Using All For Reef all in one

[Reva_loution54]

Hey fellow reefers, so I’ve been dosing only Tropic Marines All For Reef since I set my tank up back in April. The results have been great so far (pictures below) only problem is I’m at the half way mark of the daily maximum dosage 25ml and soon I will have to find an alternative way to dose but I don’t know what could possibly match the simplicity and results of All For Reef. Have any of you used this and had to move on to a new dosing method after using this product?? And if you haven’t I’m open to suggestions as to what has worked for you.

 

[t5Nitro]

Plenty of people dosing multiples of the labeled maximum dosing per Lou at TM, including the guys over at BRS.

 

[Reva_loution54]

Plenty of people dosing multiples of the labeled maximum dosing per Lou at TM, including the guys over at BRS.

So you’re saying even if the maximum dosage is 25ml per day I can go past that without any adverse affects??

 

[t5Nitro]

I think the guys over at BRS one of them is upwards of >150mL a day without adverse events. @Lou Ekus hopefully can chime in. Of course the disclaimer is TM and BRS are both selling this product, but I've had nothing but good experiences in communication with both Lou and BRS.

 

[iamacat]

Following along

 

[danieyella]

I used this for awhile and it worked amazing until my tank somehow landed itself out of wack with uptake. No fault of the product, I just have to dose separate measurements of calcium and alk now so I'm using brightwell.

 

[Reva_loution54]

I think the guys over at BRS one of them is upwards of >150mL a day without adverse events. @Lou Ekus hopefully can chime in. Of course the disclaimer is TM and BRS are both selling this product, but I've had nothing but good experiences in communication with both Lou and BRS.

Thanks, hopefully @Lou Ekus can fill in some of the blanks here, I really like this stuff.

 

[Reva_loution54]

I used this for awhile and it worked amazing until my tank somehow landed itself out of wack with uptake. No fault of the product, I just have to dose separate measurements of calcium and alk now so I'm using brightwell.

Yeah I’m kinda going through the same thing too, as expected in the beginning I was only dosing 2ml a day and that went on for almost 5 months then I went from 5ml a day to 12ml in two months time. Obviously the corals intake has grown and it shows which is great. But at this rate I’d be at the max around the one year mark and want to prepare.

 

[t5Nitro]

Another option would also be to supplement with kalkwasser if that was an option. It's way cheaper and comes with the benefit of pH boost. I'm only up to 15mL daily of AFR for now myself, but I know there are people dosing a lot more than what the instructions read.

 

[Reva_loution54]

So dosing Kalk and the AFR or just the kalk??

 

[danieyella]

My problem is my ALK consumption seemed to decrease while my calcium consumption skyrocketed. In retrospect I could have supplemented with something additional for the extra calcium at the time but I just finished off my bottle and went separate ways. I'm actually in the reverse again now, where my alk consumption is way higher. My tank just does what it wants I guess.

 

[Lou Ekus]

I'll try to address these questions one at a time. But as always, if anyone wants more information or has additional specific questions, please give me a call in the office.

@Reva_loution54 and @t5Nitro Yes, there are lots of people using more than the maximum recommended daily dose of AFR. We are extremely conservative with our instructions. But exceeding this dose has not seemed to prove out to be an issue for anyone that I have talked to about doing it. I don't know if he is still doing it, but last time I talked to Zack at BRS, he was using 3 times the maximum recommended daily dose, and his tank was doing amazingly well. I'm pretty sure he is still doing that. It has been quite a while now, well over a year!

@danieyella It is quite unusual to see more Ca consumption than alkalinity. Most of the time it is the other way around. I would love to help you figure that out. If you would like to chat about it sometime, that would be great. But it sounds like your more on track now. But please consider going to the Balling Method, instead of a 2 part. It sounds like you are having some great success, and I am not a fan of the excess sodium chloride that results from the 2 part approach.

 

[chefbuddy24]

Hey fellow reefers, so I’ve been dosing only Tropic Marines All For Reef since I set my tank up back in April. The results have been great so far (pictures below) only problem is I’m at the half way mark of the daily maximum dosage 25ml and soon I will have to find an alternative way to dose but I don’t know what could possibly match the simplicity and results of All For Reef. Have any of you used this and had to move on to a new dosing method after using this product?? And if you haven’t I’m open to suggestions as to what has worked for you.

How bigs your tank?

 

[Cory]

Heres the interesting part. Calcium hydroxide with a little vinegar makes some calcium acetate which iirc is what all for reef is. So id use that

 

[Lou Ekus]

Heres the interesting part. Calcium hydroxide with a little vinegar makes some calcium acetate which iirc is what all for reef is. So id use that

I will just chime in on this.... All-For-Reef is NOT calcium acetate! And it should NOT be confused with it. The oxygen consumption related to calcium acetate usage, can prove to be problematic under many dosing conditions. All-For-Reef is based in calcium formate which does NOT have that issue.

 

[Cory]

I will just chime in on this.... All-For-Reef is NOT calcium acetate! And it should NOT be confused with it. The oxygen consumption related to calcium acetate usage, can prove to be problematic under many dosing conditions. All-For-Reef is based in calcium formate which does NOT have that issue.

Thanks for the clarification! Id use both in his case. Calcium hydroxide and your product calcium formate. Could help with low ph too.

 

[Cory]

All-For-Reef is based in calcium formate which does NOT have that issue.

Why wouldn't it have oxygen issues like calcium acetate? Its my understanding that both calcium acetate and calcium formate require bacteria to break them apart to make the calcium and alkalinity available which requires oxygen no? Or is it just a much less potent carbon source than calcium acetate?

 

[Lou Ekus]

Why wouldn't it have oxygen issues like calcium acetate? Its my understanding that both calcium acetate and calcium formate require bacteria to break them apart to make the calcium and alkalinity available which requires oxygen no? Or is it just a much less potent carbon source than calcium acetate?

It is my understanding (I am not a chemist) that the amount of metabolic activity that is needed to metabolize the calcium formate, is a fraction of the activity needed for the same process of the acetate. But I don't have the numbers or the specific formulas.

 

[chefbuddy24]

@Lou Ekus , how do I keep the all for reef from clogging my auto Doser tubing? Every few days I have to squeeze the end to break up the clog. Dosing 22 ml a day over about 11 hours
Thanks in advance

 

[Lou Ekus]

@Lou Ekus , how do I keep the all for reef from clogging my auto Doser tubing? Every few days I have to squeeze the end to break up the clog. Dosing 22 ml a day over about 11 hours
Thanks in advance

There are a couple of easy ways to do that. You can have the AFR dose into a "Y" fitting in your auto top off tube. Then it "flushes" out every time the auto top off runs. Or you can submerge the tip of the dosing tube. But if you do that, you need to make sure you have the correct type of dosing pump so you ensure you don't get any back siphoning of the tank water.