Tweaking all for reef

[Seymo44]

I have a 6 month old 65 gal mixed reef that I’ve been dosing with all for reef. I use the powdered form and mix it myself.

Currently have mostly small lps frags but a handful of sps and softies as well. I’m waiting for my parameters to get more in line before adding in any more acros. Most of my corals are still small frags, as such my dosing is only 3.5ml per day. I test alk and cal daily.

All for reef has been keeping my alk at 9, but my magnesium and calcium have been staying low.

Does anyone know if I could add bio-calcium and bio-magnesium to my all for reef solution to bump those parameters up? I’m trying to run this reef using only one dosing pump with no manual dosing, other than aminos, etc. My current tank params are below.

Thanks

Alk 9dkh
Cal 380
Mag 1200
No3 0
PO4 .02

 

[beesnreefs]

I have a 6 month old 65 gal mixed reef that I’ve been dosing with all for reef. I use the powdered form and mix it myself.

Currently have mostly small lps frags but a handful of sps and softies as well. I’m waiting for my parameters to get more in line before adding in any more acros. Most of my corals are still small frags, as such my dosing is only 3.5ml per day. I test alk and cal daily.

All for reef has been keeping my alk at 9, but my magnesium and calcium have been staying low.

Does anyone know if I could add bio-calcium and bio-magnesium to my all for reef solution to bump those parameters up? I’m trying to run this reef using only one dosing pump with no manual dosing, other than aminos, etc. My current tank params are below.

Thanks

Alk 9dkh
Cal 380
Mag 1200
No3 0
PO4 .02

So long as your calcium and magnesium are stable, yes, you can supplement them up to the levels you want.

I’ve been using AFR in my established mixed reef for a few months now. What I’m finding is once dialed in the calcium stays solid and the magnesium slowly drops over time. I supplement AF Mg Plus every few weeks to get it back up to where I want it

 

[Seymo44]

So long as your calcium and magnesium are stable, yes, you can supplement them up to the levels you want.

I’ve been using AFR in my established mixed reef for a few months now. What I’m finding is once dialed in the calcium stays solid and the magnesium slowly drops over time. I supplement AF Mg Plus every few weeks to get it back up to where I want it

Do you think I could mix the all for reef powder, bio-cal, and bio-mag together in the same solution? I know all for reef contains bio-cal, and bio-mag, I just want to tweak the proportions a bit.

 

[beesnreefs]

Do you think I could mix the all for reef powder, bio-cal, and bio-mag together in the same solution? I know all for reef contains bio-cal, and bio-mag, I just want to tweak the proportions a bit.

No idea. My guess is that would not be a good idea. Probably better to supplement as needed than mess with the ratios in the AFR

 

[beesnreefs]

FWIW, if you contact Tropic Marin you’ll get Lou Ekus, the expert on AFR. He’s awesome and will answer all your questions quickly. Email is [email protected]

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Do you think I could mix the all for reef powder, bio-cal, and bio-mag together in the same solution? I know all for reef contains bio-cal, and bio-mag, I just want to tweak the proportions a bit.

Extremely high likelihood this will just precipitate out when added to solution. All for reef does not contain bio-cal it contains carbocalcium AKA calcium formate which is a balanced additive similar to kalkwasser but more concentrated. What makes it All for reef is the addition of trace elements and magnesium to the calcium formate at matched proportions.

If you want to find out for sure, take 100ml of all for reef and add 100ml of bio-cal (both in mixed liquid form) and see if you get a cloud when you mix them. Repeat with bio-mag.

You want to add manually calcium and magnesium until they are back in normal range.

Once they are normal, they should stay that way since all for reef is well balanced.

 

[Seymo44]

Thank you all for the replies. I will definitively reach out to Lou at tropic Marin. And thank you @ZombieEngineer for pointing out that AFR contained carbo cal and not bio cal. That could have ended badly lol

 

[Reef_Curiosity]

Better safe than sorry. Leave the AFR alone and dose Bio-Mag weekly. 2 scoops weekly should be more than enough to create an upward trend, then reduce as you hit the level you want.
Regarding the calcium, I think it's stable for you. The small differences are tough to detect on test kits.
If you want to boost just the calcium, you can add Original Balling Part A to hit the desired level and keep it steady there with AFR.

 

[Seymo44]

Thank you for the recommendation! I messaged Lou at Tropic Marin, and he basically said the same thing.