I could have lost everything!

[Masedaddy]

I think it's more of a gypsy curse than magic..... I had a retailer once tell me that each of the chemical levels affect each other.... Like if your Mag was too high it would cause your Alk to precipitate and since Alk and Ca affect each other it would then affect your Ca levels.... I guess I just thought it made sense...

 

[scolley]

Ok. Got it. You are talking about precipition. That's a great point. Thank you.

Honestly it's not a part of reefing water science that I've ever paid any attention to, because I've always kept my water at levels way lower than the conditions under which precipitation happens.

I can't see any precipitate, but I should look into that anyway. Thanks!

 

[EvilMel]

Have you seen that advanced aquarist article on Alk, Ca, Mg balance? I can look it up if you need me to. It talks about how to keep the levels in balance and what levels are too high/low, etc. It's a pretty good one.

 

[scolley]

Have you seen that advanced aquarist article on Alk, Ca, Mg balance? I can look it up if you need me to. It talks about how to keep the levels in balance and what levels are too high/low, etc. It's a pretty good one.

Thanks! I assume you are talking about THIS article? I read that long ago, and even think it's on RC somewhere. It's a great article.

What it primarily addresses is keeping Alk and Ca balanced and stable. And normally I've go NO issue with that. Honestly I take great pride in how stable I keep those two numbers. Which is why I know that the big swing I just saw HAD to be related to either the accidental increase in Mg, or from the two WCs I did. Or both.

In the article Randy does talk about alk depletion through the incorporation of magnesium into calcium carbonate. I didn't do that. I don't think.

And the only other mention of magnesium is when it is significantly low, and apparently that can cause calcium and alkalinity loss from precipitation of calcium carbonate. But mine was high. Not low. So I think I found Masedaddy's "magic" loss of Alk and Ca, but it does not apply to my problem of excess magnesium.

Thanks for the link recommendation though! Always a great article to reread as a refresher. :thumbsup:

 

[EvilMel]

Oh yeah, that was the article I was mentioning…I thought it mentioned magnesium more than it does apparently! I think there's another one that addresses magnesium. I just can't remember. It's been so long since I've read them.