replenishing magnesium

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Willito

I am sort of with you on this theory. Most of the time I just go by feel and observe the condition of the corals and tank first and if they seem to be growing and maintaining good health then I wouldn't bother testing. In my case, growth has been stunt the last couple months so therefor I did some tests. In doing so, I found that both my Ca and Alk are well below normal with no apparent changes to the Calcium reactor production (media disolving rate is normal). This lead me to believe that my Magnesium is not up to par. Like many people, I've never encounter this problem before until now so hopefully adjusting the magnesium level will re-stablize things again.

to answer you both Mg is actually a very important part of the water make up, and it is good to see people finally starting to ask about it after I have been preaching its importance for over two years on here, anyways new tanks are notorious for having low Mg, the main reason for this is that most salt mixes are low in Mg to start with. Mg is one of the more expensive ingredient to add to a mix and if 1000ppm or 1100ppm will hold 380ppm of Ca then thats all they will put in, some less.

So I always monitor my Mg for the first month and get it up to 1300 or 1400ppm then I will reduce testing to once a month to see if it is depleting or not. If you are using a Ca reactor or supplements you might not notice a drop.

As for why do we need it at a proper level if I can hold my Ca are a good level. Well its a balance game, to make a stupid analogy would you want to walk on a ledge 2" wide 6000 feet in the air or would you want to walk on a ledge 5 feet wide? in other words why ride that close to problems (depleted Ca, low Alk) when you can have it at a proper level and have a cushion area be for these things happen?

as for the blow money on a kit thing, you spend more money on most fish than you will on a test kit and a test kit is more important than any fish/coral ect as with out them how do we know what is going on in our tanks.

Steve