salifert magnesium test ...

brittlestar08

In Memoriam
I'm sure alot of you out there use the salifer mag test kit. couple of ??? my kit gotmixed with others and I'm not sure what spoon I need to use. I have a white small round spoon for the powder or an oval blue spoon. The other question is when I run the test I have to draw with the syringe twice from the mg3 regent before I see a color change. is my mag. that low? or is my test kit bad?

also can anyone recoment a good test kit for mag? any electronice exist for testing mag? thanks

also why am i not seeing salifert under the vendor section? i know hamed was here and had his own forum and there is no contact us link on their web site.. are they going out of buiz or something?
 
Having to draw a second dose of Mg-3 means your Mg is over 1500. The instructions give the number to multiply by for the actual number.
As far as the spoon goes, mine is a blue spoon, so is the Ca spoon.
 
ok, I ran the test again with the blue spoon which isabout twice as large as the white one and itmakesscence now. Thanks... However, My reading is a whoping 3000. that due to the fact that I added mag. to the water thinking I was low.... now I'm twice the recommendedlevel. The corals don't seem to be affected... should I worry??? should I do a major water change or just let it alone as the corals will use up the mag. naturally... saliferts direction does not specify what to do when the mag. levels are higher than 1500. any help would be great and all the help so far is much appreciated. thanks
 
not to hijack this thread, but I have been looking for the thread that discusses raising mag to 1700 to get rid of brioptsy (sp). Does anyone have a link to that thread?
 
Magnesium at 3000 and no ill effects? I'm not surprised. How long has it been at such an elevated level?
 
Here is the link for the bryopsis thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1113109&highlight=magnesium+bryopsis

Magnesium, calcium and alkalinity need to be in some sort of balance. If your magnesium is that far out of whack, your calcium or alkalinity should also be out of whack. I would also expect things like snails to be showing distress if you have them in your tank.

I would quit supplementing magnesium (in general) and conduct a few partial water changes to bring your levels down. If you use a salt mix with decent magnesium levels and do reasonable water changes, you shouldn't have to supplement it IMO.
 
It is almost impossible for your magnesium level to be 3000 ppm.

There is absolutely no way it could have gotten that high.

This is either test kit error or user error.

What are you seeing as the color change end point ? Once the water turns from pink to clear, that is your end point.

The only other kit I trust at the moment for hobby grade kits is the Elos. It will get you within 100ppm. (50 ppm if you double the water sample). Of course this uses double the reagent. :)
 
I use Salifert brand test kits. For the mag, I just half everything...1 mil tank water, 2 drops mag-1, half spoon mag-2, and end up squirting about half of the mag-3 back into its container afterwards. Of course, the result needs doubling.
 
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