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Is DIY Mag supplement worth the trouble at > 40gal?


Deadhand

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Hi there,

 

So I'm currently planning my dosing regiments and methods to maintain Ca, Alk and Mg levels that match that of natural seawater. I'm leaning towards DIY kalkwasser + vinegar to dose Ca and Alk. I still don't know if I should just use a commercial solution for Mg or if I should pursue one of Randy Holmes-Farley solutions.

 

Randy's article:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/#17

 

I like his Mg solution because it's dirt cheap but I notice sourcing some of these things would be tough but I live in Oregon and it's now November so it may be a good time to stock up on Magnesium Chloride if I can find it.

 

Thanks for the input!

 

Cheers,

Jared

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Typically, in a nano tank one doesn't need much Mg, so a commercial product should go a long way. I am still using a bottle of ESV that I purchased 4-5 years ago and it's still 1/3 full :)

 

Straight Kalkwasser should do fine. Vinegar is typically added when/if the tank ends up with such a large population of calcifying organisms that straight Kalkwasser is not sufficient to maintain Alk and Ca levels. By adding vinegar you can increase the Alk and Ca availability by around 10%.

 

You can certainly add vinegar which will provide an additional carbon source by stimulating bacteria production. Typically, these bacteria are removed via a protein skimmer and as a result nitrate and phosphate are removed from the system. However, it is usually added only when it is clear that a system is unable to properly maintain a low, stable nitrate and phosphate level.

 

This is a good read on the subject:

 

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/116-vinegar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

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Hi Nano Sapien, thanks for the response. My reasons for Acetate (vinegar) is for the later reasons. I have a skimmer in my sump that I would love to export Phosphate and Nitrate if need be.

 

Thanks for the input, I will probably just go commercial then.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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There was a disclaimer in the article from 2007 stating the Dead Sea Works could not guarantee the purity of the Magnesium Chloride Hexahydrate (deicer) in the future.

 

You can pick up 1 or 2 pounds of most of the chemicals used in reeding fairly cheap through Amazon or EBay that are over 99.9% pure. Those will last forever in a nano reef (typically need 1/16 tsp to 2 tbsp to make up a gallon of solution that gets dosed in ml) and will be far safer than some chemical created for another use with unknown levels of unknown contaminants. They only need to test for a few contaminants, the rest of the stuff they don't care about as long as the product contains over 'x' amount of the main constituent.

 

Also no point in buying a huge bag of stuff that you only need a tiny portion of if the commercial product isn't much more expensive and will last a few years.

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