Magnesium jumped 200 parts after water change

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Bangemslim

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have been using fritz for a few months now and never had an issue until this week.  Water has always been 1360-1400 magnesium, 7.7-7.9 alk and 410-430 calcium.  I've been trying to slowly raising alk to 9 and only been testing alk.  Started losing my huge patch of king Midas zoas and my RBT started walking so I knew something was up.  Tested everything today, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, Phosphate 0, ph 8.1, alk 7.9, cal 410 and magnesium 1600.  Red Sea tests end at 1600 but it was exactly at 1600 not unmeasurable.  I even tested 3 times with 1600, 1560, and 1600 as the results.  I did a waterchange of 20 gallons on a 135 and am at the end of a box, batch 7 of 8, so not the end but close to.1) is there any major concern with high magnesium?2) could this be the cause of an unhappy tank?3) what could have caused this?
 
Entirely possible that your batch of salt has higher mag.  Salt settles in shipping, sometimes it isn't uniform so you'll get a portion of the bag with higher XYZ.  Mixing the dry salt is important if you aren't going to use the whole bag at once.I personally don't think 1600 is an issue, or your problem.I would check salinity to be sure, and also test a batch of fresh salt.Your nitrates at 5 sound fine.  Where near 0 the phosphate is could be an issue (any really pale SPS?), but isn't a common one.  Everything else seems reasonable.
 
I have never mixed the bag of salt before making a batch, I will from now on.  Some SPS does look bad, green monti has browned out and a sunset monti is bleaching.  Is some phosphates desired?  Was under the impression that ANY phosphates were the root of all evil.
 
A lot of people run their mag that high when battling bryopsis without any negative side effects.  I doubt the high mag is the culprit.  Any chance the nem moved across the zoa colony and stung them?<hr />
 
Okay well I'm relieved about the mag.  I wish it was that simple but the anemone and zoas are on opposite ends of a 72" 135.  I've recently been bringing the alk up while dosing vinegar.  Might be doing something wrong.  I am giving up the hobby and hopefully it is picked up this weekend.  
 
 Sorry to hear you're getting out.Life requires nutrients, and in this case nutrients includes both some nitrates and phosphates.  The thing about phosphates is that the level required is lower than many test kits will show, so zero could be ok, and zero could be too little.  Phosphate and nitrate too low in my experience everything gets extremely pale, not brown, although I'm not really experienced in that end.Most people have the opposite issue, too much phosphate/nitrate, so that's the concern you usually hear about, but there is a limit in both directions.
 
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