2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

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Author Topic: Help!! Magnesium dosing  (Read 2144 times)

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Offline SweetReefOH

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Help!! Magnesium dosing
« on: October 17, 2017, 17:45:23 »
I have been unable to keep my Calc high enough, thru dosing, in the last few days. I decided to test Mg today because I knew something wasn’t right. Wow, Mg was down to 1080. It’s normally 1420-1480. I maintained it through WC’s. At this point, what should I do?? Do back to back water changes or dose? I do not even know what chemical to dose. I currently dose soda ash for alk and calcium chloride. BRS has 2 choices.... Magnesium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate. Please help me out....

Offline Steve

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Re: Help!! Magnesium dosing
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2017, 18:09:02 »
Be careful trying to keep mag levels consistent with water changes. a lot of salts are notoriously low when it comes to mag, even some of the so called reef salts. BRS is good product, use both the chloride and sulfate in a 5 to 3 ratio. it takes a lot of mag to raise levels and go slow. BRS also has a calculator on their website so you will know how much to dose. You can also buy epsom salts, which is mag sulfate, at the store to use and it is a little cheaper. 

Offline Humphrey

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Re: Help!! Magnesium dosin
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2017, 18:25:16 »
Also, watch your overall salinity as you’re going to have to add a lot of salts to get it up.  You may need to swap out some water with fresh water.  Just keep an eye on it.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Help!! Magnesium dosing
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2017, 18:29:57 »
Thanks Steve. So it’s a 2 part supliment and not just Epsom salts? Do you dose those separately or do you just mix the Mg Chloride and Mg Sulfate into your storage container and dose as needed?

I use Red Sea coral pro salt. I’ve not had any problems maintaining Mg at 1440 until now. But I do have to say that I’ve cut back on weekly WC’s to about 3 weeks. I think that is my problem.

Offline Steve

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Re: Help!! Magnesium dosing
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2017, 19:00:20 »
Thanks Steve. So it’s a 2 part supliment and not just Epsom salts? Do you dose those separately or do you just mix the Mg Chloride and Mg Sulfate into your storage container and dose as needed?


Yes, mix them together. You can dose just Epsom salts, but they say the mixture is a more natural ionic balance. I think I worded that right.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Help!! Magnesium dosing
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2017, 19:50:05 »
Humphrey, Steve,
Thank you for the quick guidance. I did a 7% water change tonight. I’ll order the BRS Mg 2 part tonight and do another 7% WC tomorrow. This hobby never ceases to throw you curveballs right when you think you’re hitting a home run! My frag tank is now in better shape than my DT system....

 

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