Magnesium magically stable (and high)

lastlight · #1 01-25-2012, 09:34 PM

I haven't dosed mag to the tank since the transfer. I dose roughly 250mL of Ca/Alk per day.

I thought my Elos kit was off with a 1500 reading yesterday so I cracked into a new one and got the same thing! How is this possible?

Not sure it's related but coral growth is great and most of my coraline has died. New coraline forms on the glass extremely slowly.

Coleus · #2 01-25-2012, 09:43 PM

what salt are you using. I found that if i use Seachem, i never had to dose Mg.

lastlight · #3 01-25-2012, 09:48 PM

Reef Crystals.

I also don't test my new water but maybe I should for fun. No way it's that high tho. I test the tank a day later and adjust if needed. Only minor adjustments are ever needed and I'm sure more due to corals using more of my money up.

Reef Pilot · #4 01-25-2012, 10:25 PM

I was running about 1500+ mg in my tank for a while, too. I never dose mg, but I dose Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium which adds mg along with the ca. I was also using Royal Nature salt for a time which I think had more mg in it. Lately I have been using just the cheap Instant Ocean salt, and my mg is now running around a more normal 1200.

Reefer Rob · #5 01-25-2012, 11:01 PM

I'm pretty sure Instant Ocean's Mg levels are up lately, perhaps Reef Crystals is as well.

Delphinus · #6 01-26-2012, 02:41 AM

Cool! I would imagine it's your salt and you seem to be pretty diligent with waterchanges. Test your incoming and see what it's at, I bet that's why.

christyf5 · #7 01-26-2012, 03:46 PM

yeah mine is pegged at 1500 too. I think there is some truth to the IO being high in Mg or something because I haven't changed my dosing at all and occasionally (ok I'll say it, more often than not) my mg dosing container is needing to be refilled yet mg levels haven't dropped (20% weekly WC)

kien · #8 01-26-2012, 03:53 PM

yup, me too. Used IO a lot and have not dosed mag for over two years now. I still have a container of Mag that I bought from chemmaster two years ago that's unused if anyone wants it

christyf5 · #9 01-26-2012, 03:55 PM

Wow. Maybe I'll stop mg dosing for awhile and see where the numbers go. I don't have any coralline as well but then I haven't seen much since I started the tank

kien · #10 01-26-2012, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christyf5

Wow. Maybe I'll stop mg dosing for awhile and see where the numbers go. I don't have any coralline as well but then I haven't seen much since I started the tank

What I've found is that my Mg never depleted very fast at all and always hovered around 1300 to 1400 with regular water changes. I tested often at first because I bought myself a fancy schmancy 4 head doser to take care of dosing Alk, Calc and Mag but the doser never got set up to dose Mg since my mag never depleted enough to warrant dosing. I do weekly water changes of 10% with the occasional missed week here and there. Or the occassional missed month like in December