Magnesium Concentration

[Bill Nye]

Hi everyone

 

I had a post about a week ago talking about no matter how much I dosed calcium it wouldnt go above 380. So today I got my salifert test kit in and tested all my water parameters testing mag last. My calc was 380 and my kH was 12. I then broke out the new salifert test kit and did a mag test. I got a mag level of 300... Is this even possible??? I use instant ocean salt mix and water change 1 time a week.

 

Im thinking that I must have done the test wrong and am about to redo it. The only thing I can think of is I counted wrong? When I was using the 1 mL syringe and sucked up mg-3 there was about a 2mL air bubble in it no matter how I did it. I counted my drops as if I was starting at .8 mL and did the test. Turns out I used all the way down to the syringe but there was a little left in the actual tip. I counted this as .8 mL used. Am I doing this wrong? I cant believe that my Mag is 300 unless the IO batch is a poor batch i guess.

 

EDIT

 

Hmm I just did some searching on the forums and it seems you are supposed to count it as if its 1 mL even though theres a air bubble at the top. It also seems like you are supposed to use the amount left not the amount used. So with this new method my plunger was on .2 when I was done including the air bubble so that would mean my Magnesium would be 1200 according to the chart. This would make alot more sense....

 

For a 25 dollar test kit its the directions are pretty bad. Its like something youd print out from your computer.

[Bill Nye]

Any input on this? I am guessing that my Mag is around 1200 since calcium has a 1 to 3 relationship with Magnesium from what Ive read. Even after dosing for 4 days in a row with ESV Calcium I couldnt get my levels above 380. 380 x 3 = 1140. Im just got some ESV Mag supplement and I am going to dose as if I have 1140 levels and using this http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html .

 

Do you think the Magnesium is the reason why my Calc is so low and my Alk is so high(380 calc .. 12 kH)? We will soon find out I guess. Are there any rules about dosing Mag as far as dosing Calc. How far apart should I dose both of these? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Degener8]

I would start dosing every other day and just follow the instructions if your trying to maintain or increase.. (it should have instructions for both.)

 

1200 mag is not that far from NSW (1300) and 380 isnt terribly far from NSW either (400-450 i think)

 

I know reef crystals is supposed to give results of 450 calc, 1300 mag and 1.026 sg. Maybe its time to experiment with new salt before starting dosing. If your doing regular water changes dosing unless heavily sps dominated shouldnt be a real issue.

[Bill Nye]

I would start dosing every other day and just follow the instructions if your trying to maintain or increase.. (it should have instructions for both.)

 

1200 mag is not that far from NSW (1300) and 380 isnt terribly far from NSW either (400-450 i think)

 

I know reef crystals is supposed to give results of 450 calc, 1300 mag and 1.026 sg. Maybe its time to experiment with new salt before starting dosing. If your doing regular water changes dosing unless heavily sps dominated shouldnt be a real issue.

 

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess that would be a far easier solution than dosing haha. I originally wanted to get reef crystals but Foster and Smith sent me regular IO for some reason and I was too lazy to send it back to them so I just kept it. I was thinking about switching to either D D H20 or Tropic Marin but if Reef Crystals is pretty much the same id probably do that since its cheaper

 

edit

 

I ended up dosing ~7 mL as the instructions said dose 1.5 mL per gallon. I got a 5.5 gal with a ac 70 mod so I just guestimated I probably have about 4.5 gals of water in there. Maybe a little more than that but id rather undershoot.

[Degener8]

I recently started using reeef crystals (few weeks back) so far I cant see any real change since i had IO in there for ever and a day before that. In a few more WC's I think i will start seeing differences in tests.