Switching from AFR to BRS 3 part, help with dosing.

[ajremington68]

Correction still doing AFR on my frag tank and 55g but its time to dose in my 180 and I want to do 3 part to keep everything where I want, then I am going to do reef monshiners to correct everything else. I have a 4 head doser and I have soda ash, calcium chloride from BRS then DIU randy holmes mag flake and epson salt. My question is, is there a general rule of dose say 5 ml of soda ash then do 2.5 ml of mag and calcium or do you have to test them indicudually once you do this method? Any links to forums that I can read up on so I know what ratios to dose and how they react to each other would be great. Want to do it right before I start dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The doses are similar. 1 mL AFR is close to 1 mL of the alk and 1 mL of the calcium.

 

[Miami Reef]

This is the most optimal method:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-balling-method-recipe.1098905/

 

[ajremington68]

So once I get all my values where I want say 9dkh alk, 430 calcium, 1500 mag then it’ll test to make sure they are stable and then if like alk dosage increase should I auto increase all of them or then do a retest. @Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[ajremington68]

This is the most optimal method:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-balling-method-recipe.1098905/

That is a simple but effective read thank you for this

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So once I get all my values where I want say 9dkh alk, 430 calcium, 1500 mag then it’ll test to make sure they are stable and then if like alk dosage increase should I auto increase all of them or then do a retest. @Randy Holmes-Farley

I’d dose the alk and calcium equally unless long term testing shows it is rising or falling too much.

That’s quite a high mag target, IMO, and I don’t recommend dosing mag based on testing. It is not accurate enough.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Came here to ask this as well... I am too making the switch from AFR to BRS 2-Part. Glad to hear that the dosage is similiar... 1ml of AFR = 1ml of BRS Alk and Calc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Came here to ask this as well... I am too making the switch from AFR to BRS 2-Part. Glad to hear that the dosage is similiar... 1ml of AFR = 1ml of BRS Alk and Calc.

It’s not exact, but close. The AFR is 13% more potent, but other aspects may also come into play, such as a pH change altering demand. :)

 

[ajremington68]

Came here to ask this as well... I am too making the switch from AFR to BRS 2-Part. Glad to hear that the dosage is similiar... 1ml of AFR = 1ml of BRS Alk and Calc.

What do you currently have in your tank? I want to switch all my tanks for the price point of 3 part with DIY solutions, but my 55g mixed reef is doing so good. but all the traces in the AFR...

I did see a complete reef from Redsea that is a 4-part with major and minor all in 4 bottles all adjusted off 1 calcium test. Kinda peaks my interest to switch to that on my 55g and see what that does. But my 180 I really wanna try reef moonshiners to see what I can get out of sps and make it less stressful, and gonis. haven't had luck with them and I bet getting detestable amounts of manganese will help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What do you currently have in your tank? I want to switch all my tanks for the price point of 3 part with DIY solutions, but my 55g mixed reef is doing so good. but all the traces in the AFR...

I did see a complete reef from Redsea that is a 4-part with major and minor all in 4 bottles all adjusted off 1 calcium test. Kinda peaks my interest to switch to that on my 55g and see what that does. But my 180 I really wanna try reef moonshiners to see what I can get out of sps and make it less stressful, and gonis. haven't had luck with them and I bet getting detestable amounts of manganese will help.

You can add Tropic Marin A and K into a two part if you want to dose trace elements that way.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

What do you currently have in your tank? I want to switch all my tanks for the price point of 3 part with DIY solutions, but my 55g mixed reef is doing so good. but all the traces in the AFR...

I did see a complete reef from Redsea that is a 4-part with major and minor all in 4 bottles all adjusted off 1 calcium test. Kinda peaks my interest to switch to that on my 55g and see what that does. But my 180 I really wanna try reef moonshiners to see what I can get out of sps and make it less stressful, and gonis. haven't had luck with them and I bet getting detestable amounts of manganese will help.

I'm somewhat heavily stocked with SPS frags currently, and a small colony. Have some ricordeas and misc. LPS (Acans, Chalice) as well.

I'm making the switch to the 2-part for the price point, and hear that the BRS 2-part is just overall a higher 'quality' if you will. The owner at my LFS persuaded me. There are some items in AFR that I was surprised seeing in my past ICP tests. I had no clue where they came from but in again talking with my LFS owner, he stated that these contaminents have been found in the AFR before.

I also run the moonshiners method. So, that's where I get other trace elements, on top of whatever AFR is putting in.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The owner at my LFS persuaded me. There are some items in AFR that I was surprised seeing in my past ICP tests. I had no clue where they came from but in again talking with my LFS owner, he stated that these contaminents have been found in the AFR before.

I also run the moonshiners method. So, that's where I get other trace elements, on top of whatever AFR is putting in.

Like what? I’ve never seen evidence of a problem with trace elements from folks using AFR.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Like what? I’ve never seen evidence of a problem with trace elements from folks using AFR.

Let me dig up my last ICP.