So for 1st hand experience, I bought a bottle of all for reef, but have never used it. Can you tell me of do's or don't's about it?

[Sophie"s mom]

All For Reef. That's the only additive I use in any case!

So for 1st hand experience, I bought a bottle of all for reef, but have never used it. Can you tell me of do's or don't's about it? Can it be used while other additives are being used? Just some curiosities I have about before diving in. I am a fan of Tropic marin in general.

 

[Evil1]

Best advice I can give is have your core 3 parameters where you want them prior to starting AFR. Once you start follow the directions. You will almost never have to dose cal, alk, or mag again once you get AFR dialed in. Good stuff in my opinion.

 

[Evil1]

Just be aware you have to dose it daily once you start

 

[JoJosReef]

So for 1st hand experience, I bought a bottle of all for reef, but have never used it. Can you tell me of do's or don't's about it? Can it be used while other additives are being used? Just some curiosities I have about before diving in. I am a fan of Tropic marin in general.

There are a lot of threads talking about AFR dosing. One of the issues with AFR is that it's hard to keep ALK up with just AFR, so it is best to figure out how much you need to keep everything stable first, set your desired ALK level with something else, then get the AFR going to keep it steady. I just use AFR, but it can get a bit pricey once coral consumption really picks up.

The nice thing about AFR is that it is a complete supplement, so you get basically everything. I'm sure you can be more picky about levels of trace elements if you like, but for me it seems to do the trick by itself. So even if I switch to a different supplement to keep ALK up, I'll probably still use AFR to some degree.

One of the don'ts with AFR: don't measure ALK right after dosing. It doesn't have an immediate effect on ALK. You can measure Calcium instead to see immediate effects. At least that's my understanding, but I'd spend some time on the Randy Holmes Farley theads to read up on it.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

There are a lot of threads talking about AFR dosing. One of the issues with AFR is that it's hard to keep ALK up with just AFR, so it is best to figure out how much you need to keep everything stable first, set your desired ALK level with something else, then get the AFR going to keep it steady. I just use AFR, but it can get a bit pricey once coral consumption really picks up.

The nice thing about AFR is that it is a complete supplement, so you get basically everything. I'm sure you can be more picky about levels of trace elements if you like, but for me it seems to do the trick by itself. So even if I switch to a different supplement to keep ALK up, I'll probably still use AFR to some degree.

One of the don'ts with AFR: don't measure ALK right after dosing. It doesn't have an immediate effect on ALK. You can measure Calcium instead to see immediate effects. At least that's my understanding, but I'd spend some time on the Randy Holmes Farley theads to read up on it.

Thank you for such detailed info. So, currently I use Sea Chem reef carbonate for alk. Do you think I could use that in conjunction with the All For Reef?

 

[JoJosReef]

Thank you for such detailed info. So, currently I use Sea Chem reef carbonate for alk. Do you think I could use that in conjunction with the All For Reef?

My plan is to eventually use a separate supplement for ALK in combination with AFR. I think the trick is making the change slowly and monitoring your ALK levels as you adjust. Go too hard on the AFR all at once and ALK is probably going to shoot up from your Sea Chem Reef Carbonate, because the corals are gradually using AFR's ALK, whilst the other supplements are dumping it all in at once. So in your case, I would probably start adding small amounts of AFR, see how the ALK levels go. If they start rising, scale back slightly on the Sea Chem. Raise AFR a bit, check, scale back Sea Chem, and repeat until you're at a happy place with your Sea Chem to AFR ratio. As things grow, you'll probably have to increase both gradually.

That's my plan at least. My 40gal is already burning through ~60mL of AFR a day, so I may need to work on a change soon!

 

[twentyleagues]

It takes anywhere from 3-24hrs to be able to see effects. I use it and tested alk while starting about 24hrs later. I hand dose daily at about 6pm which is the mid day of my reef. I am currently dosing 20ml a day. I had gone to weekly testing but seems everytime I do that consumption changes and I am a little low. I think I am going to test every 3 days from now on. Yes you can use other supplements but I would be careful to not spike your alk with doubling up a dose. People use kalk while dosing afr. Good info from @JoJosReef check out randys forum for more info.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

My plan is to eventually use a separate supplement for ALK in combination with AFR. I think the trick is making the change slowly and monitoring your ALK levels as you adjust. Go too hard on the AFR all at once and ALK is probably going to shoot up from your Sea Chem Reef Carbonate, because the corals are gradually using AFR's ALK, whilst the other supplements are dumping it all in at once. So in your case, I would probably start adding small amounts of AFR, see how the ALK levels go. If they start rising, scale back slightly on the Sea Chem. Raise AFR a bit, check, scale back Sea Chem, and repeat until you're at a happy place with your Sea Chem to AFR ratio. As things grow, you'll probably have to increase both gradually.

That's my plan at least. My 40gal is already burning through ~60mL of AFR a day, so I may need to work on a change soon!

Awesome! Thank you

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Does anyone have any experience in switching over from Triton Core 7 Base to All For Reef?

 

[Reef Puncher]

There are a lot of threads talking about AFR dosing. One of the issues with AFR is that it's hard to keep ALK up with just AFR, so it is best to figure out how much you need to keep everything stable first, set your desired ALK level with something else, then get the AFR going to keep it steady. I just use AFR, but it can get a bit pricey once coral consumption really picks up.

The nice thing about AFR is that it is a complete supplement, so you get basically everything. I'm sure you can be more picky about levels of trace elements if you like, but for me it seems to do the trick by itself. So even if I switch to a different supplement to keep ALK up, I'll probably still use AFR to some degree.

One of the don'ts with AFR: don't measure ALK right after dosing. It doesn't have an immediate effect on ALK. You can measure Calcium instead to see immediate effects. At least that's my understanding, but I'd spend some time on the Randy Holmes Farley theads to read up on it.

for me its not the alk its the mag. for some odd reason i have to dose mag still, but my alk is solid.

 

[Cell]

for me its not the alk its the mag. for some odd reason i have to dose mag still, but my alk is solid.

Consider this:

Just say NO to magnesium testing: RMM is born

OK, this thread has been many years in the making, and I'm posting it here since folks in the chem forum are probably already tired of all the threads relating to problematic magnesium testing. I'm going to propose a method, let's call it the Randy Magnesium Method, or RMM for short. All good...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Best advice I can give is have your core 3 parameters where you want them prior to starting AFR. Once you start follow the directions. You will almost never have to dose cal, alk, or mag again once you get AFR dialed in. Good stuff in my opinion.

Huh? You can't keep up with consumption once your tank starts growing. Constant adjustments.

We agree it's a great product. But when corals grow you have to adjust and make up the difference with two part still. Unless I'm a complete goober. My dose in a 25 g aio went from 5ml a day to currently 34. That number goes up weekly. In the early days my adjustments were .2ml. I made a 5 ml adjustment 3 days ago. I need to do the math and track how many dkh/day I'm using right now.

But it is not a set it and forget it product.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Huh? You can't keep up with consumption once your tank starts growing. Constant adjustments.

We agree it's a great product. But when corals grow you have to adjust and make up the difference with two part still. Unless I'm a complete goober. My dose in a 25 g aio went from 5ml a day to currently 34. That number goes up weekly. In the early days my adjustments were .2ml. I made a 5 ml adjustment 3 days ago. I need to do the math and track how many dkh/day I'm using right now.

But it is not a set it and forget it product.

I’m not sure that any product to maintain the big 3 is a set it and forget it since consumption can and will change. I just because it is such an easy product to use we become comfortable, maybe too comfortable. I recently almost had to double my dose because my tank just decided to explode. Now I just know to keep that in mind and it’s great .

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

I’m not sure that any product to maintain the big 3 is a set it and forget it since consumption can and will change. I just because it is such an easy product to use we become comfortable, maybe too comfortable. I recently almost had to double my dose because my tank just decided to explode. Now I just know to keep that in mind and it’s great .

I'm dosing appx 2 dkh per day, of the stuff now. That comes with about 20 ppm calcium. My tank sucks it up. To the point I'm thinking about switching to Randy's 2 part on dosers and magnesium by hand as needed.

But yeah, keep an eye on your stuff. Because AFR is good.

 

[twentyleagues]

Huh? You can't keep up with consumption once your tank starts growing. Constant adjustments.

We agree it's a great product. But when corals grow you have to adjust and make up the difference with two part still. Unless I'm a complete goober. My dose in a 25 g aio went from 5ml a day to currently 34. That number goes up weekly. In the early days my adjustments were .2ml. I made a 5 ml adjustment 3 days ago. I need to do the math and track how many dkh/day I'm using right now.

But it is not a set it and forget it product.

I get what they are saying. Maybe just not saying it so that everyone can 100% understand.
My experience is if I just pay attention to alk the others stay in line also, so far. But I followed the afr directions and set my alk, calc, and mag to my desired levels using 2 part before I started afr. I test alk every other day right now and I test the other 2 maybe every other week. So far this is working and calc and mag are within test error parameters every time. I see a 10-30ppm difference in those 2 whenever I test, but they are within 10-30ppm of my goal every time. Calcium is a smaller window than mag. My calcium goal is 450 it sometimes tests right at 450 sometimes 420 sometimes over 450 a lot of that I attribute to test error either on my part or the test itself. For mag I am happy if it is over 1500 if I see the first part 15 I dont care what the 00 is because it is probably not 100% accurate. Mag is typically 1510-1550. I just need to adjust my afr dose based on the alk number and everything else seems to fall in line but I have 2 part mixed and ready to go in case something is way off. I test at 6pm on the days I test and I dose afr right after that usually 6-7pm daily everyday.