Magnesium deficiency

B

bfronc1

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[I was wondering if anyone test for Magnesium? I started testing for this and found my tanks were extremely deficient. I have also tested freshly made Instant Ocean with a Salifert test kit and the result was about 1160 ppm. Natural seawater is in the rage of 1300-1500 ppm.]
 
[I tested for Magnesium a few times, and I was at about 1230. I've even got stuff to add Magnesium in the garage, but I've not attempted to do so yet.

It just seems that more the more we know about stuff, the more we try to correct things and usually it seems to screw up a good thing.

But if you decide to go for it, I'd love to hear how it works out Barry.]
 
[Marc,

Ever since I moved into this house I haven't had any coraline growth and it has been a chore to keep up with my alkalinity. We have a private water source and the water is real soft and I ro it for my tanks. This could be the reason for the low magnesium, I'm not sure how much the ro unit removes and how much magnesium is actually in the water source. I would suspect that since we have soft water that it lacks mineral content to begin with.

I had to add 60 teaspoons of seachem reef advantage magnesium to get my magnesium level up to 1350 in a 40 gallon batch. This was in a new batch of salt water made with instant ocean. ???

Magnesuim and calcuim tie into your alkalinity and maybe thats why my alkalinity leves are hard to keep up.]
 
[I wonder what type of Magnesium levels I get in freshly made Kent's Sea Salt? I'll test it next time I make a batch.

I already know I'm getting higher Ca readings that IO makes. It seems to have 340 - 360 ppm, where I get 400ppm with Kent's.

Brad has hard-as-rock water, and you have the 'downy' version. LOL]
 
[Barry:
I have heard that dosing kalk can cause magnesium depletion, so I tested my mag last month and found it to be 1000. I went immediately to DNA and bought a bottle of Kent Tech-M Magnesium and started adding it at 1/2 of the recommended amount daily to raise the level 39ppm per day, per the bottle* Several days into the "treatment" I saw random corals in my system bleach. SPS, Ricordia, Sinularia, Pachyseris, Platygyra...I went to reef central and found another anecdotal case of that product causing bleaching.

Mr. Farley didn't suggest a correlation between mag and bleaching. Read his reply here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147950

*note that Kent's website for the same product has different information than the back of the bottle I purchased, ironically suggesting 1/2 of the bottle suggested increase, or 19ppm per day at the same addition rate. I'm not sure which one is correct, I tend to go with something higher that the bottle because my mag level got to 1200 long before I had added the amount I needed according to their directions and my calculations.]
 
@DAS115 wrote:
[Kent Tech-M Magnesium and started adding ^^^] said:
[ Not the "K" word! There are children present.

I once heard a guy from a foriegn country say that the only additives they could get in his country were The ahem "K" name brand ones, so he didn't use additives except for your standard pickling lime. Now that's a glowing recomendation. I use one thing of theirs, an RO/DI unit which is actually very nice and well made. :D]
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[I tested Mg in my 29g, which is my pride and joy. 1200ppm. To be honest, I don't know that I need to raise it other than due to recommendations, because everything looks healthy enough.

I do have a container of the stuff (Mg) in my garage... I just hate to screw up a good thing.]
 
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