It seems odd to me as well. Maybe I'm not understanding the process.Thanks, Lou. That does make sense.
It presumes that formate present in the water column isn't metabolized by bacteria. That seems odd to me.
I switched from using Kalkwasser to CarboCalcium about 6 months ago. In that time, my Alk has remained steady at 8.0 +/- 0.1. In addition, I've had to stop dosing my DIY NOPOX because my nitrates had become undetectable whereas they had previously been a steady 5ppm. Since stopping the NOPOX, my nitrates have returned to a steady 5ppm.
If the corals are the only consumers of the formate, how is my alk remaining steady and where is the carbon dosing effect coming from?