Happyschneider
New member
Hi all,
I have a question to the community as I seem to be at my end with my knowledge. My magnesium is constantly increasing despite me not dosing any. My current water values:
tank is approx. 9 months old, 40G, no sump, PhosEx, activated Carbon, Siporax (1L in hang on box, fed by air pump)
pH 8.1 (measured with calibrated electric pH meter, milwaukee), very stable
salinity 35 ppt (calibrated refractometer, calibrated with 35 ppt standard solution)
Calcium 415 ppm (Salifert, slightly increasing, 100 ppm over 30 days) currently dosing 1 ml per day
ALK 116 (Hanna, dosing 14 ml per day, slowly increasing as I had a clogged dosing line 2 weeks ago and I did not realise it for quiet some time).
Magnesium (Salifert) was always kept at 1300 ppm and never needed any dosing. But since end of Feb it started to slowly increase (I would say approx 30 ppm per 2 week) and today it reached 1500 ppm! I am not aware of what it could be as I have not really changed anything in February that I am aware of.
The only thing that was changed recently was adding 1 Euphyllia, 1 Acanthastrea and 1 Zoa frag on Feb 19 and I changed my active coal on Feb 27 (Nyos Active Carb, 100 ml for my 40 gallons, in a filter bag in internal filter after filter floss (which is exchanged twice a week). Also, on Feb 27, I renewed the phosphate matrix (JBL PhosEx ultra).
I am feeding a mixture of frozen food, fresh mysis and flakes.
I am making a biweekly water change with fresh water (RO/DI, 35 ppt, pH and temp controlled) mixed freshly with ATI Coral Ocean plus. I have checked the freshly made water today and it has a magnesium concentration of; 1350 ppm
I checked the test (Salifert) and it showed 1215 ppm for a 1265 ppm test solution. That means the test even shows a little bit low! On the other hand, ATI is reported to give a 1350 ppm mixture at 35 ppt salinity. I guess I used an old reference solution which might be a little bit off?
I have no auto top off (completely covered tank and I have no evaporation worth mentioning which I fill up with RO/DI if I ever see any). I also keep a close eye on the salinity of the tank (stable at 35 ppt).
Dosing (calcium and alk) is done with fauna marine automatically by dosing pump.
Anyway, all corals look good. Euphyllias are open, Acan is growing nicely, Briareum is happy, Zoas are growing like mad. Fish seem also happy and cleaner shrimp are active as ever. The only thing bothering me is the hair algae growing everywhere. I hope to get it under control with the siporax and the phosphate binder for the moment. Long term I plan to get a upflow algae scrubber.
I am a biochemist by training, so I have a basic understanding of chemistry but I do not understand where this increasing level of magnesium is coming from. I would highly appreciate any help and suggestions what I could test.
Very sorry for this long post, but I hoped to give you as much information as possible to get you going on this riddle...
I have a question to the community as I seem to be at my end with my knowledge. My magnesium is constantly increasing despite me not dosing any. My current water values:
tank is approx. 9 months old, 40G, no sump, PhosEx, activated Carbon, Siporax (1L in hang on box, fed by air pump)
pH 8.1 (measured with calibrated electric pH meter, milwaukee), very stable
salinity 35 ppt (calibrated refractometer, calibrated with 35 ppt standard solution)
Calcium 415 ppm (Salifert, slightly increasing, 100 ppm over 30 days) currently dosing 1 ml per day
ALK 116 (Hanna, dosing 14 ml per day, slowly increasing as I had a clogged dosing line 2 weeks ago and I did not realise it for quiet some time).
Magnesium (Salifert) was always kept at 1300 ppm and never needed any dosing. But since end of Feb it started to slowly increase (I would say approx 30 ppm per 2 week) and today it reached 1500 ppm! I am not aware of what it could be as I have not really changed anything in February that I am aware of.
The only thing that was changed recently was adding 1 Euphyllia, 1 Acanthastrea and 1 Zoa frag on Feb 19 and I changed my active coal on Feb 27 (Nyos Active Carb, 100 ml for my 40 gallons, in a filter bag in internal filter after filter floss (which is exchanged twice a week). Also, on Feb 27, I renewed the phosphate matrix (JBL PhosEx ultra).
I am feeding a mixture of frozen food, fresh mysis and flakes.
I am making a biweekly water change with fresh water (RO/DI, 35 ppt, pH and temp controlled) mixed freshly with ATI Coral Ocean plus. I have checked the freshly made water today and it has a magnesium concentration of; 1350 ppm
I checked the test (Salifert) and it showed 1215 ppm for a 1265 ppm test solution. That means the test even shows a little bit low! On the other hand, ATI is reported to give a 1350 ppm mixture at 35 ppt salinity. I guess I used an old reference solution which might be a little bit off?
I have no auto top off (completely covered tank and I have no evaporation worth mentioning which I fill up with RO/DI if I ever see any). I also keep a close eye on the salinity of the tank (stable at 35 ppt).
Dosing (calcium and alk) is done with fauna marine automatically by dosing pump.
Anyway, all corals look good. Euphyllias are open, Acan is growing nicely, Briareum is happy, Zoas are growing like mad. Fish seem also happy and cleaner shrimp are active as ever. The only thing bothering me is the hair algae growing everywhere. I hope to get it under control with the siporax and the phosphate binder for the moment. Long term I plan to get a upflow algae scrubber.
I am a biochemist by training, so I have a basic understanding of chemistry but I do not understand where this increasing level of magnesium is coming from. I would highly appreciate any help and suggestions what I could test.
Very sorry for this long post, but I hoped to give you as much information as possible to get you going on this riddle...
