Trouble with dosing all for reef

Pvtgloss

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Im brand new to this, about 6 months in. When I added corals at the 4ish month mark my lfs suggested AFR. I started dosing 10ml/ 24 hr interval. It was like. 1ml every 14 mins or something. Cal and Mag stayed stable but Alk was dropping. So they suggested soda ash. I started dosing a 24 hr intervals after finding my daily consumption (13.2ml of soda ash per day) and correcting alk from 6.8 to 8. I find that my alk is still diminishing quicker than I am dosing. I'm up to 17ml of AFR and 14 mL of soda ash and my alk is still dropping. I fear that it's just precipitating, just from what I've read, but I really don't know what the signs are. There no cloud or white crystal accumulation that I can see. Am I going about this wrong? Should I just move to 2 part and trace elements? Is it safe to just dose more soda ash or should I stop dosing and try to find out my daily consumption again and restart the process?
I've been reading post for a week straight but I'm gun shy when it comes to dumping doses. I really appreciate any advice and insight. TIA

My system:
*Max e170 w/ trigger crystal 18 sump- I estimate 55 gallons with sump minus rock and sand.
*Dos and Tridant
Parameters
*Alk 7.2
*Cal 410-420
*Mag 1443
*Ph 7.92
*salt 33.9
* No3 6.7
*po4 .01
Livestock
* paired clowns, ywg&pistol pair, royal gamma, and cleaner shrimp.
* 2 hermis and couple of snails
*3 zoa frags, sinulara frag, favia frag, acan frag, and birdnest frag.
* no coralline yet
 
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Pvtgloss

Pvtgloss

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Tropic Marin Pro. I haven't done a WC in 2-3 weeks because my no3 and po4 are kind of low and I'm under the impression AFR contains enough trace elements. I was researching getting no3 and po4 balanced but i figured I should get this alk and dosing figured out first.
 

CK00020

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Take my opinion on this lightly, maybe someone with more experience will chime in. It could just be rocks and sand sucking it up, doesn’t sound like your corals are really big enough to be using much alk. I only dose 12 ml of afr daily and I have around 150gal system. I did go through a phase early where I was using a lot of alk for no reason. Hope this helps
 
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Pvtgloss

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Take my opinion on this lightly, maybe someone with more experience will chime in. It could just be rocks and sand sucking it up, doesn’t sound like your corals are really big enough to be using much alk. I only dose 12 ml of afr daily and I have around 150gal system. I did go through a phase early where I was using a lot of alk for no reason. Hope this helps
Thanks man. I'll Keep that in mind.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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sorry, but your LFS steered you wrong, just basically got you to spend more money.

What were the parameters before dosing that made your LFS believe you should be dosing? Or what was the conversation? Really no need in normal cases to start dosing just for a few frags in a 4 month old tank.

what brand of test kit you use?

Personally I would stop, start testing regularly and then determine what you need to do. If you really need alk to be buffed, then I would just get an alk buffer, personally I dont like the 'all-in-one' formula's. If I read correctly, you are dosing 2 kinds of 'all-in-one' formula's.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Not sure what solution you are using the for the soda ash solution, but if it is my DIY (like the BRS recipe), then you are only dosing about 0.4 dKH per day, not the 1.2 dKH rise you see.

I suspect you are just not dosing enough of either the AFR or the soda ash to keep alk at 8.0 dKH. 7.2 dKH is perfectly fine, but if you want more you likely will just have to dose more. :)

If you prefer AFR, just up the dose of it until alk is stable.
 

Hooz

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Some things to note with All for Reef...

Dose the same dose for a couple days before making any changes. Sometimes there is a little lag before the alkalinity shows up.

Do your dosing at the same time(s) each day.

Do your testing at the same time(s) each day.

I found that when I went from a single dose of AfR daily to spreading it out into multiple doses throughout the day, I had to up the total amount to maintain my levels. Also found that my levels stayed more stable through the day when spreading it out into multiple doses.

I adjusted my AfR dosing until it MAINTAINED the alk reading (not dropping daily). Once I could keep it stable with AfR, then I used an alk supplement from a 2/3 parts system to raise the alk to what I wanted it to be... Say my AfR dosing was holding everything steady at 7.9dkh for multiple days in a row, then I used Read Sea foundation to boost the alk to 9dkh (slowly over a couple days). Once I was at 9dkh, my AfR maintained it by itself.

I hope that all makes sense.
 
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Pvtgloss

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That's so much for the replies. I think I'm gonna go the route randy and hooz suggested. Cut off the soda ash and up the AFR until alk is stable. Thank you hooz, the way you described your method really helped. Thank you everyone
 

Shooter6

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I've been using all for reef for over 4 years. 2 different systems, 1 total water volume of 240g, the new one 1200g.

The first I dosed 300ml of afr per day. Sps dominant reef.
First pic I will attach.

The second I am currently dosing 180ml per day of all for reef, 3 gal of kalkwasser slurry, 180ml of redsea alk, 180ml cal and 200ml of magnesium.

Afr takes up to 24-36 hrs to fully release the alk and test.

Example you dose 1 ml right now. Test in a few hrs and get 8.0dkh, then 24hrs later it can increase to 9.0 ect.

Buy the afr powder and save a lot of money.

Expect to have to dose alk mag or calcium separately if water changes and afr doesn't keep the 3 in the proper ranges.

Example dosing afr and alk/cal stay in the right ratio but mag drops due to uptake. This can occur with any of the 3 parts.

Afr is as close to a liquid dosing that matches a calcium reactor as you can get. Even calcium reactors need additional dosing from time to time to keep parameters in range.

20200802_133429.jpg 20200802_133421.jpg 20200730_190950.jpg 20200729_210325.jpg 20200729_210413.jpg 20200721_230313.jpg 20200718_213409.jpg 20220131_141657.jpg 20220102_222830.jpg 20211203_221932.jpg 20211007_212316.jpg 20211005_212656.jpg
 
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Roatan Reef

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I currently dose TM Bacto Balance and All For Reef once a day....there is an article on here from @SunnyX
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacterial-driven-system-a-recipe-for-success.918102/#post-10311877

I just straight dose the recommended doses directly into the tank, everyday in the AM...I try to make it around the same time AM, but sometimes on weekends, it's more like early afternoon.

I have seen great things in my tank in 2.5 weeks...and it's all I use for dosing currently, Believe me, I tried 10's of products...but am only dosing this from now on based on article I linked.

I have a 40B so it's only like .50Ml of Bacto Balance and about 8.5 ml. of AFR.
 
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Hey guys, just wanted to do a quick update. I took the advice of stopping the soda ash dose and slowly raised AFR until my numbers got stable. They have been pretty stable. I think the only fluctuations are the trident's margin of error. My alk stays around 7.45 but my salifert reads 8. Either way I'm done trying to tweak it. I would like to slowly raise alk but I have a no3 and po4 issues I need to tackle next. N03 stays around 6.2 and po4 is .00. Anyways, thanks guys.
 

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Shooter6

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Hey guys, just wanted to do a quick update. I took the advice of stopping the soda ash dose and slowly raised AFR until my numbers got stable. They have been pretty stable. I think the only fluctuations are the trident's margin of error. My alk stays around 7.45 but my salifert reads 8. Either way I'm done trying to tweak it. I would like to slowly raise alk but I have a no3 and po4 issues I need to tackle next. N03 stays around 6.2 and po4 is .00. Anyways, thanks guys.
Glad you figured it out!
 

Jcampise51

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I've been using all for reef for over 4 years. 2 different systems, 1 total water volume of 240g, the new one 1200g.

The first I dosed 300ml of afr per day. Sps dominant reef.
First pic I will attach.

The second I am currently dosing 180ml per day of all for reef, 3 gal of kalkwasser slurry, 180ml of redsea alk, 180ml cal and 200ml of magnesium.

Afr takes up to 24-36 hrs to fully release the alk and test.

Example you dose 1 ml right now. Test in a few hrs and get 8.0dkh, then 24hrs later it can increase to 9.0 ect.

Buy the afr powder and save a lot of money.

Expect to have to dose alk mag or calcium separately if water changes and afr doesn't keep the 3 in the proper ranges.

Example dosing afr and alk/cal stay in the right ratio but mag drops due to uptake. This can occur with any of the 3 parts.

Afr is as close to a liquid dosing that matches a calcium reactor as you can get. Even calcium reactors need additional dosing from time to time to keep parameters in range.

20200802_133429.jpg 20200802_133421.jpg 20200730_190950.jpg 20200729_210325.jpg 20200729_210413.jpg 20200721_230313.jpg 20200718_213409.jpg 20220131_141657.jpg 20220102_222830.jpg 20211203_221932.jpg 20211007_212316.jpg 20211005_212656.jpg
How do you like using the trident For apex?
 

Shooter6

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How do you like using the trident For apex?
I do not use either. I do not like the idea of a single point of failure aka a linchpin. Hydros and reef factory make much more sense to me personally.
 

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