Magnesium?

i tested it today and it says 300 now. i don't get it. I'm using sailfert and it's very accurate.

 

now that i have increased my mag to 1500 i have since then raised my cal to 500 now. how long does it usually last at 500. does the cal go down very fast. how about cal? Are the instructions on the jar of cal. just to maintain the cal.

 

It depends on how many calcium "using" animals you have. You will just have to test for a while and see what works for you. I had been busy for a few days and my calcium went to 325. My Mag is still 1410. Just watch, test, and find the equilibrium.

Are you planning on staying at 1500 and 500? If so, why so high? You don't want to oversaturate the water or you will get spontaneous precipitation or, a snow storm of calcium .

I think you will find with the mag up around 1400, it will be easier to sustain the calcium and alk.

 

Great point on oversaturation BL.

Calcium between 420 - 450 and Magnesium of around 1300 should be what your shooting for. Your Ph at 8.3 and Alk at 12.5 dkh is also important!

 

[quote author=birdlady link=board=Water;num=1095572045;start=30#32 date=11/10/04 at 21:53:12]

Are you planning on staying at 1500 and 500?  If so, why so high?  You don't want to oversaturate the water or you will get spontaneous precipitation or, a snow storm of calcium .

I think you will find with the mag up around 1400, it will be easier to sustain the calcium and alk.[/quote]

Sue,

I asked the same question, why so high? It's not necessary and we all have to realise that this is not like making instant soup. Everything needs to to be stable and once stable you can 'tweek" up or down and adjust, simply dumping heaps of Calcium additive all at once will not give the desired result.

John

 

Hmmm, I am running a bit hot with the Mag then, I am at 1410 but Ca 400, pH 8.1, Alk 10 dKh. With the ESV Bionic it is pretty stable there.

One thing to remeber is that all of these additives are salts and could raise the salinity. I keep mine on the high end at 1.025 - 1.026 so I keep a real close eye on that.

 

Sue,

No I think that 1400 is a good mark to aim for, remember we are talking about parts per MILLION So whether it's 1300 or 1400 or 1410 isn't really the issue, it's just as long as it's around that mark.

John

 

Oh and the other thing I wanted to say about adding Calcium supplements too quickly was that you need to be a bit careful.

If you add a supplement like turbo calcium and you don't see a rise the next day or 2 you really need to investigate the cause carefully

The reason is that assuming you dosed correctly the Calcium is definately in there somewhere. When you measure you are measuring the Calcium concentration in the water, so if it's not in the water, where is it? More that likely the Calcium youn added has precipitated onto the glass, rocks, heater., pumps or any surface it can find a home.

Add a LOT of Calcium supplement all at once and not detect it in the water and you will be posting here complaining and asking why all your pumps etc are failing.

John

 

My understanding is 1300 ppm or 13 ppt is what Magnesium is in natural seawater. So salinity of 36 or 37 ppt at 80 degrees (1.026 Specific Gravity) contains 13 ppt of Magnesium. If you get to high your chemistry will be out of balance.

 

Craig,

That's true if you are trying to replicate natural seawater, which most people are not doing as they want higher calcium readings


BTW 1300ppm = 1.3ppt

John