Magnesium question

[duke62]

Is it odd that i never have to dose magnesium in my tank and its ALWAYS elevated.I use reef crystals salt and run a cal reactor but guys i know who do the same dose every day or every few days for mag. when i say elevated i mean it never drops below 1480 and most of the time its over 1500.Im testing with salifert and red sea and i get the same results

 

[Jarrett]

consider yourself lucky then, reef crystals mag always tested really low thats why i switched to coral pro salt, so the fact that you are using it and the mag isn't dropping i would think is a good thing, and i know people who keep their mag that high and from my understanding thats good for keeping algae at bay, i dont know if it effects the corals or anything though.

 

[Cris007]

Maybe u r dosing something that contains magnesium. Like kent trace elements. Do u dose anything else besides Cal and Alk?

 

[duke62]

nope. only other thing i dose is zeo zyme

 

[MatthewScars]

I used reef crystals and got the same thing. I switched to red sea salt and that fixed the issue.

I was getting 1800 mag @ 1.025 with Reef Crystals. Verified on FOUR different testing kits.

 

[Jarrett]

damn i wonder what was wrong with my reef crystal batch because my mag was coming out at 1050

 

[CristianD]

Me too. My mag is around 1500 with reef crystals. Can this be the reason my Alk is low. Around 8. Gonna start dosing two part tomorrow and hopefully stabilize the ratios. my calc is around 480-500. I'm thinking I'll only dose alk only to bring it up then equal parts of both calc and alk to maintain. Any ideas?

 

[MatthewScars]

8 alk is not low. its more realistic to keep it 8 - 8.5.

Remember when you just dose alk it will lower others.

 

[DJYoshi]

that's awesome... I go through a bottle of mag every 2 weeks... and i'm using ESV salt

 

[CristianD]

8 alk is not low. its more realistic to keep it 8 - 8.5.

Remember when you just dose alk it will lower others.

I have a lot of new frags in my tank and i was told higher alk is better for growth. Everything is doin fine and encrusting. Should I just try and maintain current levels (alk, calc, mag) or try and raise my alk a bit then maintain

 

[MatthewScars]

I have a lot of new frags in my tank and i was told higher alk is better for growth. Everything is doin fine and encrusting. Should I just try and maintain current levels (alk, calc, mag) or try and raise my alk a bit then maintain

Ill leave this for someone else. Im more of 'this is how i do things and it works, so dont fix it' kinda of guys in this regard.

Im sure KathyC is dying to chime in.