Quote:
Originally posted by jdieck
Thanks that explains a lot regarding the composition of Seachem's
Given the ingredients, they are using Magnesium Sulfate but not Magnesium Chloride but instead they use Sodium Chloride. IMO as a Magnesium Supplement it has advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage is that most contaminants specially Ammonia comes from the manufacturing of Magnesium Chloride so by not using it they insure higher purity, the cons is that they need to balance the increase in Sulfate with increases in Sodium and Chloride ions something they achieve by using Sodium Chloride but this creates one pro and two cons, the pro is that they will balance sodium which supplements with magnesium chloride will not but one of the cons will be that the product will be more dilute for Magnesium so more of it is required to achieve the same Mg increase than with a supplement that contains Mg Sulfate and Mg Chloride and the second is that in large corrections it might increase salinity a little bit but I doubt in an amount noticeable by most refractometers.
So in summary it is better balanced, might be higher purity but will be more dilute.
Regarding if it affects Bryopsis it will be impossible to know, at least at this point is seems that does not which leads me to believe that the effect on bryopsis does not come from either sulfate nor chloride but rather either the magnesium level itself or some impurity in a particular supplement or a combination of both.
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Just a note on the above. Although this formulation of Magnesium Sulfate with Sodium Chloride may balance better by adding some Sodium, given the concentration of Magnesium in Seachems Magnesium supplement of 7.97% if using Magnesium Sulfate Hexahydrate the ratio of the formulation by weight will be about 4.2 of Mg Sulfate Hexa and 1 of Sodium Chloride.
This will give a ratio of Sodium to Sulfate of about .24 to 1 when NSW is about 4:1 and a ratio of Chloride to Sulfate of 0.57 when the ratio in NSW is 7:1
If the formulation uses Magnesium Sulfate Anhydrous the ratio improves a little bit to 0.75:1 for Sodium:Sulfate and 1.16:1 for Chloride:Sulfate; still far from the required 4:1 and 7:1 to be fully balanced.
On the other hand although a supplement containing a 10:1 mix of Mag Chloride and Mg Sulfate will not contain any sodium it will balance the Chloride to Sulfate on the required 7:1 ratio.
In summary, in my opinion (and I might be wrong) although Seachem's contain some sodium and chloride ions and may reduce the risk of impurities the supplement is not necessarily better balanced than a 10:1 supplement of Mg Chloride and Mg Sulfate