Dosing Seachem Magnesium

LFS says my magnesium is at 900 which could be the reason why my dKH is low which could be the reason my Ca is low. He sold me reef advantage magnesium and told me to follow the dosing directions for beginner which say to dose 2 tsp twice a week. I went to Seachems website and their calculator says that i would need to add 192 tsp to my 45 gallons of water to get my magnesium to 1350 from 900. I said wtf. Is this right? Do i need more magnesium supplement and more spoons?!?!

 

I just dosed BRS 2 part and the mg part was around 27 oz that is a gob of liquid 161tsp to be exact. That only raised it 100ppm so the amount your raising it that could be right. Not sure about Seachems though. You will want to dose it slowly and raise it no more than 100ppm per day. I was basing mine off of 100 gallons of water.

 

just did the calculator.
note: make sure your salinity is 1.024-1.026 before dosing mag.

900 to 1350ppm - can raise 100ppm a day.
seachem mag (dry) = 192 teaspoons.

save that bottle for maintance dosing later on. go by epsom salt.

epsom salt = 26 oz
1 lb bag = 16oz.

so dose 5oz of epsom salt per day for 5 days straight. once your above 1300+ ppm, you can raise your calcium to 450ppm, dkh 9-12.

note: kalkwasser will raise cal and dkh/alk at same time.

once all is well, test your mag 1-2 times a month.. I usally only dose mag 1 time a month, it stays 1250-1350 no problems...

 

+1 on above
no more than 100ppm per day

in addition the need for more spoons is your choice
I would probably use the same spoon 192 times

Steve

 

thanks steve!

also when you go buy (2) 1lb bags of epsom salt. if you dont have a small scale, just split 1lb bag into 3 parts. each part is a daily dose. dissolve completely that daily dose into at least 1 gallon of RO topoff water.. and would slowly add to sump, not all at once. hope this helps. I think I got a 3lb bag for $4.00 from dollar general last week. that will last me a long time.

 

Good Advice. I Think?

There seems to be a consensus in the online community about the effectiveness of using Epsom Salt in raising Mag. The only problem is that most say that it could substantially raise sulphates. Should I be worried about this?

 

i've used epsom for last 10 months. it works. only thing is using it very long term without any water changes.. it will be fine to get your 900 mag to 1350 this week. then go back to the seachem mag as a maintance dose. dont worry.. I also use pickling lime instead of seachem kalkwasser. and make my own PH buffer..

;D

 

how much lime are using per gallon of ro?

 

There are two kinds of mag you can dose with. To maintain an ionic balance between the elements, you can use a combination of mag chloride and mag sulfate.

If you're dosing two part which contains calcium chloride, you will want to mix mag in a 5:3 chloride to sulfate ratio.

If you are NOT dosing calcium chloride and dose kalk or have a calcium reactor, it is better to use more mag chloride in your mix in a 7.25:.75 (roughly 7:1) chloride to sulfate ratio.

This will end up with less sulfates overall, but at a ratio equivalent to NSW.

This is per bulk reef supply's suggestion who goes by the formulas created by Randy Holmes-Farley, a chemist gone aquarium hobbiest.

EDIT: I typed this all up on my iphone last night, and wanted to add this link by RHF on magnesium specifially:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

And this one on all water parameters:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Hope this proves to be helpful!

 

then after your done doing all of the above, start using a good quality salt to help maintain these levels.