Raising Mg

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Beverly:

I go through three or four times as much Mg supplement as I do Ca,

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Steve

Yeah, it's crazy how much Mg I go through, in all three tanks! But I'm getting astounding coralline growth where I had little before, especially in my MH tank. Even my halimeda is prospering.

I go through periods where I pay close attention to the chemistry in my reefs and other periods where I test and adjust alk, Ca and Mg rather infrequently. When dripping kalk nightly, I really notice how low Mg gets and how Ca stays at about 400 ppm. When I don't drip kalk for periods of time, Ca and Mg get low. Alk is always low, whether I drip kalk or not, though it is much, much lower when I don't drip kalk nightly.

I wish the chemistry guy at RC would do a study on how much Mg and how much Ca is required to build stony corals, coralline algae and calciferous algae. We might be surprised with what he finds out.