Wow wasnt expecting this

[Candymancan]

So the last 4 batchs of instant oceon reef crystals have had low magnesium for me.   Ive been buying my salt from petsmart for years because of their price matching chewy and chewy is the cheapest place to buy stuff i noticed.   The instant oceon 50g bags ofr 160g bucket is what i usually get.

 

Petsmart never has anyone buy salt so what they have had on their shelvs is old stuff.  Like the 50g bags were in those really stretchy plastoc bags that cab rip easily.  And the buckets have been there years as well with dust on the lids.   Mag in these was always 1350 spot on.

 

However they now have been getting these bags i havent seen before same style but theyre like a harder plastic that needs a knife to tear open vs just my fingers.   And i noticed 2 months ago in my 30g first that magnesium was at 1250 with this salt.  Did a 50% change.. 1250.. did another 50% 1250.    Then when i started doing water changes in my 135g which is always at 1350.   I noticed mag wouldnt go up.  I usualy do a 35% water change when mag goes velow 1300.   Same issue mag didnt go up.  So i did a 50% watee change.. mag didnt go up.   Then it started dropping to 1260 then 1230 ect.

 

I just finished hyposalinity in the 135g (corals moved to the 60g)  same thing again. 50% water change on the 60g and mag was 1230.  After hypo i drained 80% of the 135 and filled with clean water and raised salinity up slowely to 1.0264 on the dot over 4 days.  Again mag at 1260..  with a brand new 160g bucket.

 

 

Decided to call instant oceon and they asked a few questions and wanted my receipts and i sent then the receipts for the 50g bags but i couldnt find the 160g bucket one.  I called petsmart to see if i entered my number when i made thr purchase that way they can just email me my receipt.  They couldnt find it.. so i guess i forgot to put in my phone number.. dangit.   They lady from petsmart however offered me a gift card for 75$..  I didnt expect that wow.. didnt even ask for that i was just looking for receipts

 

So instant oceon is sending me 3 replacement 50g bags. And i used that 75$ gift card to buy a 160g bucket and 3 50g bags for 74$ total.  Because salt is 36$ and 11$ for a bucket and bag at the moment.

 

Sorry for a long post but dang i wasnt expecting 6 50g bags and a 160g bucket for free.  I think ima go back into petsmart and bring my credit card i used to buy that 160g bucket and see if they can pull the purchase up like that.  Then give that to instant oceon so they can mail me the bucket as well.

 

Anyway i guess what im getting at is if you have bad batchs of salt. call instant oceon they seem to not have issues fully replacing it as long as you have proof of purchase.   

 

I just hope this like 250 lbs of salt i have isnt low in magnesium like the other 4 bags/bucket bought were.  

[Elizabeth94]

Good to know. I use instant ocean for my fish quarantine so I never tested for magnesium and such. So this your first problem with this salt since you have been using it? Weird coincidence that they were in a different bag. Maybe its a different formula now? 

[Candymancan]

I dont buy regular instant oceon for my reef.  I use regular for qt tanks.  But my reef i buy reef crystals.  Yea this is the first time i had low magnesium.. they were all from the same new bags.

 

I think ill mix a small like 5g batch of the 3 bags i just got and check the mag in those to see if its low as well

[RedCrow]

The 50 gallon bags I buy from my lfs have “not for retail sale” printed all over them 😂😂

[Candymancan]

Those are from the boxes.  The 200g boxes have 4 50g clear bags with that printed on em.   The NORMAL bags for resale look like the buckets

[Clown79]

My mag was always low with RC.

[Candymancan]

This is a first for me.  

[mcarroll]

Stuff happens.   (Did your tank notice?)

[Candymancan]

Yea my red planet started to RTN in my other tank when in qt when magnesium got below 1200 i thought it was from something else but when i manually raised mag back up it slowed and it stopped when my corals went back in my main tank.   I dont lioe mag at 1250 because it just means i gatta do more water changes more often.  And that just throws money away.   Ive also had a 80$ hawkins frag that was growing awsome in my tank along time ago and when i let magnesium slip to 1180 it rtnd and died.

 

Still havent been able to find another hawkins acro.  

 

Decided to raise salinity up 1 point.  To 1.027 mag is now at 1300.  Every 1 point raises it 50 points.

 

Although im starting to question if this is my fault and not the salt.  Both refractometers are calibrated using 6-7 month old brs refractometer calibration fluid.   Its not even half empty thougj,  im curious if this stuff evaporates out of the bottle cap slowely over long periods of time.   I calibrated using distilled water but that doesnt mean its accurate at 1.026.

 

My hydrometer which read 1.000 using distilled is reading 1.0245 when the refractometers read 1.0264.  

 

Last night i made a 5g batch at 1.0264 on the refractometer which was 1.0245 on the hydro.. again 1250 magnesium.  I raised it up to 1.026 on the hydro. Which was 1.028 on the refracto and then magnesium read at 1370.

 

So now im wondering is my hydrometer right.. or is it wrong.  Are the two refractos right or wrong with the brs mixture.   Or is it the salt thats low on mag.

 

I dunno my brain hurts. 

[Clown79]

14 hours ago, Candymancan said:

Yea my red planet started to RTN in my other tank when in qt when magnesium got below 1200 i thought it was from something else but when i manually raised mag back up it slowed and it stopped when my corals went back in my main tank.   I dont lioe mag at 1250 because it just means i gatta do more water changes more often.  And that just throws money away.   Ive also had a 80$ hawkins frag that was growing awsome in my tank along time ago and when i let magnesium slip to 1180 it rtnd and died.

 

Still havent been able to find another hawkins acro.  

 

Decided to raise salinity up 1 point.  To 1.027 mag is now at 1300.  Every 1 point raises it 50 points.

 

Although im starting to question if this is my fault and not the salt.  Both refractometers are calibrated using 6-7 month old brs refractometer calibration fluid.   Its not even half empty thougj,  im curious if this stuff evaporates out of the bottle cap slowely over long periods of time.   I calibrated using distilled water but that doesnt mean its accurate at 1.026.

 

My hydrometer which read 1.000 using distilled is reading 1.0245 when the refractometers read 1.0264.  

 

Last night i made a 5g batch at 1.0264 on the refractometer which was 1.0245 on the hydro.. again 1250 magnesium.  I raised it up to 1.026 on the hydro. Which was 1.028 on the refracto and then magnesium read at 1370.

 

So now im wondering is my hydrometer right.. or is it wrong.  Are the two refractos right or wrong with the brs mixture.   Or is it the salt thats low on mag.

 

I dunno my brain hurts. 

The best way to calibrate a refractometer is with calibration fluid, not distilled. 

 

I had a nothing but issues with low mag with RC

The highest was 1250, it got much lower than that.  I had to dose just to get it up and then did my weekly Waterchange which would get it back down.

 

A simple way of knowing if it's the salt, test the mag after mixing new salt water

 

The problem with low mag is it can lead to imbalance of ca and alk.

[mcarroll]

17 hours ago, Candymancan said:

I dont lioe mag at 1250 because it just means i gatta do more water changes more often.  And that just throws money away.   Ive also had a 80$ hawkins frag that was growing awsome in my tank along time ago and when i let magnesium slip to 1180 it rtnd and died.

I've never heard of side-effects from a dip in Mg before -- interesting!   What was the other factor you thought was related?

 

You can just dose some Mg supplement vs doing water changes to make up Mg....keep some dry reagent on hand, or get some just for the purpose of a one-time adjustment.  Even some plain Epsom salts would be fine to use (see the reef chemistry calculator for dosing info) if you're normally doing water changes anyway.  

 

(If you weren't doing regular water changes you might wanna blend epsom salts with some MgCl2...a little hard to get by comparison, but keeps S and Cl in balance.  Again only an issue if you're not doing water changes, and mostly just in the long run.  Commercial magnesium preparations are generally already blended.)

 

17 hours ago, Candymancan said:

Decided to raise salinity up 1 point.  To 1.027 mag is now at 1300.  Every 1 point raises it 50 points.

 

Although im starting to question if this is my fault and not the salt.  Both refractometers are calibrated using 6-7 month old brs refractometer calibration fluid.   Its not even half empty thougj,  im curious if this stuff evaporates out of the bottle cap slowely over long periods of time.   I calibrated using distilled water but that doesnt mean its accurate at 1.026.

 

My hydrometer which read 1.000 using distilled is reading 1.0245 when the refractometers read 1.0264.  

 

Last night i made a 5g batch at 1.0264 on the refractometer which was 1.0245 on the hydro.. again 1250 magnesium.  I raised it up to 1.026 on the hydro. Which was 1.028 on the refracto and then magnesium read at 1370.

 

So now im wondering is my hydrometer right.. or is it wrong.  Are the two refractos right or wrong with the brs mixture.   Or is it the salt thats low on mag.

 

I dunno my brain hurts. 

Don't overthink or keep tweaking this.

 

Decide which device you think is right (doesn't really matter) and use it to calibrate the other one so you have one standard to go by.  

 

After that, all that's important is that you be consistent in your process of making saltwater and your process of taking a salinity measurement.  

 

Consistency rules.

 

👍

[Candymancan]

Its cheaper to do water changes then dosing magnesium.. at least it was when reef crystals had 1350 mag.. but i think my refractometer juice from brs is evaported just enough to raise its salinity.. making my tank a point or two low.  I mesn that bottle is small.. just a few droplets of water evaporating could change it like that.

 

So im going off my hydrometer.. when its at 1.026 my mag is 1350 like it used to be.

 

And yea i wish i had another hawkins acro.. mine was growing so fast and healthy.. then my mag dropped to 1150 1180 or so.. and i started noticing changes in the hawkins.  Thrn it went to 1120 and thats when it died.  My other acros skins melted off or the monitporas bleached.. while the lps and softies didnt care.   The only acro that didnt care was the green slimer.

 

I tried dosing mag.. using brs stuff.. but god.. it takes GALLONS of the stuff to eveb get mag up 100 points.   I had 2 liters mix of it and it went up only 30 points.  That stuff is a waste of money.   So thats why i do water changes.. at least 1 or 2 monthly.. if i do one ill do 30-35%.     The only dosing i will do is alk daily or every other day and calcium.. my alk tends to drop 1 point or so a day with how many corals i have.

[tshutler]

Im glad im not the only one with this issue. I have been using RC on my 10 gallon and my mag is always low. trying to dose to get it up but its a slow painful process. Then I do a water change and boom im having to raise it up again. Im honestly kinda dissapointed and am considering switching salt brands just because of this. Either way im glad im not just going crazy!

[Candymancan]

I got the bucket and 3 bags from spectrum brands which i guess owns instant oceon.   Tested the magnesium again and it was 1250 again using the refractometer.  With the hydrometer at 1.026 it reads 1370.  But st 1.026 with the hydro it reads 1.028 with the two refractometers.   So i dunno again if my calibration fluid being 6-7 months old is throwing them off or what.

 

So i just keep my reef at 1.026 on the hydro for increased magnesium.   If salinity is 1.028 i havent noticed it doing anything to my corals negativly or fish..  So maybe the hydro is right or if this salt is really low in magnesium.

 

Anyway i got the bucket and bags as they promised so im happy.  And i got 2 buckets from petsmart with that giftcard they gave me lol.  So i have 4 buckets worth of salt for free over this low magnesium.   Thats enough salt to last for almost all year 

[Clown79]

On 2/22/2020 at 9:22 PM, tshutler said:

Im glad im not the only one with this issue. I have been using RC on my 10 gallon and my mag is always low. trying to dose to get it up but its a slow painful process. Then I do a water change and boom im having to raise it up again. Im honestly kinda dissapointed and am considering switching salt brands just because of this. Either way im glad im not just going crazy!

That's exactly what happened to me.

 

Got fed up of the low mag, dosing game to have it drop on waterchange day, I switched salts.

 

Saved me a lot of time and troubles.

 

The other option is test your newly mixed saltwater and dose mag to it before waterchange.

I used esv bionic mag liquid doser. Super easy.

On 2/22/2020 at 6:06 PM, Candymancan said:

Its cheaper to do water changes then dosing magnesium.. at least it was when reef crystals had 1350 mag.. but i think my refractometer juice from brs is evaported just enough to raise its salinity.. making my tank a point or two low.  I mesn that bottle is small.. just a few droplets of water evaporating could change it like that.

 

So im going off my hydrometer.. when its at 1.026 my mag is 1350 like it used to be.

 

And yea i wish i had another hawkins acro.. mine was growing so fast and healthy.. then my mag dropped to 1150 1180 or so.. and i started noticing changes in the hawkins.  Thrn it went to 1120 and thats when it died.  My other acros skins melted off or the monitporas bleached.. while the lps and softies didnt care.   The only acro that didnt care was the green slimer.

 

I tried dosing mag.. using brs stuff.. but god.. it takes GALLONS of the stuff to eveb get mag up 100 points.   I had 2 liters mix of it and it went up only 30 points.  That stuff is a waste of money.   So thats why i do water changes.. at least 1 or 2 monthly.. if i do one ill do 30-35%.     The only dosing i will do is alk daily or every other day and calcium.. my alk tends to drop 1 point or so a day with how many corals i have.

Ya calibration fluid does loose its accuracy. I didn't know until I thought my refractometer was starting to go on me- nope it was the calibration fluid.

 

I check mine before every waterchange now so that 1. My salinity is correct 2. Might as well use the calibration luid up since it doesn't last that long.