Raising magnesium to control algae

[Fishbulb2]

I love my seachem kit. It includes a reference so if you suspect something is off, you can test it. It is a complicated kit though with many many steps. But I think it's necessary to be more accurate (by first precipitating other ions that can interfere with the mag reading).

[MSU Fan]

I don't know how that differs from the way the Salifert kit works, I only know that the Salifert kit is easier to use.

[jessezm]

Just FWIW, I didn't see this thread before I decided to raise my MG levels to kill a patch of Briopsis. I used Magflake (mg chloride) to do it and it worked just fine. Using a seachem test kit, my readings went from 1150 to 1450 over a period of 3-4 days and the algae was gone.

So mark one person for which mg chloride worked successfully... The reason I didn't want to use epsom salts was I didn't want to raise my sulfate levels that high.

[MSU Fan]

Congratulations - you should post in the other thread, since there seems to be almost no one with that kind of success with the mag chloride.

[MSU Fan]

Well, an update. I borrowed a mag kit from a friend, so that I have some way of measuring what I am doing.

So, my parameters are as follows:

Sg 1.024
PH 8.3
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
dKH 7
Ca 380
Mg 1020

I used to dose Kalk in my topoff, but stopped recently due to changing to a basement sump. That has been running for about a month now, so everything is settled in nicely.

I am going to again be adding Kalk in my topoff, starting tonight, and wait another week before starting to increase my magnesium. I want to make sure that everything is stabilized before I add any other additives. Again, I will report back in a week with or so with my tank parameters, so that we can track all the changes. Sorry for the delay, but I have had enough loss in my tank recently to make me wary of changes...

[Fishbulb2]

What brand or type of mag additive will you be using? Also you should get some snap shots of your various algal type before doing this we can see which stay and which die.

[MSU Fan]

I am going to use Mrs Wages Pickling Lime as the kalk additive in top-off, and then Epsom Salt as the mag additive to raise it to 1,500. I'll post some pics of the offending alga either tonight or tomorrow.

[madadi]

i had bryopsis for almost a year and it was gone withing 2 weeks after much much frustration! i used epson salt, raised it to well over 1500but thats because i overshot, i didnt use a test kit because i had a hard time finding one at the time. i would recommend to go slow so not too overdo it and hurt something else that the mag treatment was not intended for. use a mag kit. salifert is easy to use and accurate.

i haven't seen any bryopsis for at least 4 months. id say it covered more then half of my tank at the worst point. i have no doubt in my mind the mag treatment is what helped, id still have a bryopsis tank, not a reef tank without it. now as far as the magnesium being the miracle cure, im not sure. maybe something in the epson salt other then it helped, maybe not. i dont have a scientific experiment backed up by documentation to trow in the conversation but it worked and im happy. if you have bryopsis don't hesitate to do it ASAP. it wont hurt your tank if everything else is in check, when i finally tested my mag level, it was more like 2000 and it was like that for months

also, two weeks after the magnesium was dosed 30-40% of my sand turned into a brick, im not sure if that was a result of the high mag levels or if it made something else come out of solution. i do dose kalk and run a calcium reactor so that might have done it, but the sand was fine before the mag treatment.

[imsqueak]

I lost "my favorites" during a recent hard drive replacement. Anyone have the link for the site that shows ie: my mg is X, my tank volume is # and I want to raise Mg to Y using Z product?

I've been using lab grade Mg to no avail on my hair algae. I have epson salt under the bathroom sink so I may as well try that...

[Mark75]

I think this is what you want.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=102605

[Fishbulb2]

Originally posted by imsqueak
I lost "my favorites" during a recent hard drive replacement. Anyone have the link for the site that shows ie: my mg is X, my tank volume is # and I want to raise Mg to Y using Z product?

I've been using lab grade Mg to no avail on my hair algae. I have epson salt under the bathroom sink so I may as well try that...

The lab grade mag that you had, was it a salt? If so what was the anion associated with it? SO4, Cl, ect.

[imsqueak]

Yea, that was what I was looking for. Now I have 1290ppm Mg of lab grade Mg on Salifert and want to go like 1700 with Epsom salt (because my lab grade isnt slowing my hair algae). That leaves little added from Epsom. I suppose I'll have to use water changes and epsom to convert my mg levels from lab grade to epsom. Right? Any other alternatives I'm overlooking?

fyi, Ca 350 (I dont supp much/enough Ca and it shows), Alk is 8.3 KH (both tested "right now")

[Fishbulb2]

Sounds like you have the right idea. My guess would be that the lab grade salt was really MgCl2 and the MgSO4 has been shown more effective. I would do the water change and use epsom. The SO4 may in fact be what's killing the bryopsis.

[imsqueak]

Not lab grade SALT, it was lab grad Mg found by club member who does govt environmental studies. A bunch of us got together for a group buy a couple years ago.

None the less, purity didnt help. Looking forward to whatever Epsom can do to help.

[ouuduy]

so let me get this straight ? is Bryopsis a fancy way of saying hair algae ?

[dendro982]

Bryopsis and hair algae are not the same, look and behave differently. My bryopsis has fine fern appearance - looks good, but it went for a world dominance.

I used Magnesium sulphate (Seachem Reef Advantage Magnesium), it worked very slowly (~1.5 months) and only on porous surfaces, not on the glass, plastic, or cured epoxy putty.

[MetalReef9]

great thread!!!

[45commando]

Hi,just wanted to post that I tried the elevated Mg levels(I ran Mg at 1,700 using Tech M) for a few weeks & the only thing it affected was my astreas,conch & trochus snails.After keeping the Mg levels elevated & having no effect,I tried running the tank/fuge with no lights for a week.This drastically cut back the Bryopsis,but then as soon as I went back to using lights(even on a reduced schedule)the Bryopsis returned.Today,I added 2 sea hairs (1 in fuge area & 1 in main tank).These guys are destroying the Bryopsis & I realize that they are not the cure(take care of the source etc),but after fighting this stuff for the last few months & doing everything I could (phosphate,nitrates,silicates etc all are undectable),it is a sight for my sore eyes.

[MCsaxmaster]

45commando,

Actually, I'd suggest that they, and other grazers, may well be the cure. Algae goes bananans on natural coral reefs if the grazers are removed. Nutrient availability, in most cases, is not the limiting factor in nature, or in aquariums. It is the grazers in both situations that favor corals and coralline algae over more palatable algae. Indeed, the "source" of the problem have indeed been too little grazing, not overabundant nutrients.

Chris

[Grunt007]

My Results-
I've had Dictyota algae for over 2 years.! I would take rocks out scrub them, even boil them and it would return in the same spots a few months later. Nothing would touch it. I read this thread, upped my Mag to 1500 and VIOLA! it's all but gone! I'm amazed. I've not changed a single other element of my tank equipment or husbandry. Seems to good to be true, but corals all look fine. Been several weeks now- fingers crossed.

[steven_dean17]

A well kept fuge will eliminate both Derbesia and Bryopsis. No matter what's causing the phosphate levels, you must remove them from the system to prevent these and other problem algae. Algae eating creatures do help at first, but continue to add to the phosphate level as they poo the unprocessed algae back into the systems.

[calkrog]

just wanted to let everyone know the results of battling bryopsis in my tank using tech-M.

I was using OceanPure Pro salt and had high mag to begin with due to the salt. mag was at 2000ppm and bryopsis was unaffected. I then switched to reef crystals, got my mag down to 1700 doing a pile of waterchanges and started dosing kent tech-m. once i hit 2100 ppm i stopped and waited. at first i thought it was not working as i was not getting the quick results others were, but now two weeks later the bryopsis is almost gone. it has worked great. i have been battling bryopsis for 8 months with a GFO reactor and it removed the hair algea, but not the bryopsis. THANK-YOU TECH-M !!

[Grunt007]

Good to hear calkrog. It took me a couple weeks to start noticing effects also.
FWIW I started doing weekly 10% PWC's again, as usual, w/ RC's and the dictyota made a come back in my tank. The PWC's lowered my Mag and/or possibly diluted whatever is killing off the algae that is in the magnesium solution I dose. As said, there are definitely limitations to this method.

[davenia7]

kent tech-m cured my tank of bryopsis in 2 days. I already had good Mg so it was easy to OD it.
Thing is, no affects to the GHA and the Red bubble algae I have went nuts and started "bubbling" in my GSP.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

calkrog:

I'm curious to know what else was in the tank when you sent it up to 2100 ppm magnesium, and whether you noticed any issues with anything else. Folks often want to know the harmful effects of overdosing magnesium, but not many folks want to experiment with such high levels so there is little to no useful data.

FWIW, that should have taken mammoth amounts of the Tech M. Just to be sure the kit result is reasonable, do you recall how much you added to what volume of tank water? Did you use the reef calculator to calculate an amount to add?