All For Reef: worth pushing calcium to up alkalinity?

[MoshJosh]

Was having a lot of trouble dialing in my new tank on two part dosing so I switched to All For Reef. This seemed to do the trick as it made dosing easier and my corals look happier. My levels seem to have stabilized but my Cal is a bit high and Alk a bit low: Cal is 485 and Alk is 7.2 as of this morning. I dose 7mL a day in a 32 gallon tank. Should I up to 8mL in hopes of boosting my Alk a bit while dosing “too much” calcium or should I start dosing a little Alk separately? Ideally when this tank is mature I would like to be at an Alk of 10 which I imagine is not possible All For Reef so maybe I should just start dosing Alk now. . ?

 

[slythy]

Why not do the big changes with just alk? A gallon pack of alk 2 part is pretty cheap and will go far. You dont have to screw up cal that way.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Agreed with above. I'd keep dosing afr at current levels and then just dose 2-3ml a day of just alk(it sounds like you already have some leftover) till you reach your desired alk level.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would add a bit of alk buffer to push the alk to where I want it. AFR is to maintain, not to increase.

 

[IceNein]

From Tropic Marin's website, if your Calcium is rising, and your Alk is constant or decreasing, then you should decrease AFR, and dose their Balling B.

Tropic Marin | Aquarium | Produktinformationen

Tropic Mairn - The aquatic life science company. Wir stellen hochwertige Salze, Additive und Wassertests vorwiegend für Meerwasseraquarien her. Korallen, Fische und Wirbellose in Ihrem Aquarium fühlen sich mit unseren Produkten wohl.

www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Was having a lot of trouble dialing in my new tank on two part dosing so I switched to All For Reef. This seemed to do the trick as it made dosing easier and my corals look happier. My levels seem to have stabilized but my Cal is a bit high and Alk a bit low: Cal is 485 and Alk is 7.2 as of this morning. I dose 7mL a day in a 32 gallon tank. Should I up to 8mL in hopes of boosting my Alk a bit while dosing “too much” calcium or should I start dosing a little Alk separately? Ideally when this tank is mature I would like to be at an Alk of 10 which I imagine is not possible All For Reef so maybe I should just start dosing Alk now. . ?

There's nothing wrong with calcium = 505 ppm, which is what it will be if you use AFR to boost alk from 7.2 to 10 dKH from a starting 485 ppm calcium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

From Tropic Marin's website, if your Calcium is rising, and your Alk is constant or decreasing, then you should decrease AFR, and dose their Balling B.

Tropic Marin | Aquarium | Produktinformationen

Tropic Mairn - The aquatic life science company. Wir stellen hochwertige Salze, Additive und Wassertests vorwiegend für Meerwasseraquarien her. Korallen, Fische und Wirbellose in Ihrem Aquarium fühlen sich mit unseren Produkten wohl.

www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com

I personally would not bother to do that if I was already using AFR, but one certainly could dose just alk (such as baking soda) if you just want an alk boost.