Getting that color??

i myself use BRS magnesium 2 part additive... seems i have to add a couple ounces every other week or so to keep my levels above 1300... but im not sure how typical that is... seems like the BRS 2 part doesnt hold well, but either way, it works to some extent... i myself am still learning alot about mag, mag levels and their consumption and upkeep... GL to you as always ALLSPS :)
 
LifeAquatic said:
I try and keep mag between 1300-1400. Dose that sound normal to you guys?
Click to expand...

Mag. is supposed to be three times the calcium or at least that is what I have always understood it to be. So that would be 433-466 on your calcium. Mag can always be higher than that but you want to keep it at least three times calcium minimum. Helps balance Alk and Cal.

HTH
 
gary faulkner said:
Mag. is supposed to be three times the calcium or at least that is what I have always understood it to be.
Click to expand...

Mag is roughly 5x more abundant than cal in NSW. Mag dropping this fast would almost certainly indicates a large amount of cal / alk consumption. Not only that, one of the primary function of mag is to prevent abiotic precipitation. If mag is dropping like that, you might see a lot more calcium deposit on heaters and pumps would further reduce cal. This is all on paper and every tank is different so it's entirely possible the relationship is not as linear as it sounds. A 100ppm weekly reduction in a 40g still sounds extremely high to me.
 
mag

mag

gary faulkner said:
Mag. is supposed to be three times the calcium or at least that is what I have always understood it to be. So that would be 433-466 on your calcium. Mag can always be higher than that but you want to keep it at least three times calcium minimum. Helps balance Alk and Cal.

HTH
Click to expand...

I usually keep my cal around 420. Its pretty close to 3x.
 
Ok so update on mag fluctuation. Tested on Sunday after water change and small mag dose 1300ppm. Today tested 1200. I dont get any ca build up on my pumps or anything just coral and coraline growth. I will bring a water sample to LFS today to have them double check my results with the same brand kit, Elos. For example If I did not dose kalk my ca would have gone done about 75-100 ppm in this time, strange that the mag is dropping at the same rate.
 
allsps40 said:
Ok so update on mag fluctuation. Tested on Sunday after water change and small mag dose 1300ppm. Today tested 1200. I dont get any ca build up on my pumps or anything just coral and coraline growth. I will bring a water sample to LFS today to have them double check my results with the same brand kit, Elos. For example If I did not dose kalk my ca would have gone done about 75-100 ppm in this time, strange that the mag is dropping at the same rate.
Click to expand...

I agree something just seems off. Hope you find out what's going on. Might want to post this in the chemistry forum. There may be something obvious to those guys that aren't so obvious to us. Either way they are usually very helpful.

HTH
 
You guys dont think his mag consumption is consistant for the amount of water volume he has? Lots of corals in a 40 gal is going to suck up cal,alk,mag pretty quickly. It seems like this tank could lose 100ppm mag in the same amount of time my 200gal only loses 50ppm. I think the small amount of water volume is whats causing your weekly drop. Or maybe the test kit isnt giving the correct reading.
 
^ I agree with you. I feel my mag drop is normal for the amount of sps I have in the tank. I just started to quetion it as some many people on here thought it was weird. I just got back from the LFS, they tested my mag at 1050 on Salifert even lower then I am getting.
Ca 500
alk 10
mag 1050 salifert 1200 elos
no3 10
po4 0
My ca has gone up due to a slight increase in kalk concentration. I will be going back to my old kalk dose. I dont like Ca that high, takes up too much room for alk and mag.
 
LifeAquatic said:
You guys dont think his mag consumption is consistant for the amount of water volume he has?
Click to expand...

That's certainly possible. What's not normal is the relative of mag / cal / alk consumption. In order to drop 100ppm of mag a day, you should be loosing almost all cal and alk to nothing. Do you have a sense of how your cal and alk drops daily? If the consumption of mag is normal (from corals, algae, etc), you should expect a huge drop of both cal and alk.

I am still somewhat clueless why your mag is dropping so fast. Maybe take it up to Randy to see what he has to say? I think bottom line is if your corals are healthy, colorful and growing the rate you think they should be, probably not much to worry about. Otherwise, it's very strange.
 
Mag

Mag

dzhuo said:
That's certainly possible. What's not normal is the relative of mag / cal / alk consumption. In order to drop 100ppm of mag a day, you should be loosing almost all cal and alk to nothing. Do you have a sense of how your cal and alk drops daily? If the consumption of mag is normal (from corals, algae, etc), you should expect a huge drop of both cal and alk.

I am still somewhat clueless why your mag is dropping so fast. Maybe take it up to Randy to see what he has to say? I think bottom line is if your corals are healthy, colorful and growing the rate you think they should be, probably not much to worry about. Otherwise, it's very strange.
Click to expand...

I think its 100ppm a week. Is the " 100ppm per day" a typo? 100ppm a week could be normal?
 
I was going by this:

Tested on Sunday after water change and small mag dose 1300ppm. Today tested 1200.
Click to expand...

which seems like I might have mis-interpret daily vs. weekly. So 100ppm in 4 days or 25ppm daily? If so, still way too high. In order to drop 25ppm, cal would have dropped like ~600ppm daily. Not to mention alk which is even less concentrated. If you factor in OP's dosing routine with 3 or 4 tbs kalk in 5G of RO/DI, it's not even close to saturated. Even saturated kalk is extremely weak; it's about 40 times less potent than 2-part. If you add all these up, it seems impossible for OP to maintain cal and alk even for a single day.

I have no idea why mag would drop like that other than an user or test kit error. Hopefully OP would take it to Randy and figure it out. This might be another link why OP is having color or grow issue. I suspect his params are either way off or something else is consuming these elements before the corals get a chance to use them.
 
..

..

dzhuo said:
I was going by this:



which seems like I might have mis-interpret daily vs. weekly. So 100ppm in 4 days or 25ppm daily? If so, still way too high. In order to drop 25ppm, cal would have dropped like ~600ppm daily. Not to mention alk which is even less concentrated. If you factor in OP's dosing routine with 3 or 4 tbs kalk in 5G of RO/DI, it's not even close to saturated. Even saturated kalk is extremely weak; it's about 40 times less potent than 2-part. If you add all these up, it seems impossible for OP to maintain cal and alk even for a single day.

I have no idea why mag would drop like that other than an user or test kit error. Hopefully OP would take it to Randy and figure it out. This might be another link why OP is having color or grow issue. I suspect his params are either way off or something else is consuming these elements before the corals get a chance to use them.
Click to expand...


It is a lot of mag usage either way. I say a full round of test is in order! :thumbsup:
 
I think its odd to use that much mag. My 240g sps tank doesnt seem to consume mag. I use about 2dkh and 35ppm cal daily, but mag stays the same, or drops at an extremely low rate.
 
Tested my freshly mixed for 24 hours H2Ocean salt @1.025 mag is 1200. Tested the tank again 1250. The kit is plus or minus 50 so split the diff and 1200. I think my salt is low in mag. I had this issue when I first got the bucket and contacted DD about it, there is a thread on the DD forum. I was testing low mag in the salt. They check the batch and said it was 1380, told me to mix the bucket which I did already. So I did again and tested again, got 1300. But now I am again having lower mag readings them the stated 1350 on the bucket. I will not be using this salt again. My conclusion is that my tank is using some mag but not much, I am dosing when I see it low, mag is dropping when I do a water change.
 
allsps40 said:
Tested my freshly mixed for 24 hours H2Ocean salt @1.025 mag is 1200. Tested the tank again 1250. The kit is plus or minus 50 so split the diff and 1200. I think my salt is low in mag. I had this issue when I first got the bucket and contacted DD about it, there is a thread on the DD forum. I was testing low mag in the salt. They check the batch and said it was 1380, told me to mix the bucket which I did already. So I did again and tested again, got 1300. But now I am again having lower mag readings them the stated 1350 on the bucket. I will not be using this salt again. My conclusion is that my tank is using some mag but not much, I am dosing when I see it low, mag is dropping when I do a water change.
Click to expand...

Now that makes sense to me. Glad you got it worked out. I guess it's hard to over dose Mag. but you probably wouldn't want to.
 
That makes sense to me. I was wondering how on the earth are you able to drop Mag like that without affecting cal and alk. Another mystery solved.

Time to look for the next "best" salt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Carbon Dosing causes STN/RTN?
Replies
13
Views
894
Timfish
Timfish
D
Corals slowly dying / getting white spots water tests good
Replies
18
Views
764
griss
griss
R
Cyano and nutrients
2 3
Replies
40
Views
1K
Dustin07
D
J
Calcium very elevated
Replies
3
Views
918
jcarlilesiu
J
H
Alkalinity/Calcium Balance
Replies
1
Views
572
griss
griss
Back
Top