low magnesium

[josepy1]

So just saying if your mag was at 1000 how does that affect your corals. Softies and Zoanthids and palys more then sps, and lps? Would it affect them less if it was say 1500? thanks

 

[HighlandReef]

It depends on the corals, some may be fine while others not. Your corals might look ok but mag is important in keeping you alk and ca stable, so I would get it back to normal asap but don't bump it more than 100 per day max. What I do is when it gets down to ~1400 I bump it up 50, that way if if it takes a dive it has some room to give before it gets below 1350

 

[btkrausen]

I saw a huge increase in SPS growth when I bumped my Mag up from 1100 to around 1400. It really impressed me after a month or so of the elevated Mag.

 

[PR_Reefers]

Like HighlandReef mg is necessary to maintain stability of Ca and KH.... Ideally mg needs to be 3 x Ca (wich should be around 400), so 1200 is a good number to shoot for. Basically what happens is that if you have low mag your CaCo3 molecules will clump to themselves and basically precipitate out of solution... thus not making it available for your corals, so you would try to keep up with Ca & Kh dosing only to notice your levels are not stable like they should and keep rising and falling like a roller coaster, and it's not your corals using it up!! Althought the Mg itself is not used like Ca it is important bc it acts like a buffer to prevent your CaCo3 molecules from clumping and therefore keeps the Caco3 molecules in solution where your corals can absorb it. About rising Mg to 1500, why would you want to do that?? Just keep it where it should be, or whatever works for needs, but....Remember you want a balance... none of the extremes are ideal!!

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

Low Mg under 1000 will start to cause SPS to bleach and LPS to begin to recede into their skeletons. You may also see poor color in LPS and soft corals. Polyp extensions and growth rates will also drop. It is better to maintain a higher reading than a lower one. Mg over 1600 tends to have bad affects on snails and delicate inverts and fan worms. Pod populations may also drop. Like said above try to stay in the safe zone between 1200 and 1400.

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

This might help also.....
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

 

[btkrausen]

Agreed. Without a higher Magnesium level, you can't maintain a higher Alk and Calcium level. I wasn't able to get my calcium over 300 something, but once my Mag was up, my Calcium quickly shot to over 400+.

To do it on the cheap, get BRS Magnesium Sulfate and Magnesium Chloride, and mix accordingly to how you are maintaining your calcium level.

 

[Captain Nemo]

Agree with that. Keep the mag up, I learned the hard way and have had problems with my alk and mag.

 

[subielover]

I currently keep my alk around 1450, I have noticed that my chalices seem to do better with elevated magnesium. I do have to dose Mg. every week or every other to keep up with it, I also use kalkwasser in my ato and the kalk pulls some of the mg out of the water. I would definitely work on bringing your mg up.

 

[_Alex_]

Agreed. Without a higher Magnesium level, you can't maintain a higher Alk and Calcium level. I wasn't able to get my calcium over 300 something, but once my Mag was up, my Calcium quickly shot to over 400+.

To do it on the cheap, get BRS Magnesium Sulfate and Magnesium Chloride, and mix accordingly to how you are maintaining your calcium level.

jsut a question, do you have to use both parts for mag dosing? BRS sells Kalkwasser Starter Package - English that only comes with mag. chloride. should i get this then just order some sulfate as well? im thinking of getting this becuase i want to eventually start dosing kalk on the new tank i am setting up, as i plan to add more lps.

 

[btkrausen]

jsut a question, do you have to use both parts for mag dosing? BRS sells Kalkwasser Starter Package - English that only comes with mag. chloride. should i get this then just order some sulfate as well? im thinking of getting this becuase i want to eventually start dosing kalk on the new tank i am setting up, as i plan to add more lps.

If you are going to dose kalk, and that is going to be your primary way of maintaining calcium, then you need only a smaller container of the sulfate, but larger quantities of the chloride. For kalk dosers, the recipe is 7 1/4 cups of chloride to 3/4 cup of sulfate. I bought the gallon containers at BRS for 2 dollars, and they worked out perfectly. I bought a 6 gallon thing of sulfate, and have barely touched it, haha. Buy the smaller thing of sulfate, and the larger thing of chloride.

 

[josepy1]

Low Mg under 1000 will start to cause SPS to bleach and LPS to begin to recede into their skeletons. You may also see poor color in LPS and soft corals. Polyp extensions and growth rates will also drop. It is better to maintain a higher reading than a lower one. Mg over 1600 tends to have bad affects on snails and delicate inverts and fan worms. Pod populations may also drop. Like said above try to stay in the safe zone between 1200 and 1400.

I had a huge STN on all of my sps, lps receided most of te way, all softies and high end zoas low polyp extension and death. I had a ammonia spike, which is now reading 0. A breakout of serious algae which H2o2 did not hhhelp. Now everything is stable, and has been for about a week and im still seeing a decline in sps, no zoa extension, lps and softies are looking amazing. Starting to hhate this hobby.

 

[m and m]

Yea your mag idealy should be in the 1400-1450 range, you can really get some good resualts if you do. Dont raise it more then 100 every few days and try to break down the doss maybe a little each day.

 

[LeCorals81]

Which types of coral would be most affected by low mag?

 

[m and m]

I would says chalices hate then sps.

 

[josepy1]

Yea your mag idealy should be in the 1400-1450 range, you can really get some good resualts if you do. Dont raise it more then 100 every few days and try to break down the doss maybe a little each day.

My mag was about 1100 when i posted this, it is now at 1400 . My chalices are unaffected. zoas palys softies are pretty much closed most of the time. sps dying. Not to sure this is my only problem. will start a new thread for this maybe.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

can i just use epsom salts magnesium sulfate to boost mag levels????

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

can i just use epsom salts magnesium sulfate to boost mag levels????

You can if you are making a fairly small correction, but for large corrections or ongoing dosing, you will end up with excessive sulfate relative to chloride. Epsom salt adds four times as much sulfate as it does magnesium. That said, we also have little data on the import of maintaining sulfate and chloride at normal levels, so even with an off ratio, you may not detect an issue.

 

[Danny Venditti]

My mag was about 1100 when i posted this, it is now at 1400 . My chalices are unaffected. zoas palys softies are pretty much closed most of the time. sps dying. Not to sure this is my only problem. will start a new thread for this maybe.

have you done any testing like ATI or Trition? it may be worth it to see if you have a contaminate that you cannot test for like a heavy metal.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

ok I'm buying Magnesium Chloride. Can i dose just magnesium chloride or should I do a 50/50 mix