your 25% water change might hold for a while….
I’d bet it does if you don’t add clams, et for a while