tazzmanian123
Premium Member
Found out some interesting information today while researching new Elos mg test kit.
A little background. Have a 46g bow w/sump/fuge, use ro/di water w/TM salt. Have had my tank set up since Mar. 07, and have been fighting hair algae just about since inception.
Have 4" dsb. w/ 80-90lbs of LR. 6 bulb T5 light.Octopus skimmer.
Dont feed tank, cause only inhabitants atm are snails/crabs.
Water parameters are all excellent except alk/Ca/Mg are low. Currently use Salifert test kits for Ca/Mg. Just researched online for Elos kits, since there have been some posts about faulty Salifert kits, & poor customer service.
Have been dosing 30ml a day, for a week now, of Kent Tech M Mg. to try & bring up my Mg from 920. Have gone through half of the 64Fl oz. bottle, & my Mg is testing at 1020ppm. Concerned that I have gone through half a bottle already, & still have not got to acceptable Mg level yet, I started researching a different high quality test kit for a 2nd. opinion.
Here is something I never thought about, till after reading from Elos Mg test kit info.
Water is considered soft when it is low in CA/MG, & hard when it is high Ca/Mg. DING......light goes off in my head.
I live in Las Vegas,NV. Our water here is very hard, & not thinking about it, I have a water softner on my home water supply. So my water is softened before it reaches my ro/di.
Could that be why my Ca/Mg/Alk is so low?
Only water used outside home is not softened.Really have no way to alter it, so am at a loss atm.
Any opinions will be appreciated. Still learning here.
A little background. Have a 46g bow w/sump/fuge, use ro/di water w/TM salt. Have had my tank set up since Mar. 07, and have been fighting hair algae just about since inception.
Have 4" dsb. w/ 80-90lbs of LR. 6 bulb T5 light.Octopus skimmer.
Dont feed tank, cause only inhabitants atm are snails/crabs.
Water parameters are all excellent except alk/Ca/Mg are low. Currently use Salifert test kits for Ca/Mg. Just researched online for Elos kits, since there have been some posts about faulty Salifert kits, & poor customer service.
Have been dosing 30ml a day, for a week now, of Kent Tech M Mg. to try & bring up my Mg from 920. Have gone through half of the 64Fl oz. bottle, & my Mg is testing at 1020ppm. Concerned that I have gone through half a bottle already, & still have not got to acceptable Mg level yet, I started researching a different high quality test kit for a 2nd. opinion.
Here is something I never thought about, till after reading from Elos Mg test kit info.
Water is considered soft when it is low in CA/MG, & hard when it is high Ca/Mg. DING......light goes off in my head.
I live in Las Vegas,NV. Our water here is very hard, & not thinking about it, I have a water softner on my home water supply. So my water is softened before it reaches my ro/di.
Could that be why my Ca/Mg/Alk is so low?
Only water used outside home is not softened.Really have no way to alter it, so am at a loss atm.
Any opinions will be appreciated. Still learning here.
