vacation worries

[gordonjh]

Well, here is the update, left for 8 days, left roommate with 1/2 strength kalk water, he went through 4 gallons while I was gone (rained all week so less evap than usual.) told him to feed 1/2 cube of mysis halfway through my trip. Everything is happy and healthy upon return. Corals still in good shape even though kh fell to 6 and calcium fell to 360. Correcting them slowly right now. Here is the question, I used the last of my salifert mag test right before I left, got it to 1300 and took off for my trip. What do people think that my mag fell to while I was gone? I will know in a week or so when I get a new mag test delivered, but am curious if there are some educated guesses out there so I can get it back on track now.

 

[bertoni]

I never saw much of a magnesium drop due to consumption, but some people do. I wouldn't worry about the magnesium level, personally.

All in all, that sounds like a very successful vacation story.

 

[mindi]

Mine never drops, I do about 20% water change a month with NSW...not a great amount, and I never seem to get below about 1400. I used to worry about it but now I just ignore it. Good vacation story...
I have just had the opposite. Tunze Osmolator failed (second one) , water level dropped, Red Dragon pump self destructed (destroyed..?), Schego heater was good enough to switch itself off. Lost a Heliofungia but fish OK. Main harm was loss of temperature which is really stupid stupid stupid when I had a backup heater which should have been deployed in DT as it would have got me out of jail. Recovering now... even soft corals are not too fond of 21 degrees.All fish OK. BTA looks very cross but with temp coming back I am hopeful.

 

[gordonjh]

I am surprised to hear that some of you dont see your level drop, I keep a pretty good record of everytime I do tests and what I add to get it back to normal, i boost my instant ocean by 150ppm magnesium with epsom salts, and I definitely see some drops from usage. Unfortunately I don't do the mag test that often, I would need to add a few more columns to my spreadsheet to get a good idea of actual consumption (like if there were water changes, what the mag level of water change water was, what the SG of the water I mixed that time was.) If I took a fairly educated guess (spreadsheet for over a year now with sporadic mg tests) on what my tank uses, I would say 30-40ppm every 8-10 days, could be a little higher if my instant ocean + 150ppm mg, isn't at or over 1300ppm. Just ordered a new salifert mg kit, so 15-20 tests the next month or so could get me to knowing exactly how much my tank uses. Wonder if there'd be any downside to throwing epsom salts in the right ratio in my kalk/top off water (would anything precipitate out from mixing those two?)

 

[kmbyrnes]

Glad to hear your trip went well.
Be sure to thank your friend, so he is willing to do the same in the future.

 

[bertoni]

Adding some epsom salt to a fresh batch of saltwater is fine. I've done the same with magnesium chloride when boosting the old IO up to saltwater levels.

I've lost a number of fish due to heater failures. I will never trust a single heater again.