Mg

[dallassvt]

Hello fellow reefers!!
I have been having a problem with Mg in my tank for months now. I keep dosing to get it to the right levels (about 1200).
Just hen I think I have it under control.... I test it a week later and back down to 600- 750!! What is going on?? What depletes Mg in our reef tanks??
I have even bought a new bag of salt to make sure it was not that!! (Marine Mix)
other prams!
DKH- 11.5
Ca - 400
Trate <5
PO4- 0
Sal- 35ppm
temp- 79
Thanks,
Dallas

 

[stanlalee]

something sounds wrong with the testing. the calcium:mg uptake ratio is about 100:5 ppm. unless you have to dose (or you have a calcium reactor thats providing) a ton of calcium thats being depleted even (much) faster than the mg its unlikely you are depleting mg that quickly. a dKH and calcium level as high as yours also suggest you dont have a mg problem. whats your coral/clam stocking and what kind of calcium and alk measures do you have to take to maintain them?

 

[dallassvt]

I only have Soft coral and LPS (Frogspawn, Plate, Fox, torch..) I have been dosing with B- Ionic about 5ml once a week and also dosing Mg. I have tested the Mg with two different test kits (salifert and tunze)

I have herd that if there is too much Mg that the sand will get "sticky and clumpy" is this true? I have been dosing a lot and this has not happened!

 

[stanlalee]

unless you started out with terrible mg (bad salt batch), its virtually impossible to deplete mg while only requiring 5ml of B-ionic weekly(or daily for that matter) to maintain calcium and alk. one of the main benefits of using B-ionic it already has mg in the proper uptake ratio. I mean I've had two clams and plenty of SPS and LPS (had to dose 20ml daily alternating buffer and calcium parts) and I just dont think its possible to deplete mg tht much unless the salt is bad or something unusual is going on (like some sort of media pulling it out). I'm not aware of how high mg effects salt. with mg that low dosing that small amount of B-ionic wouldn't raise alk and calcium. low mg inhibits the ability to raise calcium and alk levels. the testing just doesn't equate to everything else thats happening.

 

[purfectriot]

So yesterday i topped off my tank with about 2.5 gallons of water (yeah it was low ive been really busy) so i added the water and my dad made me a fish tank lid cuz i didnt have one and i thought thats why mt water was going so low...
so my tank has its new lid on and this morning i woke up and it looks like i didnt even add any water to it yesterday. So now i either think im going crazy or is the lid making the water evaporate fasterr? My temp is at 80* is t to high?