magnesium

R

reefgazer

Anything that I can purchase locally to substitude for this substance ? LIke dowflake or Cal harness from Leslie Pool supplies instead of spending big buck for calcium. THanks.
 
epsom salts - but check the packaging; some add a substance that I've heard does bad things. I don't know much more than that.

Check reefvideos.com for a 2 part ca/alk solution and he shows the mg with epsom salts part also.
 
How big of a tank do you have?

If you have a smaller tank, 55 or under, find someone here who is using bulk 2-part and pick up a few gallon jugs and have them mix it up for $5 or so a bottle. Its cheaper than any product you can buy and safer.

Or buy the small kits at bulkreefsupply.com.

Bulk Mg should be a combination of Mg Chloride and Mg Sulfate, if you use either one or the other exclusively, over time you could build up Chlorides or Sulfates in your system.

Here is an article on Mg supplementation... its a long read and very 'technical' but the basic point is... Use Mg Sulf and Mg Chlor together when mixing a Mg supplement. Most of the commercial products use one or the other and long term use can lead to issues.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/rhf/index.php
 
Thanks,

I have purchased 14 lbs bucket of Mag chloride from bulkreefsupply.com after asking serevals people on here. Didn't know that there is need to mix both mag chloride and Mag sulfate. Was told to mix 3 tsp of epsom salt (will buy locally) and 5 tsp of Mag chloride in 1 gal container and dose it slowly to raise magnesium in the tank.

Does it sound right to you?

Don't know how much to add but will test along the way.
 
@reefgazer wrote:
Thanks said:
Yep.. Epsom Salt is Mg Sulf and the mixture ratio I use is 3 cups of sulf and 5 of chlor and fill to 1 gallon. Shake... shake more... then shake more... and use, shaking before each use. Don't worry if not of all of it dissolves, thats normal, just do the best you can and shake it before dosing.

Do you know how much to dose? Here is the calculator I use...

http://www.2partcalculator.com/

Put in the total volume of your system, including sump. Enter the current reading in ppm.. your desired reading in ppm then select the supplement product, in your case it would be... recipe 1 and 2 option and click on calculate.

Mg typically requires large volume.. in my system to get it up 100 ppm takes about 50 oz...
Click to expand...
 
I also bought a Mag kit made by Salifert and will have to test first to find out what is the current mg in the tank? correct? After mix two substance, Can I use immediately? or have to wait. I know I have to shake them up each time before use and also have to use hot water if solidation is observed. Right now, I don't know what is my mag in my tank. I did have trouble with keeping alk and ca level.

Louie
 
@reefgazer wrote:
what is the desired level for mg in a soft coral with 2 clams tank? No SPS. said:
1250 - 1350 is what most of us shoot for, regardless of bioload or inhabitants.
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Hey Louie,

Dave didn't stress this, probably because you don't have sps but...only raise your Mg by 100ppm a day so that nothing get's stressed. :)

Cheers,
 
Try to keep your magnesium level about three times your calcium level. I have always mixed them together dry, magnesium salts and epson salts. When I need to dose I then add a cup or two of the dry salts with some ro/di water and dissolve it. Then I slowly add dump this into my sump area. It is a lot easier to store it dry and dissolve what you are planning on dosing. Then test the tank again after at least 6 hours and see what the reading is. Add some more over a few days till you get the level you want. Then test after a couple of weeks to see what you use is. That will give you an idea how often you need to add more.
 
Thank you Rick and all for suggestions. I think that could be the reason my zoos have been disappeared because mg level was out of whack. Looking forward to annual frag meeting this year to stock up my tank after getting this issue straighten out.

Lou
 
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