TM All-for-Reef affect Coralline Growth?

[lynn.reef.nerd]

Does anyone see a lack in Coralline growth when using All-for-Reef?

I have started 5 tanks so far and usually would see Coralline growth around the 6 months mark.

For 2 of the smaller tanks that I use AFR, I don't see any coralline growth even after 1 year. Not on the glass or the rocks.

I switched over to BRS 2-part a few months back because trying to find AFR was a pain. Within a month, I see coralline on the back glass.

Anyone else have the same experience?

 

[jhuntstl]

I've had the opposite experience. I'm 2-3 months in on my nano aio and was surprised to see coralline growth shortly after starting AFR at only 2.5ml/day.

 

[lynn.reef.nerd]

I've had the opposite experience. I'm 2-3 months in on my nano aio and was surprised to see coralline growth shortly after starting AFR at only 2.5ml/day.

Interesting. Coral growth is the same as regular 2-part just a lack of coralline for me.
Was curious to see if there is a difference. Thanks for your input!

 

[ReefLaw]

I run AFR and kalk in a dosing container on a 115 gallon system and the combo has been awesome for me. The kalk gives me a Ph boost (and coralline growth) and the AFR keeps my alk stable and returns on point ICP tests. A kalk stirrer set up with AFR would be the dream.

 

[boatguy]

my coralline growth started when I started using all for reef.

 

[Acrofiend]

High magnesium, strontium, calcium and strong lighting encourage coralline growth. All for reef will only maintain your levels.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

High magnesium, strontium, calcium and strong lighting encourage coralline growth. All for reef will only maintain your levels.

FWIW, I'm skeptical that strontium does anything useful, but proving it one way or the other is quite challenging.

 

[Shooter6]

I had high coraline growth In my 180g display using red sea 3 part. The plating coraline. , after switching to afr the coraline all but died off in the display. Crazy thing was my sump, especially in the refugeum section had massive coraline growth. I literally had to scrape the glass weekly otherwise I wouldn't be able to see in it.
On my new system im running a combo of afr and kalkwasser, hoping for the benefits each offer to max my gains.

 

[paintman]

I run AFR and kalk in a dosing container on a 115 gallon system and the combo has been awesome for me. The kalk gives me a Ph boost (and coralline growth) and the AFR keeps my alk stable and returns on point ICP tests. A kalk stirrer set up with AFR would be the dream.

What ratios Kalk/AFR? Sounds pretty sketch to me. wouldn't this send you AlK/Ca through the roof?

 

[CK00020]

Also interested in ratios, I run afr now and am looking into dosing kalk.

 

[Shooter6]

What ratios Kalk/AFR? Sounds pretty sketch to me. wouldn't this send you AlK/Ca through the roof?

Absolutely not! I'm doing the same thing, it's just like people running a calcium reactor and kalk.
All you do is dose less of each. Making an even more stable set of parameters. If there's a drop in alk then you just up the kalk slightly, or afr slightly. The addition of kalk to the mix helps up the ph leading to even better growth!

 

[arking_mark]

Absolutely not! I'm doing the same thing, it's just like people running a calcium reactor and kalk.
All you do is dose less of each. Making an even more stable set of parameters. If there's a drop in alk then you just up the kalk slightly, or afr slightly. The addition of kalk to the mix helps up the ph leading to even better growth!

Exactly what I'm doing as well. Dosing Kalkwasser to my evaporation limit and supplementing the rest of my demand with AFR. Good pH bump...easy AFR dosing.

 

[Shadows Reef]

I too jumped on the kalk and AFR ban wagon and I can’t say I noticed a difference other then two weeks into the change my huge rose nem splitting into 4,

3D printed a nem box and called it a win lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What ratios Kalk/AFR? Sounds pretty sketch to me. wouldn't this send you AlK/Ca through the roof?

Why would it?

One can maintain alk/calcium by kalkwasser, or AFR, or any ratio of the two. In all cases, you adjust the dose to match the tank demand.

 

[map2022]

I thought I’d add an anecdote involving all-for-reef and coralline algae.

My tank used to have good coralline algae coverage of the live rocks, back glass, powerheads, etc. Then (probably around the time I first started dosing all-for reef) hermit crabs started eating the coralline off the rocks and the growth on the glass and equipment slowed way down.

Over the past month, I’ve been dealing with a series of water parameter issues (set off by a bad bottle of Hanna alkalinity reagent btw). As a result of that, I suspended AFR dosing and had to start dosing some NO3 and PO4 (to try to fight back a dino outbreak). During that time, the coralline bounced back to the point the live rocks were a solid inky purple again.

Now, for the past three days I’ve been dosing small amounts of all-for-reef again. And this morning I noticed hermit crabs eating coralline off the rocks, resulting in some new bare/lavender spots. Over those three days, I was testing NO3 and PO4 and they remained at stable, non-zero values.

Obviously there’s a lot going on with my tank right now so I’m not sure there’s a correlation between all-for-reef and the coralline, much less a causal relationship, but it did make me curious enough to find this thread. I wonder if it’s possible the calcium formate (or the mechanism responsible for breaking it down) could be weakening the coralline enough for hermit crabs to pick it off the rocks?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I thought I’d add an anecdote involving all-for-reef and coralline algae.

My tank used to have good coralline algae coverage of the live rocks, back glass, powerheads, etc. Then (probably around the time I first started dosing all-for reef) hermit crabs started eating the coralline off the rocks and the growth on the glass and equipment slowed way down.

Over the past month, I’ve been dealing with a series of water parameter issues (set off by a bad bottle of Hanna alkalinity reagent btw). As a result of that, I suspended AFR dosing and had to start dosing some NO3 and PO4 (to try to fight back a dino outbreak). During that time, the coralline bounced back to the point the live rocks were a solid inky purple again.

Now, for the past three days I’ve been dosing small amounts of all-for-reef again. And this morning I noticed hermit crabs eating coralline off the rocks, resulting in some new bare/lavender spots. Over those three days, I was testing NO3 and PO4 and they remained at stable, non-zero values.

Obviously there’s a lot going on with my tank right now so I’m not sure there’s a correlation between all-for-reef and the coralline, much less a causal relationship, but it did make me curious enough to find this thread. I wonder if it’s possible the calcium formate (or the mechanism responsible for breaking it down) could be weakening the coralline enough for hermit crabs to pick it off the rocks?

There’s no such thing as calcium formate in the tank, but there is calcium ion and there is formate ion.

While I cannot prove the formate does not somehow impact coralline, have you tracked alkalinity when using it to know if alk remains unchanged?