Dosing All for Reef

[littlerhodyreefs]

Hey all,

I have been dosing all for reef into my 20G (5mL) and 40G (7.5 mL). I usually will dose it all at once in the am before lights come on when I top off. with out a doser is there a better way to do it? or should I say a better time? AM/PM?

Nothing is going wrong with the tank everything looks great, just curious if anyone else is dosing all for reef by hand? I also maybe feel like I am expecting to much from AFR mixed with IO. I really like to grow my corals and want to have slightly higher calc than what I have. Will I save the headache by just getting better salt?

I am shooting for 9 alk and and 450-480 calc but i am only at 420. Is anyone using the Baller for calcium that goes with AFR?

Thanks!

 

[Chlorinated]

Hi. manual dosing here in my 20. Hand dose 3ml at night before lights out. Havnt played with different dose times honestly so interested to hear what people say.

 

[DylanCameron]

Might be wise to split up your dosage, half in the AM and half in the PM. According to this calculator, 5ml of CarboCalcium (the part of AFT that supplies CA/KH) in 20 gallons raises the KH by a full degree, so you’d get smaller swings by breaking up the dosage.

Additionally, regular IO has a calcium level of about 400ppm (source), so it’s probably wise to switch to Reef Crystals or another reef salt to maintain higher calcium.

I’ve used AFR and the TM balling components. You can raise your calcium with any calcium supplement, it doesn’t need to be their brand. Where is your KH currently, and what test kits are you using for KH/CA?

 

[Ttran102]

If you want to run high alk and cal why not use rc instead of regular io? I have a waterbox 220 and i do 20g water change every week and my alk always been around 8.5-9dkh. With 10percent water change there shouldn't be a big swing. And since your dosing all for reef i dont think it matter at what time you dose it because your tank will consume the same rate everyday. So if you dose at night you will have high dkh at night and if you dose in the morning it will have high dkh in the morning. Since you dose by hand it doesnt matter.

 

[littlerhodyreefs]

Might be wise to split up your dosage, half in the AM and half in the PM. According to this calculator, 5ml of CarboCalcium (the part of AFT that supplies CA/KH) in 20 gallons raises the KH by a full degree, so you’d get smaller swings by breaking up the dosage.

Additionally, regular IO has a calcium level of about 400ppm (source), so it’s probably wise to switch to Reef Crystals or another reef salt to maintain higher calcium.

I’ve used AFR and the TM balling components. You can raise your calcium with any calcium supplement, it doesn’t need to be their brand. Where is your KH currently, and what test kits are you using for KH/CA?

I am using API test kit for kh and ca. kh is not turning fully at 8 drops but does at 9 so I figure 8.5 and ca is 420.

I was using RC and liked it but switched because it was gunking up my mixing bucket and pump pretty bad. But I might go back to it or consider something else

 

[cablez]

I am using API test kit for kh and ca. kh is not turning fully at 8 drops but does at 9 so I figure 8.5 and ca is 420.

I was using RC and liked it but switched because it was gunking up my mixing bucket and pump pretty bad. But I might go back to it or consider something else

The gunk is the secret sauce my friend.......come back to the dark side

 

[littlerhodyreefs]

The gunk is the secret sauce my friend.......come back to the dark side

Considering!

 

[Ttran102]

I am using API test kit for kh and ca. kh is not turning fully at 8 drops but does at 9 so I figure 8.5 and ca is 420.

I was using RC and liked it but switched because it was gunking up my mixing bucket and pump pretty bad. But I might go back to it or consider something else

i mixed 40g every time and i only clean it out once a yr in the summer. And it doesn't affect anything to the corals even when bin is like brown brown.

 

[littlerhodyreefs]

Ohh nice. I was constantly cleaning it just cause I didn’t know if it was an issue or not lol

 

[littlerhodyreefs]

Ended up sticking with IO. I bought B-Ionics so I can dose keep alk at 9 and get ca up and mag up. Cause I can only assume if all for reef was lacking cs for me the mag was most likely short too as IO is on the low side of 1300

 

[littlerhodyreefs]

So I will figure out the proper dosing for the B-Ionic and go from there to get levels to where they were when I was getting real good growth