Question about All For Reef...

[twentyleagues]

Incorrect

Yes, you are.

 

[Calmwaters]

It sounds like a tank that is newer and little to no coralline algae growth and few hard corals. Can you provide a picture of the tank? Also what size is the tank? I dont remember the math but I use AFR and that little amount you are dosing is not being used. I dose about 40mls of AFR daily to keep a water volume of just about 120g from dipping below 8.5dkh. As Randy said there is little to no need to dose anything else with AFR maybe a little bit of magnesium. Mag and calc tests a pretty hit or miss. Honestly if it were me and I did do just this when I started adding corals to this tank, dont dose anything and do daily alk tests to see what the consumption is for about a week. Once you have daily consumption of alk you can start dosing AFR daily to combat the decline in alk and the other two parameters should stay *pretty much in line as well.

* water changes with water that has higher parameters will affect your test results and the water parameters of your tank. Also AFR is a little calcium heavy so after prolonged use you may see an upward trend if nothing else changes.

The tank has been setup for 2 years so it's not new. Its 125 gallons and the sump is 30 gallons. And here is a list of corals currently in the tank but I have more coming this week.

Corals:
Cabbage Leather
Various zoa's
Grand Cinnamon Palythoa
Devils Hand Leather
Blow pop Hybrid Zoa
Orange Spiny Gorgonia
Purple candelabra
SBB Ghost Ember Goni
SBB Candy Blush Goni
SBB Blue Rainbow Goni
Duncan from ebay
2 Australia mini scoly

 

[twentyleagues]

The tank has been setup for 2 years so it's not new. Its 125 gallons and the sump is 30 gallons. And here is a list of corals currently in the tank but I have more coming this week.

Corals:
Cabbage Leather
Various zoa's
Grand Cinnamon Palythoa
Devils Hand Leather
Blow pop Hybrid Zoa
Orange Spiny Gorgonia
Purple candelabra
SBB Ghost Ember Goni
SBB Candy Blush Goni
SBB Blue Rainbow Goni
Duncan from ebay
2 Australia mini scoly

Wow you are either very meticulous in cleaning the glass or you just dont get much coralline. Nice tank!
You dont have any high users of alk, calcium or mag like sps or faster growing lps such as hammers and torches. I would definitely do a consumption test based off of alk. Test daily at the same time for about a week, record your readings and then you will know your daily consumption or roughly what that is. During this testing do not change water parameters dont add anything or change the water. Most corals will use some amount of most of the "big three" in some way, certain corals obviously use more. Goni, scoly, and duncans have a much smaller skeleton size than say a torch or hammer coral of the same size so they use less to visually get "larger". My guess is that you will end up adding a very small amount of AFR daily to keep up with demand. Daily dosing is better than once or twice a week as it keeps parameter more stable but honestly I dont think it would matter as much with your corals as they are not high demand like sps would be.

 

[Calmwaters]

Wow you are either very meticulous in cleaning the glass or you just dont get much coralline. Nice tank!
You dont have any high users of alk, calcium or mag like sps or faster growing lps such as hammers and torches. I would definitely do a consumption test based off of alk. Test daily at the same time for about a week, record your readings and then you will know your daily consumption or roughly what that is. During this testing do not change water parameters dont add anything or change the water. Most corals will use some amount of most of the "big three" in some way, certain corals obviously use more. Goni, scoly, and duncans have a much smaller skeleton size than say a torch or hammer coral of the same size so they use less to visually get "larger". My guess is that you will end up adding a very small amount of AFR daily to keep up with demand. Daily dosing is better than once or twice a week as it keeps parameter more stable but honestly I dont think it would matter as much with your corals as they are not high demand like sps would be.

Thank you! I have a hammer, a torch, two more gonis (I'm slightly obsessed with them) a scoly and 5 acan lords coming this week.

 

[Seansea]

Yes, you are.

Ahh maybe. I have dosed AFR for 3 years and have to add calcium weekly but i forgot i put sodium bicarbonate in my ato. So that scews it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Incorrect

I’m sory, but it is well l own exactly what is in AFR.

It supplies exactly 2.8 dKH of alk for each 20 ppm of calcium, just like kalkwasser and just like is in totally pure calcium carbonate.

But in seawater deposition of calcium carbonate, magnesium and, to a much smaller extent, strontium, replace some of the calcium in the structure. That results in a demand of a bit less than 20 ppm of calcium per 2.8 dKH. More like 18-19 ppm of calcium, depending on how much of the demand comes from coralline algae.

Coralline uses more magnesium because it actually deposits high magnesium calcite instead of aragonite. These values are easily verified by looking at the elemental analysis of coralline and coral skeletons.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Good morning. I started dosing the Calcium and Magnesium because I didn't feel like my corals where growing much at all and with my original testing results it was recommended that I raise those two. Then I heard about AFR and how great it was so I added it to my dosing as well. I manually dose everything and my corals seem to be happier. This is my schedule would you take a look at it and tell me what you would do differently? I will also include testing results from as far back as I have them. For lighting I have two Redsea Reef LED 90s, a Redsea Reef LED 50 and a Orphek OR4 Reef Day Plus.

Sunday: All for Reef in the morning and phyto then coral snow at night.
Monday: AB+ and powdered coral food, Feed flakes.
Tuesday: Dose Calcium, dose phyto and feed frozen food
Wednesday: Dose Magnesium, AB+ and coral food and feed pellets.
Thursday: Dose Phyto and feed frozen food
Friday: Dose Calcium, AB+ and coral food, feed flakes.
Saturday: Do testing, dose phyto, dose Magnesium, feed frozen.

All for Reef: 25ml
Magnesium: 37ml 3x a week
Calcium: 50ml 2x a week

2/15/26
Ph 7.7
Calcium 470
Magnesium 1170
Kh 11.5
Phosphate .03

2/27
Ph 8
Calcium 350
Magnesium 960
Kh 11.2
Phosphate .03

3/4
Ph 8
Calcium 430
Magnesium 990
Kh 10.2
Phosphate .03

3/15
Ph 8
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1230
Kh 10.9
Phosphate .03

3/22
Ph 7.7
Calcium 490
Magnesium 1110
Kh 11.5
Phosphate .03

4/5
Ph 8
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1140
Kh 12.8
Phosphate .03

Long term, you are overdosing calcium. Maybe or maybe not magnesium. I’d start just dosing AFR and hold off on any more calcium or magnesium. I don’t think the magnesium tests are reliable, and the fact that your numbers for it jump around supports this (unless it is driven by salinity changes(.

Try your mag kit on some new salt water.

 

[Calmwaters]

Long term, you are overdosing calcium. Maybe or maybe not magnesium. I’d start just dosing AFR and hold off on any more calcium or magnesium. I don’t think the magnesium tests are reliable, and the fact that your numbers for it jump around supports this (unless it is driven by salinity changes(.

Try your mag kit on some new salt water.

Thank you

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I would also just dose AFR for now. Dose it daily to get your water stabile and base your dosage off of your alk use. Right now your alk is high so just let it come down. Once you are there, start with the recommended starting dosage and monitor that. But dose daily, with your load it maybe only going to be less than 25ml a day.

 

[Rocks reef]

Long term, you are overdosing calcium. Maybe or maybe not magnesium. I’d start just dosing AFR and hold off on any more calcium or magnesium. I don’t think the magnesium tests are reliable, and the fact that your numbers for it jump around supports this (unless it is driven by salinity changes(.

Try your mag kit on some new salt water.

Amanda... follow this!

 

[Calmwaters]

Amanda... follow this!

Thank you its my post...

 

[Rocks reef]

Thank you its my post...

I know silly. I was talking about Randy's advice.
All I dose is AFR, it keeps my alk stable and calcium follows. I dose mag manually once a month if I remember. AFR has mag in it, but not enough to correct it if its low. So, on the safe side, I dose once a month at half strength. Between that and water changes, I feel my mag is within limits as my corals look happy and full. I know Randy has a DIY with added mag, the link was posted in this thread.

 

[Calmwaters]

I know silly. I was talking about Randy's advice.
All I dose is AFR, it keeps my alk stable and calcium follows. I dose mag manually once a month if I remember. AFR has mag in it, but not enough to correct it if its low. So, on the safe side, I dose once a month at half strength. Between that and water changes, I feel my mag is within limits as my corals look happy and full. I know Randy has a DIY with added mag, the link was posted in this thread.

Ah OK lol I thought you meant follow the thread silly me

 

[Ziggy17]

This is actually in reverse. It actually doses alk higher than calcium

Please explain in detail how Randy is incorrect.

 

[Ziggy17]

I used to dose alk calcium and mag separately, all DIY formulas to keep it cheap. I moved to AFR when I learned via ICP that I was low on trace. aFR is definitely more expensive by a long shot than the DIY stuff, but it’s easier to dose. As many have pointed out, using alk to dose the AFR is soooo much easier and keeps the big 3 in line. I also started dosing the TM A- and K+ for trace, but it’s early on with using them so can’t say it’s worth the extra $ dosing those over just AFR.

 

[56longroof]

Please explain in detail how Randy is incorrect.

Thats already been addressed.

 

[Science/G]

No. It acts the exact same as kalkwasser and adds slightly more calcium than alkalinity

This is true. I have to add some Balling B daily to support my alkalinity relative to my calcium, at the levels I want.

 

[Science/G]