Is High Magnesium or Tech-M bad for Zoas?

Reeferhead

Reeferhead

Recovering Reef Addict
Premium Member
I've been dosing Tech-M to kill off a small amount of bryopsis and I might have gotten a bit carried away. Over the past couple weeks I've noticed a few of my colonies are not fairing too well. Specifically, my Devil's Armor and PPEs don't look normal. The stalks look a bit pinched and the heads are rounded in a convex shape rather than flat. I'll take some pics tonight. Also, about half of my Orange Bam Bams have been closed for the past couple days.

I tested the Mg a couple nights ago and it was 2030ppm. Alk was 9.0 dkh, Ca, 390ppm. I did a large water change last night and I'll do another one tonight just to be safe.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?
 
My mag read crazy high like that too and found that I had a bad test kit. Have someone else test it for you.
 
I would just watch the system after you do the second water change tonight.
Test it again.
I never had Mg that high.
Keep working on it and good luck!

Grandis.
 
Which test kit are you using and how old is it?
How long have you been dosing and where was it at when you started?

2030ppm is WAY high. I've used tech m for the same reason your are and I only brought it up to about 1650ppm, and it worked great (I actually mixed the tech m and another brand of Mg supplement called tailored aquatics to save money). I had a bryopsis infestation 6 months ago...all gone now.

Go easy on the water change. I know you're high, but to quickly change the amount of Mg by more than 100ppm/day can harm your corals more than the fact that it's high.

Have you been successful with the bryopsis?
When it infested my tank, it obliterated a colony of dragon eyes I had so I'm cheering for you.
 
I forgot to mention that your corals are likely reacting to the unstable swing in your parameters, and not necessarily that your Mg is very high.
 
Wouldn't the "unstable swing in your parameters" be because of the high Mg?
The swing is because of the Mg and Mg alone, as we assume, so he needs to do water changes, right?
Every time I had to do water changes for some reason, like excess of additives, there was no problem at all. If he does 10% today and 10% tomorrow would be great.
The corals will actually be more than happy. The more water changes the better for the system until the Mg level is normal.
Just have to do it slow...
Just my opinion.

Grandis.

Claimer: I know what I'm talking abut!
Just kidding!! Couldn't help. :D
 
The test kit is Salifert and is only a few months old.

I did a 25% WC on Tuesday and another 25% last night. I'll test again tonight and see where it’s at. I'd like to bring it down to about 1500ppm. I'm less worried about the Mg concentration than an overdose of whatever it is in Tech-M that kills bryopsis (likely a heavy metal).

This tank is purely softies, zoas and rics mostly. I typically don't dose anything (Alk or Ca) and rarely do water changes. I believe the Mg concentration got so high because this is the second time I've dosed Tech-M to kill bryopsis in about 4 months and I never did any water changes in between. I killed it but it came back. I don't have any hard corals in this tank, so there really isn't anything to uptake Mg naturally.

Once I get things stabilized, I'll likely need to dose again to kill whatever bryopsis remains. Except this time I'll be more conservative and follow up with WCs as needed. Thanks for the advice, I was really just looking to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Take Care
 
reeferhead, I was just looking at your join date and your number of posts, so I hope I don't come off like I'm telling a veteran what to do. I apologize in advance.

I've always liked the Salifert tests. They've been very accurate for me. When your level of Mg was at 2030ppm I noticed your Ca was a little low (390ppm). Ca levels are affected by Mg levels (If you raise Mg, Ca will increase at a smaller rate). When I got my Mg to 1750ppm (not 1650ppm as previously mentioned, sorry about that) my Ca was at 500ppm, up from 420ppm where it normally is. So at 2030ppm, I would expect your Ca levels to be around there as well, probably more. The only reason I bring this up is when battling bryopsis, the harder the water, the more difficult it is for the bryopsis to survive, to which Ca is a contributor to.

...Anyways, to get back on track. If it were me, I would bring the Mg level down to 1600-1700ppm. You don't need more Kent tech M than that. If that is not the solution, I would look at other things such as raising the DKH, filtration for excess nutrients, and lighting. The reason I say to bring it between those levels I mentioned is to created stability in the tank, thus creating a better environment for your corals. The only metal in the Tech M to be concerned about is the copper ion. but because it is an ion, It has a tendency to change its chemical makeup into a non harmful form by bonding with other organics in the tank.

Did you do the water changes you said you were going to do? If so, what are your levels at?

Really hope I'm helping here. I hated dealing with bryopsis, but funny enough, I miss the challenge of it.
 
sanchezdamin said:
reeferhead, I was just looking at your join date and your number of posts, so I hope I don't come off like I'm telling a veteran what to do. I apologize in advance.

I've always liked the Salifert tests. They've been very accurate for me. When your level of Mg was at 2030ppm I noticed your Ca was a little low (390ppm). Ca levels are affected by Mg levels (If you raise Mg, Ca will increase at a smaller rate). When I got my Mg to 1750ppm (not 1650ppm as previously mentioned, sorry about that) my Ca was at 500ppm, up from 420ppm where it normally is. So at 2030ppm, I would expect your Ca levels to be around there as well, probably more. The only reason I bring this up is when battling bryopsis, the harder the water, the more difficult it is for the bryopsis to survive, to which Ca is a contributor to.

...Anyways, to get back on track. If it were me, I would bring the Mg level down to 1600-1700ppm. You don't need more Kent tech M than that. If that is not the solution, I would look at other things such as raising the DKH, filtration for excess nutrients, and lighting. The reason I say to bring it between those levels I mentioned is to created stability in the tank, thus creating a better environment for your corals. The only metal in the Tech M to be concerned about is the copper ion. but because it is an ion, It has a tendency to change its chemical makeup into a non harmful form by bonding with other organics in the tank.

Did you do the water changes you said you were going to do? If so, what are your levels at?

Really hope I'm helping here. I hated dealing with bryopsis, but funny enough, I miss the challenge of it.
Click to expand...

No need to apologize. Post counts and join dates don't mean a thing... We're all on here to learn something new together. :D

I've dealt with bryopsis on multiple occasions in several tanks. Even when I think I've knocked it out for good it will come back a year or two later. I've never been successful at eliminating it by reducing nutrients or by raising Alk or Ca. I'd be interested to hear where you got your info on hard water having any effect on bryopsis. IME it has none.

I have been successful in the past by using MgSO4 in the form of Epson salts but it took much larger doses than Tech-M. IMO, (and many other such as Dr Randy) Tech-M and some other MgSO4 supplements contain an impurity or combination of impurities inherent to their production that kills off bryopsis. The elevated Mg itself does not have anything to do with it. You could elevate Mg to 3000ppm with MgCl and the bryopsis would blink an eye. :rolleyes:

In my SPS tank, every hour, I automatically dose Tech-M along with my ALK and Ca supplements. I've never had an issue with bryopsis since starting this. However, in my softy tank I have practically no ALK or Ca demand so thus no need for regular Mg dosing. I killed off all the bryopsis a few months ago with Tech-M but since I stopped regular dosing, it came back. However, the Mg did not drop because there are no hard corals to take it back up. So when I started dosing again a couple weeks ago the Mg level was already starting high (say 1700) thus the reason for hitting 2000+ so easily.

I don’t know if the elevated Mg or Tech-M dosing has anything to do with issues I’m seeing in my corals. The two could be completely unrelated. Though it’s the only thing I can think of that has changed recently. Thus the reason for my post. I just wanted to see if anyone else had noted a similar issue before.

Oh, btw I have no idea what my Ca was at before I started dosing the Tech-M, so I’m not going to comment on why its only at 390 now. Along with the lack of regular WCs I rarely test my levels on this tank. ;) Your right though, it should go up with Mg. I’ll be testing again tonight to see where I’m at.
 
Last edited:
Nice info guys, I am going to be dosing kent tech m again for a little while. The frag tank where the new zoas are sitting has become kinda nasty with it. Not in the display at all yet. I used it once before but I think it came in on some frag plugs. Hopefully it works again.
 
Regarding the hard water, it was a general consensus I found in the forums and websites I used while researching and battling the bryopsis. However, I can now question the validity of that statement being that my success was through tech M. My first attempt at its removal was the use of nutrient control and increased DKH, Mg, and Ca. This did NOT work. I brought my params back to normal and started dosing tech M. That worked; to which I attribute the impurities of the tech M (I totally agree with you on that). Would you consider dosing the tech m to your softy tank on a regular basis?

Thats interesting about the Epsom salts. Do you think that the MgSO4 and the MgCl(Tech M) have the same impurities? I don't know too much about impurities or its effects on the chemical bonds.

BTW, How are they today? Any improvement?

Piper27 - Have you had to deal with bryopsis on multiple occasions? I only ask as you mentioned you're going to start dosing "again". It would be nice to hear about how you've battled it off and how it affected your corals.
 
Mg tonight was 1730ppm

Here's some pics, I think things look a little bit better already.

See how these PPE are rounded on top like a button? They never looked like this until about 2-3 weeks ago

IMG_8326 by nickgrant79, on Flickr

These Devil's Armors have shrunk quite a bit. They used to be a solid mat, "nut to butt." :lol:

IMG_8324 by nickgrant79, on Flickr

These Bam Bams and Blue Orgasms have several closed polyps, this is quite unusual for these corals.

IMG_8327 by nickgrant79, on Flickr

IMG_8328 by nickgrant79, on Flickr
 
WOW, there are some great colours there! It looks like most of the colonies are open and healthy. Thats really encouraging. ...And I don't see any bryopsis. Has the battle been won in that respect?
 
I had a few patches abou two years ago. Used the Kent tech m til it turned pale and died. Never saw much of it since until we started ordering zoas again.
 
I had a few patches abou two years ago. Used the Kent tech m til it turned pale and died. Never saw much of it since until we started ordering zoas again.
 
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