Turbo magnesium

B

Beenalongtime79

New member
Does anybody have any experience with the Turbo-magnesium sold by aquacare. It is fairly expensive, but I bought some and have it placed in a chamber/pH probe holder that comes after my calcium reactor. The pH of the effluent is quite high at 9.6. I am just a bit tired of dosing magnesium and thought that this might decrease magnesium doses.

Is it alright to place the turbo magnesium granules in a chamber after my calcium reactor effluent or is this actually detrimental and counter productive to my calcium reactors output as I am worried about precipitating out Carbonate and/or calcium.

Any help or input would be absolutely great! Dr. Holmes-Farley... any thoughts?

Cheers,
John
 
It looks like it's some sort of dolomite or something similar. It should be fine as long as there's a reasonable amount in the reactor. That might take some tuning.
 
The pH sounds odd to me. Sure it isn't a measurement error? I cannot see how it could raise the pH that much if, as I agree it seems to be, it is a type of magnesium carbonate.

You need to be careful to not try to raise magnesium this way, only maintain it. The problem is that for every magnesium ion released from the dolomite, 2 units of alkalinity are also released:

MgCO3 ---> Mg++ + CO3--

Consequently, if one wants to raise magnesium by 100 ppm, the alkalinity will necessarily rise by 8.2 meq/L (23 dKH). The only way around this problem is to add a mineral acid (not vinegar) to the aquarium to reduce the alkalinity, and that may be more problematic than just adding soluble magnesium in the first place.
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The pH sounds odd to me. Sure it isn't a measurement error? I cannot see how it could raise the pH that much if, as I agree it seems to be, it is a type of magnesium carbonate.

You need to be careful to not try to raise magnesium this way, only maintain it. The problem is that for every magnesium ion released from the dolomite, 2 units of alkalinity are also released:

MgCO3 ---> Mg++ + CO3--

Consequently, if one wants to raise magnesium by 100 ppm, the alkalinity will necessarily rise by 8.2 meq/L (23 dKH). The only way around this problem is to add a mineral acid (not vinegar) to the aquarium to reduce the alkalinity, and that may be more problematic than just adding soluble magnesium in the first place.
Click to expand...

Sorry Randy, that pH reading was when I initially added the pellets, and there was a bit of fine slurry/mist which had a very high pH, the current pH is actually only about 9.1-9.2. However, the actual chemical makeup of the granules (at least what aquacare has stated) is that it is actually Magnesium Oxide (roughly 70-75%, and not MgCO3) in each granule so that may account for the high pH since I think that Magoxide will form Magnesium hydroxide when combined with water.

Cheers,
John
 
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Oh, I'm very surprised they supply magnesium oxide for this use. It has the potential to push the tank pH and alkalinity levels too high. So be careful with it.
 
Thanks Randy, I will be careful to monitor these things. My pH is already depressed due to high CO2 in the tank (calc. reactor, great housing insulation) so not too worried about that right now, but will be monitoring alk closely. :)

It is still hanging out in the 10-11 dkH range. Once again, thanks for the information!

Cheers,
John
 
Randy

WOW one needs to really know what they are doing to do this !

Magnesium oxide 70-75%
Calcium oxide 4-5%
Iron oxide, aluminium oxide, silica oxide 3-4%
Annealing loss 16-20%
Size of granules 2-5 mm
Bulk density approximal 1300 g/l






viewer
 
Boomer said:
Randy

WOW one needs to really know what they are doing to do this !

Magnesium oxide 70-75%
Calcium oxide 4-5%
Iron oxide, aluminium oxide, silica oxide 3-4%
Annealing loss 16-20%
Size of granules 2-5 mm
Bulk density approximal 1300 g/l

I will certainly monitor carefully for right now... as of right now, running it for roughly 14 hours, it hasn't really affected my alkalinity by that much.

It really is quite caustic stuff. The effluent from my calcium reactor is about 6.45-6.5 and after it flows through the turbo mag granules, the pH is increased to 8.9-9.0

Here is how I have it set up.

4506128328_7fd2044019_b.jpg


Calcium reactor effluent enters the chamber via the black tubing and exits at the JG elbow. Pretty simple setup and easily removed from the circuit if things go awry. :)

Cheers,
John
Click to expand...
 
:lol:That is odd, I can see that pic on my first post of it here using Firefox but not Opera or other browsers.
 
Interesting, disconcerting results

Interesting, disconcerting results

Hey guys,

So, I did some testing this morning and found that I had some unhappy results with the turbo magnesium granules. Like I stated before, I have the granules placed in a pH probe box that receives effluent after my calcium reactor. pH going into the calcium reactor is roughly 6.45-6.5 and pH now leaving the pH probe box is 7.5-7.6 (it has slowly drifted down).

I tested Magnesium, alkalinity, and calcium values all via salifert test kits:

Pre-probe box (before turbo-magnesium granules)

DKH-52
Ca-520-540
Mg-1550

Post-probe box (after turbo-magnesium granules)

DKH-44
Ca-340-360!!!
Mg-1520

Now, I wish I had switched around the water samples, but that did not happen so these results seem to be real. So, I am wondering what chemical reactions/processes is going on in that little pH probe box where I actually get a decrease in all of my chemical element values... I mean, is the turbo-magnesium through production of carbonate actually precipitating out my calcium from the reactor? It almost seems that I may need to run the Magnesium granules in a separate reactor completely to avoid these detrimental results.

Ideas, revelations, additional insight?

Thanks for any help!
John
 
It looks like John you are going through what I was kinda afraid of, a precip of Low-Magnesium Calcite, which is one of the first mineral to occur with whose Ca++, Mg++ and high Alk you have. However, I would have expected it to be more like Hi-Magnesium Calcite. Look for a precip coating things or a slight cloudiness to the water in the tank or box or a dusting of the bottom of the box / tank. Check you pumps also. Not only is your Alk through the roof but that Mg++ is really high by ~ 250 ppm.
 
Oh hey boomer, I should actually mention that the post box effluent was taken directly from the elbow coming off of the ph probe box and not from my tank water. Pumps are fine and there is no cloudiness or any type of precipitate on walls or bottom of tank...

Whatever is happening I think is occurring directly inside the ph probe box.

So, is this a function of the sudden increase in pH as the calc. reactor effluent reaches the turbo mag granules and suddenly things come out of solution/precipitate. Now, is the best way to avoid this... simply to have 2 different reactors?

Thanks for all the help!
John
 
Yes to your question and second question the precip may be building up in the pluming, it has to go somewhere :)
 
hey boomer, I cleaned out the probe box and cleaned out all the precipitate in the box. :) So, I will have to find another way of doing it. Will definitely keep the granules for future use though once I upgrade to a larger system and can get an additional reactor.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

Cheers,
John
 
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