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Low magnesium very quickly after water change


Laurenscube

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Hi I'm Lauren,

Glad to be part of the reefing community! Im 30 live in london and have been into marine fish keeping for years! I finally got given a tank for xmas in 2015 and now spend my days researching online and watching you tube for the best advice for my tank and hopefully future larger tanks-Current dream getting the new Red sea reefer nano cube!! I love cube systems.

I have a 48litre/12 gallon nano cube. All in one system by interpet (River reef)

IN THE BACK-Eheim nano skimmer 350 (added), Fluval Carbon bag, Fluval clear max Phosphate control bag , Biochemicial cubes to store good bacteria (came with the tank) Large foam pad, Filter floss pad. Pump which came with the tank which is not great for water flow...

DISPLAY TANK- x1 Nano hydor powerhead

ROCK & SAND- Real Rock, Carib sea pink Live sand,

CORALS-Xiena, toadstool leather, Africian tree, ricordia

FISH- Tomato clown, Blue/Green Chromis,

INTERVERT - Cleaner shrimp, bumble bee snails, hermit crabs, a lovely selection of bristle worms !

 

MAINTENANCE- 25 % water change weekly. Aquarium system Reef salts-Normally a water change on Sunday nights

DOSING- Currently dosing with Red sea Foundation elements for Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity

Only just started testing Potassium, Iodine and Iron with the Red sea test kits.

FEEDING- I use marine cuisine frozen food and Hikari dry food

 

CURRENT PARAMETERS-

(2days after water change )

Temp- 28'c

Salinity- 1.025

PH- 8.2

Ammonia-0

Nitrite-0

Nitrate-0

Calcium-450

Alkanity-3.1/8.7

Magnesium- 1090

Potassium- 320

Iodine- 0.09

Iron- 0.15

 

PROBLEMS- My magnesium levels always seem to be really low ! I have been logging all parameters weekly so i can see what my levels are doing (CA, MG, DKH). I dont really want to do a water change twice weekly so have been topping up my supplements. However always seems to be low on magnesium! I dont understand why i sem to be buying bottles of magnesium and having to dose 80-100ml weekly. I am just trying to determine if i dose a little bit of ach weekly this can stop the swings in magnesium-ANY ADVICE WILL BE GREAT!

-Another problem my coral seem to be light pink brown, hence the reason why i will be starting with the red sea colour care program.. Below I have put a link of one of my favourite tanks from nanoreef.com that I aspire to http://www.nano-reef.com/featured/_/2012/gena-r60. Hoping i can get some helpful advice here to help me succeed with my tank!

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It may be the salt mix. I had the same issues with my previous salt.

 

If the salt mixes with low mag numbers, everytime you do a waterchange, it will drop essentially wasting all your dosing through the week.

 

You should only dose according to what your tank is using. Do you know what your tank uses daily for alk, ca, mag?

(I don't test iodine, iron)

 

I'd test the newly mixed water. If its low in mag you will need to dose it.

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Are you dosing calcium and magnesium at the same time?

 

If so, they will have a tendency to bind together and precipitate out of solution. I am forgetting the ratio, but you will lose more magnesium than calcium. Are you seeing a white dusting in areas of your sump and around your heater by any chance?

 

I think seeing what the new water mixes to would be helpful as well.

 

After the initial drop, is it steady, or does it steadily decrease through the week?

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It may be the salt mix. I had the same issues with my previous salt.

 

If the salt mixes with low mag numbers, everytime you do a waterchange, it will drop essentially wasting all your dosing through the week.

 

You should only dose according to what your tank is using. Do you know what your tank uses daily for alk, ca, mag?

(I don't test iodine, iron)

 

I'd test the newly mixed water. If its low in mag you will need to dose it.

I test with test kits and then i dose- only, I will test my water change water as never thought to do that ! I have just started to test ca,mg,alk twice weekly to establish how quick the doses are going down, By day 3 after a water change there is significant drops. However it makes sense if i am starting low at the water change then i can dose up the water to at least i start at a normal level. I just think its strange with the small amount of corals i have in my tank that there depleting so much.

 

Thank you for your advice i will test my water change water before and go from there

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Are you dosing calcium and magnesium at the same time?

 

If so, they will have a tendency to bind together and precipitate out of solution. I am forgetting the ratio, but you will lose more magnesium than calcium. Are you seeing a white dusting in areas of your sump and around your heater by any chance?

 

I think seeing what the new water mixes to would be helpful as well.

 

After the initial drop, is it steady, or does it steadily decrease through the week?

 

I dose with red sea supplements and i do do it on the same day normally, unless i am dosing a large amount and this may be done over a few days, However i always leave a gap between dosing each supplement for at least 30 mins. Do you think this is a problem??

 

There is possible a light dusting which i have noticed on my heater, and the drop will steadily go down with the magnesium throughout the week. CA and DKH stays low but never too low its just the magnesium i can never get into the normal rangers.

 

I am going to test my water and see it its a problem there fist then let you know. Search another topic on the reef crystals salt and apparently the parameters are roughly They state cal490 alk13 mag1440. Thank you for your help so far!

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Something isn't making sense.

With mag that low, you should be having trouble maintaining ca and alk levels. Yet, those are pretty good. It just doesn't jive from a chemistry standpoint.

 

If you are using reef crystals, it's always mixed high when I was using it. It's possible the formula has changed since then, or what's sold as reef crystals over there is something different than what's here. Testing a fresh mix would be your best bet, as others have said. One other thing I'd suggest is to shake up your salt before you mix it. Some things settle more than others in the mix. This can sometimes lead to high, or low concentrations of elements.

 

One other thing to check on is your test kit. What brand is it? Could it be expired? Like I said, something isn't jiving. If your mix ends up testing low, I'd still verify your test against someone else's. Take a sample to your lfs for a mag test, see how it stacks up against yours.

 

Now, on to some things other than mag....

First off, your tank is established since 2015. No need to test ammonia or nitrite.

Nitrate read 0 is another red flag for me. With a tomato clown and a chromis in a 12 gallon (we'll get to that later) I'd expect you to have at least some detectable nitrates.

Forget testing potassium, iodine and iron. No need to test what you aren't dosing, and I'd never suggest anyone dose those three. Especially iodine.

Now we get to livestock. Neither of those fish should be in a 12 gallon. Might I suggest a pair of true, or false Percs instead?

Lastly. How often are you cleaning the sponges and bio media in the back of the tank?

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  • 10 months later...

Really long time since i posted i know! for some reason was not getting notifications.

Thank you for your reply since then i have been getting better parameters. I wanted to ask regarding you mentioning the fish shouldn't be in a 12 gallon. I only have the tomato clown and a goby and some shrimp and snails etc. Do you think the tomato clown is too big for the tank ?   

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Yeah, tomato clowns get huge. Very messy fish, too. Originally you had a chromis in there too. I’m guessing the chromis either got the crap kicked out of it, or it died of chromis disease?  Really neither are suitable for such a small tank. Chromis need some space to swim. 

 

Goby is a fine fish for a small tank. I’d suggest a percula or ocellaris clown for that size tank.

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Tomato clowns can reach 3-5" and tend to be semi-aggressive. Your mileage may vary. My Wife and I added a baby Tomato clown to our 32 gallon biocube last week. She likes to hang out with her friend, the sump return. She has a perfectly good prawn goby, snails and a sand tiger conch to hang around with but no... The sump return is her best friend. :)

 

 

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Thanks Raywhisperer an optqsia,

 

I got the tomato clown probably just over 2 years and he has grown incredible slow, (is this my fault due to the tank????) he was the size of a little finger nail when we got him and is now maybe 2.5 cm. He loves just hanging out near the top water flow and doesn't really swim to much around. Was very territorial when other fish were in there.

Seems very confident and friendly as will eat chunks of frozen food almost from my hand and not scared when i am doing tank maintenance.

 

1 Chromis had a horrible mouth fungas i believe and sadly ended up starving and one 'disappeared' when we went away and had my sister looking after the tank so now only him. 

 

Worried whether its cruel to have him in there now...? If he didnt seem so happy i would of never thought it would be bad.... i have seen massive ones in other tanks but thought if he grew any bigger soon we would move him out anyway.

Certainly wont be adding anymore fish to the tank. The chromis was due to the boyfriend getting over exited at the fish store and me trying to make him feel more part of my love for the tank lol!!

 

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The space is fine for a single clown, even one as large as a tomato. Clowns aren’t super swimmers, so they don’t need a large tank. However, I wouldn’t think about any other fish in there with it. That’s where you’ll see it’s territotrial nature.  The problem you’ll face is water quality. 

 

As far as size, at 2 years, it should be nearly full grown. Something is lacking. It could be food, water quality, or genetics. Without any idea on how much you feed, or water parameters, I couldn’t say why. Many shops, and hobbyists, as well, will tell you the fish will grow to the size of its tank. That isn’t true. Provided good water quality and proper amounts of food, you can grow a fish to its full potential in any size tank. Even one so small it can’t swim in.

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