Mg level

Yep the calcium is taken care of I have it set up for my kids to do one gallon every other night while I'm gone and I do have a few pieces of rock that have coralline on them. I turn off my filters and scrape them every now and then! Two of my big rocks on the bottom are going from white to pink

 

Three more questions about magnesium.....Where does it go? Is it depleted quickly? Should I test every time I test calcium?(nightly)

 

Personally I test weekly and since it isn't used a quick. The Mag level does have affect on bringing your Ca and Alk levels up. I was told to make sure your Mag is correct before trying to raise the others. Maybe someone can explain the technical reason on this.

 

I tested my Magnesium last night after the lights went out and it was up to 1020(still not where it should be), then I tested a few min ago and it was 840. What is going on with that?

Ardo...I'm trying to get it to a proper level(1400+/-100) and to keep it there.... Calcium is always good 480-500 and kh is always around 18

 

Hey! Just my 0.02$!

1. Prepare some RO/DI with Mg and test your Mg test!

2. The trick with adjusting the Mg first is related to the fact you introduce your Mg as a salt. Magnesium sulfate, chloride or something related. Many of this salt components (anions) will form insoluble complexes with Ca (taking your Ca down) , and/or speed up process of conversion hydrocarbonate/bicarbonate (responsible for alkalinity) into carbon dioxide and water!

 

Camilsky, #2???(confused) ok this means what in English?? LOL I need Mg for dummies!

The test I bought two weeks ago is a Sera MG test could it be the tester is just off?

 

Heh...

Mg is introduced to your water as a salt. Right?! Every magic Mg additive product is just a salt. Salts are generally composed of two integral components: cation (can be metal like Mg, Ca, Na, K) and anion (sulfate, carbonate, etc...). Salts can be generally divided into two groups: water soluble and insoluble. The salts used in marine aquaristics are obviously water soluable, since this is the only way to make them biologically active. However, once introduced in water, such a salts decompose into "floating" cathions (Mg2+) that are uptaken by corals, fish and other fancy creatures and anions (like sulfates, chlorides, bicarbonates). The funny thing is that these "freely floating" ions can cross-react and form insoluble salts that won't be biologically active, and detected by most of the chemical tests you can buy in your LFS. Example?! Mg can be purchased as a perfectly soluble chloride, MgCl[SUB]2[/SUB] (it is used as a medicine for humans when your organism is lacking magnesium and trace elements) however when freely floating Mg2+ cation from this salts reacts with sulphate they can yield moderately insoluble magnesium sulphate (you will see water clouding effect, because of small crystalline particles of insoluble salt in water). Magnesium trapped in insoluble magnesium sulphate can't be detected using standard Mg aquarisitc tests. Therefore you end up with the story when you add and add MgCl2 and still see that your real (apparent) level of biologically active Mg is not rising!

I hope this helps!

Enjoy the beauty of science!

 

not really lol it's telling me the why and the how, but it's not telling me what I need to do to make the Mg stay up...unless it does and I'm just not seeing that?....

 

Use your supplement until you reach desired Mg level. I've written all this stuff to explain why you can't see effects of Mg addition right away. Your test should be fine, however sometimes you want to be sure. This is why it's good to have some test sample, that you can use in order to evaluate the quality of your test.

Cheers

 

I'm using Epsom salts. Will I keep needing to add it all the time or is this a one time thing? How soon will or should it be depleted or drop from current levels? Should I keep some in my filter all the time? I need to buy some more, either way. I bought Mrs Wages at wally world for $.25 each they were clearance I got a few lol