I recently switch from two part to Tropic Marin All For Reef (AFR). The main reason I switched was for convenience. To go from dosing three separate products to just one. I was dosing Soda Ash with A- Elements, Calcium Chloride with K+ Elements, and Part C. My tank is a 40 gallon AIO, with ~ 31 gallons of water.
To switch over I had to estimate the equivalent AFR to the two part. From what I could find AFR is ~1.13x more potent than two-part. I was dosing ~50ml/day of the two-part, so the equivalent AFR would be ~44ml/day. To be conservative I started at 40ml/day. After things settled in over the next couple of weeks, I ended up at 38ml/day of AFR. I initially had to go down to 32ml/day, then stepped up to the 38ml/day. Since I was using soda ash switching over did result in a loss of pH boost that it gives, so that may account for the end dose being lower than estimated (lower pH, Alk demand went down). The potency of my home made soda ash could have been lower than standard solutions, as another potential additional contributor. But I don't know if this was the case or not. My AFR dose is 1.8dkH/day where my two part dose was 2.3dKH/day. About a -30% change.
The TM AFR instructions would have had me starting at 6ml/day, increasing by 3ml per week. I'm assuming their instructions are based on someone just starting dosing and not switching over an established tank. Their instructions also recommend that my tank not exceed 29ml/day. I'm 30% above that. Not sure if there are any actual down sides to exceeding their recommendation or not. Somewhere I think they said that recommendation is conservative or something to that effect.
My dosing schedule is when the lights are on at 10AM, 12PM, 2PM and 4PM (overall light schedule is from 10AM to 10PM, main lighting from 3PM to 8PM). I ended up using two of my three dosing pumps (Kamoer X1 Pro), splitting the dose for redundancy. One doing 10AM/2PM and the other 12PM/4PM.
I did experience the end of my dosing tubes precipitating. To fix this I made it so my RO fill flushes the tubes. This was from forum suggestions, not my idea. I initially tried cutting the tubes at an angle, but that didn't quite fix it.
The cost per year of the switch is really not that more than what I was doing previously. I estimated it's going to be ~$10 or so more a year. My previous cost break down was:
60% - TM A- and K+ Elements
20% - TM Part C
20% - Soda Ash and CaCl
Here is the change in pH from the switch from Soda Ash. I'm not sure of the accuracy of the values (if you can read them) as I have not calibrated the pH probe in probably a couple of years, but the trend is evident.
Dosing setup, RO is the dark tube, other two are the AFR. The one tube is light blue from its previous use of the CaCl and K+ Elements solution. The K+ causing the discoloration.
To switch over I had to estimate the equivalent AFR to the two part. From what I could find AFR is ~1.13x more potent than two-part. I was dosing ~50ml/day of the two-part, so the equivalent AFR would be ~44ml/day. To be conservative I started at 40ml/day. After things settled in over the next couple of weeks, I ended up at 38ml/day of AFR. I initially had to go down to 32ml/day, then stepped up to the 38ml/day. Since I was using soda ash switching over did result in a loss of pH boost that it gives, so that may account for the end dose being lower than estimated (lower pH, Alk demand went down). The potency of my home made soda ash could have been lower than standard solutions, as another potential additional contributor. But I don't know if this was the case or not. My AFR dose is 1.8dkH/day where my two part dose was 2.3dKH/day. About a -30% change.
The TM AFR instructions would have had me starting at 6ml/day, increasing by 3ml per week. I'm assuming their instructions are based on someone just starting dosing and not switching over an established tank. Their instructions also recommend that my tank not exceed 29ml/day. I'm 30% above that. Not sure if there are any actual down sides to exceeding their recommendation or not. Somewhere I think they said that recommendation is conservative or something to that effect.
My dosing schedule is when the lights are on at 10AM, 12PM, 2PM and 4PM (overall light schedule is from 10AM to 10PM, main lighting from 3PM to 8PM). I ended up using two of my three dosing pumps (Kamoer X1 Pro), splitting the dose for redundancy. One doing 10AM/2PM and the other 12PM/4PM.
I did experience the end of my dosing tubes precipitating. To fix this I made it so my RO fill flushes the tubes. This was from forum suggestions, not my idea. I initially tried cutting the tubes at an angle, but that didn't quite fix it.
The cost per year of the switch is really not that more than what I was doing previously. I estimated it's going to be ~$10 or so more a year. My previous cost break down was:
60% - TM A- and K+ Elements
20% - TM Part C
20% - Soda Ash and CaCl
Here is the change in pH from the switch from Soda Ash. I'm not sure of the accuracy of the values (if you can read them) as I have not calibrated the pH probe in probably a couple of years, but the trend is evident.
Dosing setup, RO is the dark tube, other two are the AFR. The one tube is light blue from its previous use of the CaCl and K+ Elements solution. The K+ causing the discoloration.
