Getting the ions right: Do you dose magnesium?

[design.maddie]

I have dosed magnesium for the last 2.5 years. It has never varied more than 50ppm in all that time. [1350ppm +/-50] Thank you All-for-Reef for keeping my 200l Nano tank in balance. And at a reasonable price! lol sounds like an ad. Need a little jingle.



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[Koigula]

I have dosed magnesium for the last 2.5 years. It has never varied more than 50ppm in all that time. [1350ppm +/-50] Thank you All-for-Reef for keeping my 200l Nano tank in balance. And at a reasonable price! lol sounds like an ad. Need a little jingle.



not sponsored

May I confirm this is a ~50 gallon softies tank? I ask as I am slowly moving my softies to 45 g marineland tall 45 and would like this solution. I assume you might boost alkalinity once in awhile

 

[Minifoot77]

I test and correct weekly if I remember

 

[Charles Zinn]

I used to dose with red sea buy could never keep things that stable. Put in a calcium reactor and use material for kh Calc and magnesium everything is very stable now.

 

[IPT]

I have never had to dose magnesium. I don't check often but when I do it's always been 1400ish. I use a 50/50 mix of instant ocean and reef crystals

Just curious how you attain a 50/50 mix that is truly 50/50, or do you eyeball it? Do you test the parameters after you mix each batch? What are your typical tank parameters?

 

[exnisstech]

Just curious how you attain a 50/50 mix that is truly 50/50, or do you eyeball it? Do you test the parameters after you mix each batch? What are your typical tank parameters?

16 cups of one and 16 cups of the other. No science involved so it's probably not a 100% 50/50 but close enough for me. Alk stays around 8.5 but I drip kalk 24/7 and dose 30ml bionic 2 part alk only in one system of about 220g total. The other system of 40g parameters are about the same and I dose 5ml alk with no kalk. Calcium is 500+ on both so in haven't dosed calcium in a month or 2. Magnesium I only check once in a while and it is always around 1400 so I don't test often. I just set up another tank a month ago and parameters are about the same. I do not test when I mix and never have. I spend enough time testing tanks because I struggle with low N and P on 2 systems to bother testing my fresh mixed water. Corals look good so that's good enough for me. I try to keep things simple. I'll look for issues when I see a concern, coral not happy etc but I do not look for problems. I'm not much of a science guy.

 

[1ocean]

yep...Brightwell products, ALK, CAL and MG..

 

[design.maddie]

May I confirm this is a ~50 gallon softies tank? I ask as I am slowly moving my softies to 45 g marineland tall 45 and would like this solution. I assume you might boost alkalinity once in awhile

My tank is a LPS/SPS tank. You can click on my profile to view my build thread. I do not boost anything. I dose as suggested and test to assist dialing in the parameters into the amounts I want and they hold there. Steadily. All three, Alk, Cal, and Mag are tied together in amounts that are necessary for coral growth. It is super complicated and deals with chemistry way above my pay-grade. The product is called Tropic Marin All-For-Reef.

 

[Koigula]

My tank is a LPS/SPS tank. You can click on my profile to view my build thread. I do not boost anything. I dose as suggested and test to assist dialing in the parameters into the amounts I want and they hold there. Steadily. All three, Alk, Cal, and Mag are tied together in amounts that are necessary for coral growth. It is super complicated and deals with chemistry way above my pay-grade. The product is called Tropic Marin All-For-Reef.

My understanding is formula containing calcium formate (or something similar) that is digested to add alkalinity slowly by bacteria. I would think there is a break in period to stabilize like all other reef systems. I'll look at build and get back to you!! Thank you. Higher alkalinity tanks like SPS might not keep up so curious.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I don’t dose Magnesium, because when I check it is always on the high end. I have Magnesium in my well water, and I don’t think my RO/DI removes all of it. I also have Iron in my well water, and the RO/DI removes enough of it I don’t have crazy algae blooms.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don’t dose Magnesium, because when I check it is always on the high end. I have Magnesium in my well water, and I don’t think my RO/DI removes all of it. I also have Iron in my well water, and the RO/DI removes enough of it I don’t have crazy algae blooms.

It's certainly possible that some magneisum is getting through, but magnesium is easily removed by both RO and DI parts of an RO/DI, and if the output is 0 ppm TDS, I doubt ththere's much magneisum getting through.

 

[AJsReef]

I do automatic continuous water changes and have managed to maintain my Mg through raising the Mg of my NSW to 1450. Annoyingly Red Sea Blue bucket seems to mix low on Mg. Switching to AF salt soon as it’s cheaper and shouldn’t require as much Mg addition. Should save $13 a batch in doing so!

 

[carbasaurus]

I started using ATI 2 part dosing about three years ago. The Calcium supp has magnesium in it. I do mail in testing about every one to two months and my Mg levels have been spot on as long as the calcium is in range. Have never had to supplement

 

[marine99702]

I started keeping my mag at 1500 after watching a YouTube video from fragbox tv about 2 years ago to help with my euphylias. It worked like a charm and I’ve kept it at that level since. My frogspawn and hammers reacted to a point that they were almost invasive. I don’t understand the science but I can’t argue about the results. I also keep my 13,5 gallon at 1500

what are you dosing with to keep it that high ??

 

[gbroadbridge]

I do automatic continuous water changes and have managed to maintain my Mg through raising the Mg of my NSW to 1450. Annoyingly Red Sea Blue bucket seems to mix low on Mg. Switching to AF salt soon as it’s cheaper and shouldn’t require as much Mg addition. Should save $13 a batch in doing so!

I've never received a bucket of RS Blue significantly below spec in terms of Mg, however I've seen many test kits that read more than 20% low or high i.e showing a 1300ppm salt as 1150 ppm or 1500 ppm

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have never once dosed Mag in my tank

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have never once dosed Mag in my tank

Depletion is quite slow (max depletion rate is 1/10th of the calcium depletion rate) and since many salt mixes contain amounts well above natural seawater, that may often be the case in tanks that do not use a lot of calcium and alk.

 

[SueAubu]

I did.... Andy corals loved loved loved it! Then I got a Hanna tester and found I was off the chart! So, no, I don't dose anymore... For now.