DIY Manganese Recipes Library

[A_Blind_Reefer]

@Miami Reef @Randy Holmes-Farley

So…..I’m not smart enough to be here but have a question as I MAY have screwed up on potency. When I was searching this a little while ago, I found a post from Randy (quoted below) that had an extra dilution step. I applied this extra step when I made up a batch of Manganese Gluconate (using the formula for that posted by Randy to get a 0.1ug/L Mn dose). Did I fail the exam that day?



“Manganese(II) chloride tetrahydrate is 28% manganese by weight.

Here's a recipe:

Dissolve 1 gram in 100o mL (grams) fresh water. Manganese = 280 ppm.

Take 1 mL (1 g) of that mix and dissolve in 1000 mL of fresh water. Mn = 0.28 ppm (=280 ug/L).

Add 1 mL of that to 100 mL of fresh water. Mn = 2.8 ug/L

Add 13.5 mL of that to 100 gallons of tank water. Conc boost to tank = 0.1 ug/L Mn.

Edit: a mistake was corrected on 11/26/2024”

Below is the Manganese Gluconate calculation I used to add an extra step to get to a 0.1 ug/L dose for my tank.

“Manganese gluconate is 12.4% manganese by weight.

Dissolve 1 gram of the solid material in 1 L of RO/DI. That solution contains 124 mg of manganese, so the concentration is 124 mg/L or 124 ug/mL.

Adding 1 mL to 100 L of tank water will boost aquarium manganese levels by 124 ug per 100 L or 1.24 ug/L.”

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There was a manganese chloride recipe error a while ago that was corrected, but some copies of it may have escaped correction.

I don't think recipes for any other DIY manganese had that mistake, but let's check.

Manganese gluconate is 12.4% manganese by weight. Correct

Dissolve 1 gram of the solid material in 1 L of RO/DI. That solution contains 124 mg of manganese, so the concentration is 124 mg/L or 124 ug/mL. Correct

Adding 1 mL to 100 L of tank water will boost aquarium manganese levels by 124 ug per 100 L or 1.24 ug/L.” Correct

So the recipe as written for the gluconate is correct. If you want to dose only 0.1 ug/L, you'd need to dilute it more (or add much less than 1 mL per 100 L).

Could be done in many ways, but let's dilute to the same 1 ml per 100 L to get 0.1 ug/L.

If we take 1 ml of the 124 ug/mL solution, and add 11.4 mL of RO/DI, we get to 12.4 mL that contains 124 ug of manganese, for a concentration of 124 ug/12.4 mL = 10 ug/mL

If we dose 1 ml of that 10 ug/mL solution to 100 L, we get an effective dose of 0.1 ug/L.

 

[Miami Reef]

@rishma

No reason in particular. It was available on Amazon and I liked the recipe with NSW dosing guidelines that Randy had already posted.

Any of them will work.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I deleted a Miami post because it referred to a version of a manganese tetrachloride recipe of mine that had an error. I'm trying to get it cleaned up, but here's the correct recipe:

Manganese(II) chloride tetrahydrate is 28% manganese by weight.

Here's a recipe:

Dissolve 1 gram in 1000 mL (grams) fresh water. Manganese = 280 ppm = 280 mg/l = 280 ug/mL.

Add 1 mL (280 ug) of that to 100 mL of fresh water. Mn = 2.8 ug/mL

Add 13.5 mL of that to 100 gallons of tank water. Conc boost to tank = 0.1 ug/L Mn.

 

[Miami Reef]

I deleted a Miami post because it referred to a version of a manganese tetrachloride recipe that had an error. I'm trying to get it cleaned up, but here's the correct recipe:

Thank you! We can upload this entire thread into your DIY manganese section in the DIY Chemistry sub forum. That’s why I made this library.

Thank you for being active and correcting any errors.

 

[Miami Reef]

Also, how much ug/L Mn is generally in NSW?Math isn’t a strong point of mine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Also, how much ug/L Mn is generally in NSW?Math isn’t a strong point of mine.

It varies by location and depth.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0012821X80900515

Surface water values range from about 3 to about 0.3 nmol/kg. (~165 to 16.5 ng/L = 0.17 to 0.017 ug/L)

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Also, how much ug/L Mn is generally in NSW?Math isn’t a strong point of mine.

Welcome to the club! Ha Actually, I’m not sure I have any positive strong points myself!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

There was a manganese chloride recipe error a while ago that was corrected, but some copies of it may have escaped correction.

I don't think recipes for any other DIY manganese had that mistake, but let's check.

Manganese gluconate is 12.4% manganese by weight. Correct

Dissolve 1 gram of the solid material in 1 L of RO/DI. That solution contains 124 mg of manganese, so the concentration is 124 mg/L or 124 ug/mL. Correct

Adding 1 mL to 100 L of tank water will boost aquarium manganese levels by 124 ug per 100 L or 1.24 ug/L.” Correct

So the recipe as written for the gluconate is correct. If you want to dose only 0.1 ug/L, you'd need to dilute it more (or add much less than 1 mL per 100 L).

Could be done in many ways, but let's dilute to the same 1 ml per 100 L to get 0.1 ug/L.

If we take 1 ml of the 124 ug/mL solution, and add 11.4 mL of RO/DI, we get to 12.4 mL that contains 124 ug of manganese, for a concentration of 124 ug/12.4 mL = 10 ug/mL

If we dose 1 ml of that 10 ug/mL solution to 100 L, we get an effective dose of 0.1 ug/L.

Phew…. Got it. I think I did it correctly just a different way. I thought maybe I was taking an unnecessary extra step of dilution and basically dosing rodi ha

Edit. Oh, I wasn’t questioning the formula…. Again not smart enough for that. Just the extra step one might want to take for dilution.

 

[rishma]

Thank you! We can upload this entire thread into your DIY manganese section in the DIY Chemistry sub forum. That’s why I made this library.

Thank you for being active and correcting any errors.

I appreciate this thread vs searching around. I’ve been thinking of dosing Mn. Now I know what to mix.

What I don’t know is how much to dose. Since it depletes really quickly I’m not sure how to estimate consumption. My last ICP showed I had some. I suppose I’d need to do some ICP back to back?

Or maybe overdose isn’t much of a risk so I could just wing it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I appreciate this thread vs searching around. I’ve been thinking of dosing Mn. Now I know what to mix.

What I don’t know is how much to dose. Since it depletes really quickly I’m not sure how to estimate consumption. My last ICP showed I had some. I suppose I’d need to do some ICP back to back?

Or maybe overdose isn’t much of a risk so I could just wing it?

I've not heard of anyone getting a tox issue from overdosed manganese and it does deplete very rapidly. IMO, a full NSW dose once a week is not going to be a problem in a tank with good growth of photosynthetic organisms. More may also be OK. A few g of macroalgae can strip all of the manganese from a tank (or get limited by it).

 

[JGT]

You’d have to do something totally nuts to overdose Mn.
Early on I would mix 66g of Mn into a 2L bottle of RODI and would dose like 15-20ml per day into 250 gallon tank. No negative repercussions.

 

[taricha]

What I don’t know is how much to dose. Since it depletes really quickly I’m not sure how to estimate consumption. My last ICP showed I had some. I suppose I’d need to do some ICP back to back?

Or maybe overdose isn’t much of a risk so I could just wing it?

This probably isn't a great guide, since there's no reason to base a dose on what is maybe accidentally in salt mix....
but Mn levels in new salt mixes often are in the 10-100ppb Mn range (rtparty salt test)
So common 10% weekly water changes would often input 1-10ppb Mn per week. Maybe take that as an upper level that would not be concerning. Guessing most trace addition schemes are likely lower than this.

 

[rishma]

Interesting post by @Hans-Werner.

I have been toying with the idea of dosing Mn but unsure of the benefit. Being used quickly in the tank I suppose is one measure that it’s useful to something, but I cannot think of anecdotes where reefers think dosing Mn had positive results. The common perception is it’s good for Gonipora. And it’s on Randy’s list of things to dose.

Iron and manganese are the very best or worst examples, depending on what you want to demonstrate.

What is the Triton recommendation how to dose iron and manganese? Am I interpreting it correctly that you dose for a few days to reach the intended levels and then you stop dosing?

In iron and manganese you can overdose as much as you want, most or all of it will be out of the water in just a few days. When you take your next water sample in a few weeks or months, concentrations will have dropped back to original levels, this is almost 100 % sure.

Even chasing numbers with daily dosing of iron and manganese makes little sense. You have to dose so much because of the rapid precipitation by bacteria that you will more likely harm your tank than doing good.

If you don't trust the dosage of iron and manganese in AFR you can stock up the daily dosing of these elements, for example by adding both to the AFR, but I recommend to remain critical about what you see, whether it is an improvement or worsening for the coral, also long term. In my eyes it is not that easy to improve iron and manganese dosages.

Especially in iron and manganese there is no other way to find the optimum dosage than watching corals, algal and cyanobacterial growth and general tank biology. No analysis, no test and no temporary number will help you much here.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Manganese is used by all organisms. I do not know what levels of what forms are needed in reef tanks to give them what they want.

Manganese in biology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Manganese is an essential biological element in all organisms. It is used in many enzymes and proteins. It is essential in plants.

 

[rishma]

Manganese is used by all organisms. I do not know what levels of what forms are needed in reef tanks to give them what they want.

Manganese in biology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Manganese is an essential biological element in all organisms. It is used in many enzymes and proteins. It is essential in plants.

Ok, I was mistaken when I said useful to some things. It’s useful to everything!

In my case my last ICP showed a detectable level, but I have no idea if that’s enough, if it’s in a useful form or what the signs might be that Mn is deficient.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, I was mistaken when I said useful to some things. It’s useful to everything!

In my case my last ICP showed a detectable level, but I have no idea if that’s enough, if it’s in a useful form or what the signs might be that Mn is deficient.

What level?

 

[rishma]

What level?

0.36 µg/l

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

0.36 µg/l

That's above NSW levels, so I am not sure you need more.

 

[rishma]

That's above NSW levels, so I am not sure you need more.

Ha! Perfect. I didn’t even think to look it up. Forgetting myself, I just looked at ATIs note (below normal). It’s really irritating they don’t just put NSW levels next to the reading.

Thank you Randy!