Should I use All for Reef?

BryanM · Mar 6, 2025

tobster said:
Thank you for explaining that. I read the chart you sent in the link yesterday and noticed AFR was marked with a yellow box on the overdosing area so I wasn’t sure.

I've been dosing AFR for 7 months, recently did an ICP, and while trying to maintain 9 dKH, my calc and mag numbers were just fine.

There's a lot of worry around this, and time will tell, maybe my numbers will creep up and I'll want to do something different, but I'm certainly not worried about it right now.

tobster · Mar 6, 2025

BryanM said:
I've been dosing AFR for 7 months, recently did an ICP, and while trying to maintain 9 dKH, my calc and mag numbers were just fine.

There's a lot of worry around this, and time will tell, maybe my numbers will creep up and I'll want to do something different, but I'm certainly not worried about it right now.

Thanks for that info. Do you do weekly or bi weekly water changes? I would think that would offset the rise in numbers?

BryanM · Mar 6, 2025

tobster said:
Thanks for that info. Do you do weekly or bi weekly water changes? I would think that would offset the rise in numbers?

I do not do water changes, and this is primarily why I chose to dose AFR.

exnisstech · Mar 6, 2025

I've been dosing AFR for over a year in my acro dominant tank and have been very happy. I've read of calcium creeping up over time but I've not really noticed that being a problem in my tank. I don't test mag. I do small water changes 2-4g every 7-10 days so I can remove detritus that gathers in a corner.
I'm at 30ml a day with 65g total. I like to keep my alk 8-9 dkH preferring lower 8s.

rishma · Mar 6, 2025

BryanM said:
I've been dosing AFR for 7 months, recently did an ICP, and while trying to maintain 9 dKH, my calc and mag numbers were just fine.

There's a lot of worry around this, and time will tell, maybe my numbers will creep up and I'll want to do something different, but I'm certainly not worried about it right now.

I honestly don’t understand the concern recently with AFRs oversupply of calcium. We have been using kalkwasser for decades and it oversupplies calcium in exactly the same way. I don’t recall anyone really worrying out it.

Perhaps it’s because people know about it now? Or maybe the greater prevalence of not doing water changes? Either way my experience is corals don’t seem to mind a broad range of calcium levels. I only test calcium a couple times per year and I have never really done anything about it. I do change water every month.

exnisstech · Mar 6, 2025

rishma said:
I honestly don’t understand the concern recently with AFRs oversupply of calcium. We have been using kalkwasser for decades and it oversupplies calcium in exactly the same way. I don’t recall anyone really worrying out it.

Perhaps it’s because people know about it now? Or maybe the greater prevalence of not doing water changes? Either way my experience is corals don’t seem to mind a broad range of calcium levels. I only test calcium a couple times per year and I have never really done anything about it. I do change water every month.

This is my calcium test results after using AFR for 11 months. I don't see a problem but i don't freak out over every little change like many people seem to do these days. Tested with salifert.

rishma · Mar 6, 2025

exnisstech said:
This is my calcium test results after using AFR for 11 months. I don't see a problem but i don't freak out over every little change like many people seem to do these days. Tested with salifert.

My calcium got up to 600 last year. My corals didn’t know it until I showed them the ICP results.

tobster · Mar 6, 2025

exnisstech said:
I've been dosing AFR for over a year in my acro dominant tank and have been very happy. I've read of calcium creeping up over time but I've not really noticed that being a problem in my tank. I don't test mag. I do small water changes 2-4g every 7-10 days so I can remove detritus that gathers in a corner.
I'm at 30ml a day with 65g total. I like to keep my alk 8-9 dkH preferring lower 8s.

beautiful corals! thanks for the input.

tobster · Mar 6, 2025

rishma said:
I honestly don’t understand the concern recently with AFRs oversupply of calcium. We have been using kalkwasser for decades and it oversupplies calcium in exactly the same way. I don’t recall anyone really worrying out it.

Perhaps it’s because people know about it now? Or maybe the greater prevalence of not doing water changes? Either way my experience is corals don’t seem to mind a broad range of calcium levels. I only test calcium a couple times per year and I have never really done anything about it. I do change water every month.

thats what i would like to eventually get to is only doing a monthly water change. i havent ever dosed anything other than ALK so now that my tank is starting to consume i just want to be sure i get it right.

areefer01 · Mar 6, 2025

exnisstech said:
This is my calcium test results after using AFR for 11 months. I don't see a problem but i don't freak out over every little change like many people seem to do these days. Tested with salifert.

I do not see the Ca issue either. With regards to water changes I aim for bi-weekly but it is typically once a month. I am not posting to say that the Ca drift is not there just that "I" do not really see it. I believe it will vary by display consumption, age, and the daily dose amount. I am currently set to 95 ml/day on my 210 gallon mixed reef.

ATI ICP over time. I have a plethora of Trident data but too lazy to get it:

Sample of my larger Acropora's colonies:

BryanM · Mar 6, 2025

My last ICP test result, about a month ago, had Calc at 462, and Mag at 1431.

I consider my tank maybe 15% stocked, so minimal load, and dosing for 7 months... I need more time and data obviously, but right now I don't think its a big deal.

rishma · Mar 6, 2025

areefer01 said:
I do not see the Ca issue either. With regards to water changes I aim for bi-weekly but it is typically once a month. I am not posting to say that the Ca drift is not there just that "I" do not really see it. I believe it will vary by display consumption, age, and the daily dose amount. I am currently set to 95 ml/day on my 210 gallon mixed reef.

ATI ICP over time. I have a plethora of Trident data but too lazy to get it:

Sample of my larger Acropora's colonies:

Nice tank!!

I’d say that the Ca drift is 100% real based on the facts of calcification and the concentrations of ions in AFR and kalkwasser. It should not vary by tank, etc. but the drift may be small enough based on dose to be not observable in Ca tests due to accuracy and/or totally compensated by water changes.

This is my favorite reef chemistry fact:
For each 2.8 dKH of alkalinity consumed, about 18-20 ppm calcium and 1-2 ppm magnesium are also consumed.

There can be exceptions with sulfur denitrators or big swings in nitrate, but generally true! I never recommend dosing components outside of this balance unless there is a known imbalance that needs correcting or sometimes really new tanks that seem to have an imbalance in precipitation for a short period (I don’t know the reason for this)