my calcium and magnesium is low

[Jerfrog]

Got my water tested today and my calcium and magnesium is a low. A lot of my corals are losing their color and I have a good amount of pieces in my 24g.

 

My LFS is ran by two brothers that are helpful and know what they are talking about. I smell no BS when I go there, but I forgot how he told me to dose to raise my Mg. I picked up Seachem Reef Advantage Mag. buffer. My test indicated that my Mg. levels were at 930.

 

It says on the back of the buffer to add 1 teaspoon per 20g's twice a week. I remember he told me something about adding about 5 tsp's to raise my Mg to the appropriate levels, then I can work my way back to the normal dosage to keep stable once it gets there. Can anyone clarify this? at 930 how much do i want to dose? This will be my first time dosing ANYTHING in the tank. Im going to try and pick up a test kit tomorrow.

 

Also, my Calcium is low as well. Im planning on using the B-Ionic A&B and im wondering if there is any special way i should be adding this to the tank while dosing Mg?

 

Sorry if this is confusing, im new at chemicals. What do I gotta do?!!

[polok121]

well first if your Mg is low its going to throw off your calcium and Alk levels. That said i would do a water change first. Then i would check your Mg levels, dont worry to much about your calcium until your Mg is better. With the buffer dont raise it by more than 25 per day or else your Alk will get all wacky.

 

your better off doing water changes than dosing.......it will take forever to get it back up dosing. a couple water changes should get you back to normal. whats causing your depletion?

 

i was in the same position a while back, and that was because i had the LFS prepare me water for my water changes and they had been doing it wrong, my Mg dropped to 900s. I started mixing my own and then did a few water changes. everything is back to normal now:) tried dosing...took way to long not worth it. you need to be around 1200-1350. if you can only raise it by max 25 a day you can imagine how long that can take

[NANOYED]

well first if your Mg is low its going to throw off your calcium and Alk levels. That said i would do a water change first. Then i would check your Mg levels, dont worry to much about your calcium until your Mg is better. With the buffer dont raise it by more than 25 per day or else your Alk will get all wacky.

 

your better off doing water changes than dosing.......it will take forever to get it back up dosing. a couple water changes should get you back to normal. whats causing your depletion?

 

i was in the same position a while back, and that was because i had the LFS prepare me water for my water changes and they had been doing it wrong, my Mg dropped to 900s. I started mixing my own and then did a few water changes. everything is back to normal now:) tried dosing...took way to long not worth it. you need to be around 1200-1350. if you can only raise it by max 25 a day you can imagine how long that can take

 

I couldn't disagree more! If you have a good amount of corals, water changes alone aren't going to help replenish your levels. Your corals require more calcium than you can supply in a water change. If you only had a few corals in there, water changes would be fine. You need to get your calcium level up and stable. Most people weren't even dosing magnesium until the last couple of years. I do a water change on Sunday evening, M/W/F morning before my lights come on I add my A&B two part. On Monday eveing I add my Mag. depending on my level. If you're dosing Mag. I would get a test kit for it.

[Jerfrog]

So what does it take to get back to the proper levels? I'm just a little confused as to how much I add to my tank and for how long?

[reefer916]

So what does it take to get back to the proper levels? I'm just a little confused as to how much I add to my tank and for how long?

 

I agree with the other guys. I have quite a few corals in my 24 gallon as well and I usually change 1 gallon per day and a 5 gallon water change per week. This helps stablize all of my other readings. I use Reef Crystals, which has a pretty high magnesium and calcium additives already. I dose every other day according to my tank. It's usually 1/4 capful of Kent magnesium and calcium I dose half a capful daily. The best way for you to figure it out is do your water changes for a week and test your water. You could do 3 gallon water changes daily till you get your levels up. Never could do too many small water changes. Don't do a huge water change because that could shock your system. After the week goes by and your cal and mag levels should have increased. If they're still low just follow the instructions on the bottle till you get it up to acceptable levels. Test daily to figure out what your tank consumes daily and adjust your dosing from there. Depending on what kind of corals you have you should also look into Strontium and Iodide. If your unsure about the amount, just start off with small doses and watch your corals. Strontium's important for skeletal and tissue growth on LPS, Clams, and SPS. Iodide is used mostly for inverts and LPS will also color up as well. It's better to under dose than over dose your tank, especially when dealing with Iodide. I dose Cal, Mag, Stront, Iodide, Trace elements, and Coral-Vite. I also add Brightwells Coral Amino's, which is awesome to bring out the colors of your corals. Good luck.

[ericm1205]

i use only brightwell aquatics and i have gotten great results from them. if you are noticing your corals staying closed and not opening fully then you are having a alk swing. a tiny alk swing will mess with your corals. i had quite a few corals in my nano too and i had to take them out cause i was dosing every day just to keep the Ca, Mg and from not having an alk swing. i put them back in the frag tank for now until i get my Ca reactor and finish plumbing the nano into the frag tank system.

 

you are gonna cost yourself a fortune in dosing 2 part like bionic or Tech part A&B all the time. i would suggest either getting a kalkwasser dosing kit or a kit to dose 2 part (2 part is actually 3 part which is Ca, Alk and Mag)

 

check this out which is really cheap, very easy to do and works great for dosing.

 

Bulk reef supply's 2 part dosing

[gregzbobo]

A reef calculator I use says (I'm assuming this is for your AP24, nominal 20g total volume) to raise mag from 930 to 1350 you'd need to dose almost 80 teaspoons of the Seachem mag buffer. It also says not to raise mag by more than 100 per day, since thats an increase of 420, it's take you about 4 days at 20 teaspoons per day. I'd try a 30%wc first, retest, and adjust accordingly if needed. link to calculator:

dosing calculator

[lakshwadeep]

What salt mix are you using?

 

Where are you getting the water tested? What are the exact numbers instead of vague things like "low"? You should have your own test kits for everything that you're dosing.

 

What's your tank size and livestock list? There's no sense in dosing Mg/Ca/alkalinity if you don't have many stony corals.

 

It's pretty easy to find out how much to dose. First, you have to get accurate test kits; brands like API, Salifert, Lamotte, and Elos are good choices. Second, you need to test your tank's usage of each chemical you want to dose over time, including before and after a water change to know how much really is being replenished with a water change. The dosing calculator link above is a great resource. Use the link below to learn about water chemistry and proper reef water parameters:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

[Jerfrog]

i buy my saltwater and freshwater at the same place i get my water tested.

 

I have:

 

YWM goby

percula clown

6line

cleaner shrimp

coral:

a bunch of zoas

clam

colony of frogspawn

few montis

an acan or two and a chalice

 

I testes:

MAG-930

ALK-2.51/70

CAL-300

IOD-0.03

[lakshwadeep]

It would be best to mix water yourself and either get a RO/DI filter or buy freshwater from your LFS. For test kits, API is an inexpensive choice. You don't need to test or dose iodine, as my link indicated.

[davidncbrown]

Dunno if you are still having Mg problems, but Red Sea Mg test kit works really, really well for me. As well as Kent Tech-M to raise it. Your Mg should ideally be at least 3x the level of your calcium. If you are going to mix your own salt water I like Seachem reef salt. It has a ridiculously high calcium level which is a little annoying, but it will drop as soon as it is added to your tank (it will be out of balance and calcium will just precipitate out). Kh is regularly 10, and Mg is 1400 when I make a new batch of salt and test it. I don't use my LFS salt water because, although it is fine for fish only tanks, the levels are so low I always have to bring them up.

[ldballoon4]

I agree with the other guys. I have quite a few corals in my 24 gallon as well and I usually change 1 gallon per day and a 5 gallon water change per week. This helps stablize all of my other readings. I use Reef Crystals, which has a pretty high magnesium and calcium additives already. I dose every other day according to my tank. It's usually 1/4 capful of Kent magnesium and calcium I dose half a capful daily. The best way for you to figure it out is do your water changes for a week and test your water. You could do 3 gallon water changes daily till you get your levels up. Never could do too many small water changes. Don't do a huge water change because that could shock your system. After the week goes by and your cal and mag levels should have increased. If they're still low just follow the instructions on the bottle till you get it up to acceptable levels. Test daily to figure out what your tank consumes daily and adjust your dosing from there. Depending on what kind of corals you have you should also look into Strontium and Iodide. If your unsure about the amount, just start off with small doses and watch your corals. Strontium's important for skeletal and tissue growth on LPS, Clams, and SPS. Iodide is used mostly for inverts and LPS will also color up as well. It's better to under dose than over dose your tank, especially when dealing with Iodide. I dose Cal, Mag, Stront, Iodide, Trace elements, and Coral-Vite. I also add Brightwells Coral Amino's, which is awesome to bring out the colors of your corals. Good luck.

 

 

so you are doing a 50% WC/week PLUS dosing??

[Jerfrog]

David, thanks for the advice. An RO/DI unit is next on my list. Im gonna start mixingt my own water. My LFS uses Tropic Marin salt so thats what ive been using. Ill look into the Seachem salt.

 

If i were to do like a 2 gallon water change everyday for the next week, would that kind of restart my parameters? Once everything gets in check id like to start using my own water.

[doctaq]

if youre looking to raise your mag do larger water changes, as much as you think is safe on your tank.

dosing mag is kinda tricky since it will raise your sg a bunch, do it slow, id take as long as a week or two to raise my mag that much

seachem reef advantage calcium also has mag in it so you can switch to that after you get your levels right