Raising Magnesium?

[The Saltwater Kid]

The recommended dosage for Seachem Reef Advantage Magnesium is 1 teaspoon (5g) per 20g which it says will raise the magnesium by about 5mg/L and not to exceed 25g per day but is it it safe to raise it faster? For some reason my magnesium has dropped down to about 950mg/L and I believe this to be a contributing factor in my Calcium levels dropping all the way down to 325 (from a solid 400) in a little over a month or so (my Alkalinity was down too but not terrible (about 8.5dKH). I have spoken with my LFS and he said to start with the magnesium and raise that up to 1250-1300 and then start working on the Calcium (by the way is it safe to raise the calcium and alkalinity levels faster then the directions say on the supplement (Kent Turbo Calcium and Seachem Reef Builder?). Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!!

P.S.-the tank is an Oceanic Biocube 29 if you would like to know the water volume.

[bertoni]

The usual guess is that 100 ppm per day is safe for both parameters. As I stated in response to your other post, I'd get some Kent Tech-M, ESV, Warner, or the Salifert magnesium supplement, since they are a better ionic balance.

[Billybeau1]

Kid, check your figures against this calculator. It is better than looking at the recommended dosage on the jar.

Just make sure to estimate total tank water volume and not tank size.

I believe your product is listed in the drop down menu.

Reef Chemicals Calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

[CleveYank]

ON the subject of better Ionic balance....


What is ESV B-Ionic magnesium supplement made of.?

IS this just some MG Cl and MG Sulphate glory in a bottle???? Or is it different?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They say it is ionically balanced, so likely is mostly a mixture of magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. Maybe something else (maybe a bromide salt), but I'd think it not that likely.

[CleveYank]

Ahhh Nuts and Bolts.
Would like to lose the sulfate part of the equation. But understand it goes with the territory.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Why did you want to lose it?

[CleveYank]

I was just trying to get a walk around to raise Mg levels for a while and not end up with sulfate upward slope. Since I think I only need the elevated Mg for a short time and I have my Ca and Alk and pH all in nice sweetspots at the moment. A tiny bit of the Bryo trying to grow in 2 little clumps. Figured I'd short term elevate to prevent that from ending up into 100 little clumps. Since I've been dosing 2 part and doing kalk via evaporation and have everything dialed in while I am getting things ready for big setup upgrade. I don't want to have to put extra water changes beyond what I'm already doing into the mix at the same time to counter the associated sulfate rise curve. That's all.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Would you do big water changes later?

If the goal is short term treatment, followed by water changes to drop magnesium back, then using MAG flake alone is likely fine. Add it slowly (no more than 100 ppm per day or so) in case impurities in it are a concern.