Krux Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 (edited) Hello all. I have been watching a series of long format BRS videos with Lou Ekus from Tropic Marin, and have also watched an interview with Marc Levinson. To be honest I have never really looked into the Tropic Marin line, and was only aware of the bad press they got over a salt batch. What I have appreciated from his interviews, albeit he is selling things, is that he does some pretty in depth answers to reef chemistry questions. Some of the methods he discusses make sense to me, and I find myself wanting to look into the line more and more - specifically balling part c, trace a, trace k, and all-for-reef. Does anyone have any experience with Tropic Marin and have feedback on what they liked or disliked? Here is one of the videos I watched yesterday for reference, this guy has given a lot of MACNA talks and other lectures as well. TIA Edited February 20 by Krux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I like their salt. But I don't like All for Reef. It is hard to keep it in solution. It is always clogging dosing lines for me. I would be curious if others had a different experience. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I like Lou, and the tropic marin line of products. Met him at MACNA, in Orlando. Clearly knows his stuff, and as a bonus sent me home with double handfuls of products. I've been using the NP line of products for carbon dosing for ~1-2yrs. First NP-Elim (had high phos and nitrates), now NP-Balance (they're under control now). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugops Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I find all-for-reef to be a great product. It does have that tendency to precipitate once the solution dries out and does clog up the tubing so I opt to dose manually and I don't have to worry about everything else such as Mg. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 49 minutes ago, Rugops said: I find all-for-reef to be a great product. It does have that tendency to precipitate once the solution dries out and does clog up the tubing so I opt to dose manually and I don't have to worry about everything else such as Mg. I'm going to try to track Lou down and ask him about this. I wonder if it was diluted if it would work better in a doser. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittany Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 (edited) I use All for reef. I like it. I don’t have precipitation, and it is much nicer on my hose & pumps than kalc. I use powder and do mix it a little weak for calculating/pump reasons. it is quit good at increasing both ca+ and alk. no potassium Edited February 20 by Brittany Wording 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 10 hours ago, Brittany said: I use All for reef. I like it. I don’t have precipitation, and it is much nicer on my hose & pumps than kalc. I use powder and do mix it a little weak for calculating/pump reasons. it is quit good at increasing both ca+ and alk. no potassium What is your mix recipe? Maybe diluting it a little bit is the answer. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I really like their products and all for reef is great! I was able to do acros in a 20 Nuvo with hand dosing. I did notice that when I had a doser for a bit it would clog the tubing . You do have to check the individual parameters . I found my system was using more magnesium then the mixture so I had to add extra magnesium from the powder solution. Other friends noticed good color as well. That’s a good idea to maybe just use a more dilute solution . I would be curious to see what Lou has to say. I really like Lou Ekus he doesn’t heavily push tropic marin and has a chemistry background but explains tank chemistry in a simple way. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrokate Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I like the All For Reef but I bought a magnetic stirrer for it and it still didn't dissolve so I double the amount of water and then double the dose... problem solved. Since then am seeing some improvements in SPS which were struggling with 2 part dosing, better color anyways, and alk and calcium have been solid. So far so good at one month. I do not do dosing pumps, just slowlypour in a daily dose at the end of the day when I am checking everything before bed. I also do top offs manually and add vinegar as carbon dosing at this time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calvinkilmer1 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 I'm a huge fan of All For Reef. Been using it for at least 4 years and have never changed out my dosing pump tubing so no problem with it precipitating. I don't recommend not changing out the dosing pump tubing cause that's just asking for trouble but I've been fortunate. I do check that it is still dosing on a weekly basis. I have a powerhead in the 5 gallon bucket that the dosing pump pulls from and it turns on multiple times a day for a few minutes at a time to keep it stirred. I mix up 1000 ml from powder every few months and it's kept all my levels stable for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash21 Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 I love All For Reef. I have a T, where ATO and A4R come out so it cleans the line whenever ATO kicks on. Works well. I think I’m at year 3ish on A4R. I dose about 50MLs on a 100 gallon. (About 8times a day) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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