What are you dosing? Sps keepers.

[Troylee]

For all you shiners in here I have a question.. what differences have you seen in your tank? Is it growth or colors or?!?!?

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

For all you shiners in here I have a question.. what differences have you seen in your tank? Is it growth or colors or?!?!?

dont do it man :eek:

 

[Jasonak]

dont do it man :eek:

I promise you thats not whats happening here lol

 

[areefer01]

Seems we are all over the place. This is not scientific let alone accurate but something loose I threw together by taking a common name and placing a X in that column then counting. Seems we like to do something + other :)

AFR is more widely used be it stand alone or in addition to. People obviously never got over or can't let go of the 1920 to 1933 time frame when we had Prohibition going on. So many moonshiners. That or Nascar fans ;) I don't know. Teasing on both counts though.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

For all you shiners in here I have a question.. what differences have you seen in your tank? Is it growth or colors or?!?!?

Colors.

 

[Troylee]

Seems we are all over the place. This is not scientific let alone accurate but something loose I threw together by taking a common name and placing a X in that column then counting. Seems we like to do something + other :)

AFR is more widely used be it stand alone or in addition to. People obviously never got over or can't let go of the 1920 to 1933 time frame when we had Prohibition going on. So many moonshiners. That or Nascar fans ;) I don't know. Teasing on both counts though.

NIce chart! I fall into kalk and afr.

 

[Troylee]

Colors.

What colors did it bring out? Everyone claims this or that but Randy always busts it lol.. ie: iodine for blues, iron for green etc etc..

 

[Jasonak]

@Troylee
When you said you were dosing AFR in my head this is what you were dosing as apposed to ALK and CAL and I always thought that must be a small fortune. But you've also said many times that you use Kalk so it should have be obvious to me thats not what it was for but some how it has gone over my head all this time.

So it like a trace elements etc, I know I could just google it but rather just ask a actual person using it directly. Since we have ruffly same size tanks that's a bonus. :)

 

[Troylee]

I promise you thats not whats happening here lol

I don’t know if I can trust a non water changer!

 

[Jasonak]

I don’t know if I can trust a non water changer!

Well we have several months till the next grow out,,,, I think maybe not lol But I need to get my ducks in a row. Also your not competing against me in the no namer which is the one I want to win the most :)

 

[Troylee]

@Troylee
When you said you were dosing AFR in my head this is what you were dosing as apposed to ALK and CAL and I always thought that must be a small fortune. But you've also said many times that you use Kalk so it should have be obvious to me thats not what it was for but some how it has gone over my head all this time.

So it like a trace elements etc, I know I could just google it but rather just ask an actual person using it directly. Since we have ruffly same size tanks that's a bonus. :)

I use kalk for the high ph and to supplement alk and cal.. kalk alone can’t keep up with all the sticks in my tank so my alk and cal drops fast! The afr comes into play to add that buffer of alk and cal! It also has mag and all the trace elements needed for corals.. afr is a stand alone product and would run my tank on its own without a hiccup but as you mentioned it would cost a fortune! For that reason kalk helps offset that cost tremendously.. the down fall to kalk and afr is I’m not getting all the trace elements required “per se” cause I’m not using it as a stand alone product so for the cal and all the kalk is supplying im not getting the elements from afr if that makes sense.. to me something is better than nothing so thats how I roll lol.

 

[Jasonak]

I use kalk for the high ph and to supplement alk and cal.. kalk alone can’t keep up with all the sticks in my tank so my alk and cal drops fast! The afr comes into play to add that buffer of alk and cal! It also has mag and all the trace elements needed for corals.. afr is a stand alone product and would run my tank on its own without a hiccup but as you mentioned it would cost a fortune! For that reason kalk helps offset that cost tremendously.. the down fall to kalk and afr is I’m not getting all the trace elements required “per se” cause I’m not using it as a stand alone product so for the cal and all the kalk is supplying im not getting the elements from afr if that makes sense.. to me something is better than nothing so thats how I roll lol.

How much afr are you dosing a day, also ever thought about doing two part ALK and CAL?

 

[Troylee]

How much afr are you dosing a day, also ever thought about doing two part ALK and CAL?

125ml… to many dosers for me lol.. this is all in one! Cal,alk,mag, and trace elements on a single doser head.. .

 

[PeterErc]

Arm & Hammer
Peladow
Mrs. Wages
Yareli dead sea soak
Ammonium bicarb
Bio pellet
NSW
Lugols sometimes
Blended oysters ,pellets. Nori

 

[Jasonak]

125ml… to many dosers for me lol.. this is all in one! Cal,alk,mag, and trace elements on a single doser head.. .

I was saying instead of KALK it depends on where you get you sodium hydroxide the brand im using now is not as good but the previous was so hot that my PH was jumping up to 8.7 I actually had to cut it with baking soda to tone it down. I know like you said more dosing heads but its just one more. I mix up 5 gallons at a time last a month or so. Thats 5 gallons ALK and 5 gallons CAL You have a slick setup mines kinda a eye sore if your not looking at the tank lol Im more the industrial look lol

 

[Troylee]

How much afr are you dosing a day, also ever thought about doing two part ALK and CAL?

The only thing I like about 2 part is being able to adjust calcium.. it creeps up with kalk and afr but a water change normally straightens that out! The last 3 months my calcium has held at 475 which is not normal for my tank but hey! I’ll take it haha! It’s typically around 525

 

[areefer01]

the down fall to kalk and afr is I’m not getting all the trace elements required “per se” cause I’m not using it as a stand alone product so for the cal and all the kalk is supplying im not getting the elements from afr if that makes sense.. to me something is better than nothing so thats how I roll lol.

This is correct. It is brought up a lot and Lou over at Tropic Marin talks about it but every bit of Kalkwasser that you are using instead of All For Reef decreases the amount of trace elements added by AFR. The whole calcium formate bacteria to alkalinity or however it exactly works thing.

Not sure which one is doing the heavy lifting but I'm guessing if Kalkwasser is adding more alkalinity and calcium that would mean AFR is adding less which means less trace elements. And less may, or may not, really matter in the big picture.

I'll defer to the chemists though...

 

[Troylee]

This is correct. It is brought up a lot and Lou over at Tropic Marin talks about it but every bit of Kalkwasser that you are using instead of All For Reef decreases the amount of trace elements added by AFR. The whole calcium formate bacteria to alkalinity or however it exactly works thing.

Not sure which one is doing the heavy lifting but I'm guessing if Kalkwasser is adding more alkalinity and calcium that would mean AFR is adding less which means less trace elements. And less may, or may not, really matter in the big picture.

I'll defer to the chemists though...

I mean it only makes sense! If kalk is doing 40% of the job then that’s 40% of trace you’re not getting.. does that matter?!? That’s the real question lol.. when I started keeping sps we didn’t have all these trace supplements and we grew sticks just fine so there’s that.. maybe someday I’ll send in a icp but I can’t fathom spending that money for no reason lol.. if my corals weren’t growing and my colors sucked then sure! Haha.

 

[Jasonak]

The only thing I like about 2 part is being able to adjust calcium.. it creeps up with kalk and afr but a water change normally straightens that out! The last 3 months my calcium has held at 475 which is not normal for my tank but hey! I’ll take it haha! It’s typically around 525

I do make adjustments to both weekly sometimes less or more of one or the other. You do also get a salinity creep caused by the ALK but I've been doing part C for last 6 months maybe more and that's suppose to help with that. But I honestly never really saw a problem with it and im going to stop using it once ive used up what I have on hand. No matter what I always seem to get the itch and do a water change every couple months just because and like I said earlier im going to set up the AWC Maybe just do 80 gal a month. The lowboy is on kalk and I agree its a simple setup, easy squeezy. But now that ive got used to doing two part on the big tank its not bad.

 

[Troylee]

I do make adjustments to both weekly sometimes less or more of one or the other. You do also get a salinity creep caused by the ALK but I've been doing part C for last 6 months maybe more and that's suppose to help with that. But I honestly never really saw a problem with it and im going to stop using it once ive used up what I have on hand. No matter what I always seem to get the itch and do a water change every couple months just because and like I said earlier im going to set up the AWC Maybe just do 80 gal a month. The lowboy is on kalk and I agree its a simple setup, easy squeezy. But now that ive got used to doing two part on the big tank its not bad.

Def nothing wrong with 2 part.. afr is just more simple as a single shot 3 part.. im lazy lol..