Is it possible that low magnesium is causing my problems?

Ask your lfs to test your mag. Then we'll know for sure. If it is, bring home some and bring it up, slowly. The bottle will have directions.

 

Thanks PawPawBlenny

how much have you been dosing each 3rd day?
how much water is in your system?
are you shaking the bottles vigourously? becuase IME with this product the calcium part seems to settle out of solution faster than the Alk part (which is not typical as IME with other products the other way round is normally the case)

if you had not be shaking them well
you may have been adding more alkalinity than calcium, even though you added the same amount of liquid in both cases

Steve

 

Are you reading the package or your test kit?,i've never gotten over 1300 with reef crystals alone.Also the OP said they're using instant ocean which has even lower mag than reef crystals.A test kit will tell the tale.

 

Package. But I agree, like I said above, get you lfs to test it tomorrow and if its low, bring home some mag and bring it up slowly.

 

Unfortunately, the LFS only uses dip strips to do water tests for the public. That's why I bought the kits I have, I just don't trust the strips to be accurate. To add injury to insult the other LFS that used test kits for testing closed at the end of business today.

 

I hate hearing about lfs closing. Might be time to pay the $30 AND BUY A KIT.

sorry for the caps.

 

I dose 1 capful 5ml to my 28gal nano. According to the directions that should treat 32.5 gals, maybe a little high but I wouldn't think excessivly.

 

I agree, I was a total shock to us. We stopped by there today to pick up some food and found out by surprise. They were extremely good at helping with advise, they would talk for as long as you had questions. It was a family run business and they have elderly parents that fell into poor health and just couldn't take care of both.

 

Well after calling several I found a LFS that had a magnesium test kit in the area. After explaining my situation he offered to test several parameters with his Salifert kits if I brought in a sample. Before I left for the store I ran a tests with my API kit with the following results Temp-80, Sal-1.028, Ph-8.2, Alk-19, NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3-5, PO4-.25, Ca-420. His Salifert tests showed Ph-8.2, Mag-1500, Ca-490, Alk-to high off the scale to determine. He also tested Salinity with a lab quality refractometer and it tested 1.020. I use a Instant Ocean Hydrometer to test Salinity. After returning home I rinsed my hydrometer 3 times with water from my new RO/DI filter that I set up today, I got the same 1.028 result.

Conclusions:
1. The LFS that I have been getting ALL of my water from is no putting enough salt into their water.
2. My hydrometer is crap.
3. My test kits may not be accurate.

Remedies:
1. Get a refractometer tomorrow, I had to call 5 LFS to find one in another town.
2. Stop dosing Ca for the time being.
3. Start mixing my own saltwater.
4. Do water changes every 5 days until I get parameters back under control.
5. Consider changing test kits.

Any other conclusions or remedy advise is welcome.

 

A good group of conclusions and remedies. The cheap swing arm hydrometers get a build up of CaCO3 on them and become inaccurate quite quickly unfortunately. They need to be rinsed well after every use. The API kits are decent and have a manufacture date on the front of the bottle. After 3 years form that date is time to get new ones. Salifert and Seachem make very good kits IME.