Cali Kid Corals

1-part dosing for nano tank? which one do you recommend?

Hi guys, I have always used 2-part dosing before and took a break with the hobby for the past 4 years, now I am back with an IM 10gal nano.

It seems with technology improvement there are some amazing one-part dosing products, wonder what do you recommend for nano tanks? The one I am looking at is called ALL-FOR-REEF by Tropic Marin, wonder if there are other products you can recommend specifically for nano tanks.

Thanks
 
I’m not sure who sells it. Bulkreefsupply sells it as powder, which is much less expensive. You can also buy it in the traditional liquid formulation more places for 5x the cost.

It just so happens that I’m going to be selling some for cheap, just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I bought some to use for my large display tank but it didn’t work well for me because my tank was mature and consuming too much I think. Caused a crash and I lost some SPS. I do think it sounds perfect for small tanks just starting out though.
 
I'm unfamiliar with Polyp Lab One, but I'll have to look into it.

@Reef-Geek If you're interested in trying AFR and don't mind making a trip to San Jose, I'd be happy to give you some solution to try out in your tank.
 
Polyp lab has been a recent sponsor on the reef beef podcast and one of their products is polyp lab One. I've never used it but if @Thales and Ben recommend it, I'd trust it.
That product is more similar to TM’s carbo-calcium, rather than all-for-reef in that it doesn’t have trace elements. So less of a complete solution, likely would be fine if you also do significant water changes for trace elements. Also it uses acetate rather than formate as the precursor of carbonate, which is likely to have more problems in the metabolic step.

Polyp Lab has some basic science word misspellings on the page describing the product which automatically makes me suspicious, whereas Tropic Marin has real scientists. Just because they pay to advertise on a podcast doesn’t mean they have superior products. Everyone who has a show like that says they will only take sponsors they believe in, then the money and support starts coming in and the unconscious psychological biases start. There’s a reason they don’t let drug reps give doctors gifts anymore and why companies think advertising is a good way to spend their money.
 
Polyp lab has been a recent sponsor on the reef beef podcast and one of their products is polyp lab One. I've never used it but if @Thales and Ben recommend it, I'd trust it.
Thanks, great to know!
Looks like the difference is polyp lab one doesn't have trace elements like AFR, but AFR sounds too good to be true :D
I'd be happy if either can maintain the stable big 3, ca/kh/mg, I think the trace elements can be supplied by weekly water changes and high quality salt?
 
I'm unfamiliar with Polyp Lab One, but I'll have to look into it.

@Reef-Geek If you're interested in trying AFR and don't mind making a trip to San Jose, I'd be happy to give you some solution to try out in your tank.
Thanks, IOWL, Thanks for the offering, I'll be very glad to visit you again maybe next week, I'll need to buy more frags from you anyways.
your frags are doing well in my nano btw :) wish the hammer can color up a bit more.
Love this community!
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Honestly for a lightly stocked nano just do weekly WC and you are good.

To get into keeping finicky corals a larger tank is easier with dosing of major, minor and trace elements. If you go big(er) then calcium reactor and/or swap using water from ocean - like large aquariums that are near the seashore do.
 
I'd personally start with kalk if you need it.

Realistically though, a 10g nano can pretty easily be handled via water changes given that even a small 5g change is a 50% change.
 
Appreciate the answer, I was thinking using old school kalk in ato but I wonder what more newer technology like all-for-reef can offer, especially for Mg suppliment and steady ph
 
That product is more similar to TM’s carbo-calcium, rather than all-for-reef in that it doesn’t have trace elements. So less of a complete solution, likely would be fine if you also do significant water changes for trace elements. Also it uses acetate rather than formate as the precursor of carbonate, which is likely to have more problems in the metabolic step.

Polyp Lab has some basic science word misspellings on the page describing the product which automatically makes me suspicious, whereas Tropic Marin has real scientists. Just because they pay to advertise on a podcast doesn’t mean they have superior products. Everyone who has a show like that says they will only take sponsors they believe in, then the money and support starts coming in and the unconscious psychological biases start. There’s a reason they don’t let drug reps give doctors gifts anymore and why companies think advertising is a good way to spend their money.
There are a host of polyp lab products we do not talk about because we don't or have never used them, or don't see utility in them. Ben uses One in some situations, so he talks about it, I have never used it so I don't. We also have a list of companies that wanted to advertise with on Reef Beef that we have told to take a hike. :)
 
That said, you should always question everyone.

Ben likes the one product for systems that you manually dose, it doesn't really work for dosers. If it were me, I would likely use the all for one product and a doser because I am lazy and for the reasons John said above
 
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I'd personally start with kalk if you need it.

Realistically though, a 10g nano can pretty easily be handled via water changes given that even a small 5g change is a 50% change.
I do a little kalk and 25% water changes biweekly on my 10G and so far it's been doing great.
 
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