Question for all for reef users

[Hooz]

Thanks a lot! That's great info. I was testing before work and evening. I did notice that the alk would climb between morning and evening. I was hoping to dial in my dose and then set the x1 to do it for me. After my next water change when my alk drops back down to around 8.5-8.7, I'm going to try and get the pump set up and going. I did see a small drop in nitrates when I was adding it to the tank not a big drop but definitely lower then where the tank had been running. I assume that has to do with the small carbon dosing effect this product has??

As o the nitrate thing, yes. Since I started dosing AFR, my nitrates have held between 10 and 15ppm with no real interaction from me. I've dropped back to only doing water changes monthly instead of weekly.

One of the benefits of AFR is that bacteria has to metabolize the formate to "make" the alkalinity. Since that takes some time, you're "safe" dosing it all once a day.

BUT

Bacteria is always working and never sleeps. I've found that splitting the dose up over the entire day (even at night) keeps the levels much more consistent through the day. I have mine setup to run 6 times a day (every 4 hours).

 

[MrGisonni]

Probably there is a small carbon effect that may help out the bacteria

 

[youcallmenny1]

I am seriously considering switching from BRS 2-part to AFR after seeing some friends results with it. Their tanks are much smaller than mine though. I have ~180g total system volume and am curious if this is an economical choice. Any idea roughly how many mL/day I'd need on a pretty stocked system?

 

[Hooz]

I am seriously considering switching from BRS 2-part to AFR after seeing some friends results with it. Their tanks are much smaller than mine though. I have ~180g total system volume and am curious if this is an economical choice. Any idea roughly how many mL/day I'd need on a pretty stocked system?

They recommend starting at 5ml for every 26 gallons. That would put you at about 35ml per day TO START. I actually run about 1.5x the recommended amount in my tank, so...

 

[MrGisonni]

If I added the recommended dose in my 30 mixed reef my alkalinity would be 11 and I would have to dose calcium for imbalance. 3.6 ml spread out over 4 doses every day keeps my alk at 8.5 and my calcium between 410 to 420. Every situation is different.

 

[youcallmenny1]

If I added the recommended dose in my 30 mixed reef my alkalinity would be 11 and I would have to dose calcium for imbalance. 3.6 ml spread out over 4 doses every day keeps my alk at 8.5 and my calcium between 410 to 420. Every situation is different.

I'm just trying to get an idea what average consumption looks like. It's not looking too much more expensive than 2-part. I'm waiting on two large canisters and I'm switching over. I'll be starting at the 5mL per 26g recommendation from the instructions and adjusting it up from there. I hope there isn't too much of a hiccup. My tank is sizeable and pretty well stocked. I'm sure after years of playing the 2-part game though it isn't going to be a big deal. Looking forward to seeing the results!

 

[Doglips56]

We

I'm just trying to get an idea what average consumption looks like. It's not looking too much more expensive than 2-part. I'm waiting on two large canisters and I'm switching over. I'll be starting at the 5mL per 26g recommendation from the instructions and adjusting it up from there. I hope there isn't too much of a hiccup. My tank is sizeable and pretty well stocked. I'm sure after years of playing the 2-part game though it isn't going to be a big deal. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Just curious about if you made the switch and, if you’ve kept with it what have your results been?

 

[knockout]

I made the switch, I met my goal of reducing the number of components I was dosing, you can read my journey here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/making-the-move-from-2-part-to-all-for-reef-a-reef-log.909295/