Originally Posted by Wretch (Post 919654)

I have had my tank up and running for about 10 months now. I have 5 fish and some corals(zoas and lps). My magnesium has always been low, somewhere between 1100 and 1000 but last I checked it was at 960 or so. Would this low magnesium be preventing my coral from growing? Almost all my corals are the same size as when I got them. My other numbers all seems normal.

Salt 1.025
Calcium 420
KH 8.6
Mag 960(have been raising with tech-m now at about 1200)
Temp 79.2
Using a D120 LED light

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by spit.fire (Post 919666)

IMO you're wasting your money with tech m unless you're trying to get rid of bryopsis, dont get me wrong, its a good product but there are cheaper alternatives that work just as well (just dont get rid of bryopsis). Bulk checmicals are the way to go, you're not paying for water that way, 2.99 (or somewhere around that) gets you a lb of bulk magnesium chloride, calcium chloride or soda ash.

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo (Post 919667)

Rome wasn't built in a day. -10 months isn't a very long time, your system isn't very mature and most LPS are relatively slow growers. Sit back, relax, keep everything in check, continue researching and good things will happen.

Originally Posted by Myka (Post 919712)

Fwiw, Tech M is Magnesium sulphate aka Epsom Salt and shouldn't be used as the primary source of magnesium. Look for Magnesium chloride.

Originally Posted by Narwhal82 (Post 23081830)

Sorry guys. Tech M is and always has been just Magnesium chloride, Magnesium sulfate + water. I know that for a fact.

Used to be (under the Jack Kent and Chris Brightwell years) that they would call out impurities as ingredients on the label. Kent marketing was a lot more loosey goosey with the labels before it became a CG&P company. Now we follow the rules and use the AAPFCO fertilizer standards (although it is not a fertilizer) as a guideline.

As for why it works on Bryopsis where others won't, I can't tell you as I don't really have enough data to form a conclusion.

Andy

Originally Posted by reefwars (Post 919714)

its actually a mix of sulfate and chloride and water

Originally Posted by reefwars (Post 919759)

They say the ingredients haven't changed just the way they word it lol

I'm not a fan of tech m fwiw; )

Originally Posted by mikellini (Post 919792)

I'd check your test kit. You'd be precipitating calcium to less than 420 ppm if your mag was that low I think.

Originally Posted by mikellini (Post 919828)

What I mean to say is your calcium should not have been that high with such a low magnesium. So either one of the test kits was probably inaccurate. Did you check the expiry? What brand were you using?

Calcium precipitation is more likely to occur near a heat source, like pumps or heaters, but could also occur directly in the water column if conditions are right. Unless your room temperature is higher than the water temp, the glass is the last place I'd expect to find it. Those were probably some sort of snail you were scraping off the glass

Originally Posted by Wretch (Post 919896)

test are Salifert and dont expire till 2017 and 2018.

Now at Mag 1350, Cal 460, and KH 9.6

Originally Posted by Wretch (Post 921250)

if your salt is low more of the same won't fix it.