Lowering Magnesium

[STEVE]

Any idea of how to LOWER magnesium?

[Incredible Corals]

Water changes with instant ocean.

[STEVE]

Done that....but using Reef Crystals.???

...

[Incredible Corals]

Reef crystals has pretty high mg so it will take longer. What is your mg at?

[STEVE]

1450

[STEVE]

did you see my PM?

[flowerseller]

What is your mg at?

 

I'd to know as well and did you confirm your reading?

If it's really "too" high, what else other than water changes are you adding?

W/C's alone will not raise your Mg level too high.

 

Stop adding what ever it is and let it fall naturally and thru normally scheduled w/c's.

Unlike some "trace elements" Mg is typically not harmful until it gets well above 1600-1700 and may have some side benefits.

[STEVE]

Long story...but lets just say I over dosed Tech M

[flowerseller]

I suspected TechM since that's the best way to raise Mg high.TechM has some great side benefits if under 1800-1900

briopsis eradication is the main one.

 

 

Like I suggested earlier, let it fall naturally unless you are above 1900.

 

Just for giggles, how high is it?

[flowerseller]

oh, just saw 1450.

Jump for Joy at that level, 1450, that's nothing

 

carry on

[STEVE]

.....was 2100 2 months ago.

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Yea I always keep mine that high, until recently it's dropped. Do you have any Kent tech m left over I could buy?

[STEVE]

nope

[zygote2k]

Adding ANY type of Mg will raise the levels, not just Tech M. I uses Home Depot brand to battle Bryopsis a few years ago and got it up to 2100 which killed all of the bryopsis as well as the snails and starfish. It fell back down to 1500 range over a few months by simply not dosing it. I now keep it in the 1400-1600 range.

[flowerseller]

.....was 2100 2 months ago.

 

So what did you do to lower it from 2100 to 1450?

 

I always think TechM when someone thinks they are Mg heavy.

In my experience, TechM is able to raise and keep high longer than any other brand or concoction someone can mix up.

I think the stuff was made by Walter White and Jesse.

[STEVE]

So the question still remains.....How to lower Mag?

[epleeds]

Water changes, time and Patience.

[Ryan S]

Adding ANY type of Mg will raise the levels, not just Tech M. I uses Home Depot brand to battle Bryopsis a few years ago and got it up to 2100 which killed all of the bryopsis as well as the snails and starfish. It fell back down to 1500 range over a few months by simply not dosing it. I now keep it in the 1400-1600 range.

There are many products that can raise MAG, sure. But high MAG doesn't always kill bryopsis. Just google it. There are lots of people who raised their MAG over 2000 and didn't kill the bryopsis. Plus, as you experienced, super high mag kills many inverts. Kent Tech-M, on the other hand, has a very high success rate at killing bryopsis, even at levels of 1600-1800, without lots of inverts dying. Many people suspect their is a chemical impurity, or a specific additive, specifically in Tech-M, that's not in all the other MAG raising products, that's the reason it's so much more successful at killing bryopsis than just any ol' MAG raising product. I wouldn't recommend any other product for killing bryopsis than Kent Tech-M.

 

Water changes, time and Patience.

Steve, this is it. Weekly water changes. It will go down again after a few months. Mine is still a little high and it's been quite a while since my treatment.

[Incredible Corals]

1450 is ideal. I like to keep mine at 1500. 2100 like you had in the past is too high but it looks like have it down to a right range now.

 

If you are asking about how to get it down from 2100 to 1450 if it happens again then you will want to do water changes with Instand Ocean. It has a very low MG level and will help.

[Incredible Corals]

did you see my PM?

 

PM to me? I didn't get a pm.

[flowerseller]

So the question still remains.....How to lower Mag?

 

I don't think you're questioning how to lower it, you obviously have that under control going from 2100 to 1450 in 2 months.

Sounds more like you're questioning if the way you did it is correct or potentially harmful.

So the question really is "how did YOU lower it?"

 

Did you spike your Ca or alk or both?

What were those readings while the Mg was 2100?

What were you trying to do while you were raising it and what else were you trying to raise?

 

We're not getting the whole story to help you.

Also, why would you want to lower it below 1450?

[Origami]

1450 is not bad. I'd leave it as is unless you're really concerned.

 

But if you really want a way to lower magnesium (besides through natural consumption), run your tank's saltwater through a reactor with calcium hydroxide (kalk). This will cause insoluble magnesium hydroxide to precipitate out, depleting magnesium. Filter the effluent through a fine-pore filter sock to capture precipitate. Micro-monitor your alk, calcium and magnesium levels during the process just to be safe. My feeling is that you won't have a problem with alk rising (because it's getting bound up with the magnesium), but that you will see a rise in calcium (this configuration is a "true" calcium reactor in that sense). If you're dosing two-part, you might consider countering this imbalance by reducing or discontinuing the calcium supplement while you chemically "vacuum" the water of the magnesium. I'm not recommending this approach. Just telling you what chemical means might be available. I suspect that the calcium added would be prohibitive to using this as a quick means of suppressing magnesium.

[Origami]

Just a follow up. I ran some numbers based on the presumption that you're still running the 90 gallon tank with 120 gallons in-system, and the assumption that you're targeting a final Magnesium level of 1200 ppm. Here's how it works out (it's not a good solution):

 

You would need to react the saltwater with 354 grams of calcium hydroxide (kalk powder) to pull out what amounts to 116.2 grams of magnesium to go from 1450 ppm to 1200 ppm. Unfortunately, the process would add 191.3 grams of calcium, which equates to an additional 423 ppm calcium in your tank. Obviously, if you did this, you would not want to do it at one time, but would do it in very small batches over time and stop dosing other forms of calcium until finished.

 

Again, not a good solution.

 

Instead, let consumption take care of it. 1450 is not bad.

[STEVE]

Thanks Tom and Eric....Yes I think time and patience is the answer. Trying to get it to around 1200. I do my water changes with Reef Crystals and I know that is probably keeping it up there aswell. Thanks Josh for your humor, "I told ya" !

 

 

FYI....

 

90 Gallon tank, 120 total volume, 30 gallon fuge , dosing alk and calc, top off thru kalk stirrer

Alk 11.5

Mag 1450-1500

Calc 380

Salanity 1.026/35

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 1

Am 0

Phos 0.05

78-80 Temp

14k Ushio bulbs 250 with Lumen Tek balast HQI

2 t12 vho super actincs

 

 

sps, just doesnt seem to have the "POP" I'm looking for....thinking the mag has something to do with it...???

[Ryan S]

Steve, here is a great article if you haven't read it yet.

 

I came up with my target, ideal parameters from this article (and the comments from WAMAS members in this post as well):

 

Calcium = 415 ppm

Alkalinity = 9 dKH

Salinity = 1.026

Temperature = 79.5 F

pH = 8.2

Magnesium = 1300 ppm

 

Accordingly, I would recommend lowering your alk from 11.5 to 9.0; and raising your calcium from 380 to 400-420; and keep working the mag down from 1450-1500 to 1300. Evan, whose SPS is beautiful, has his alk at 9; calcium at 400; (though he does run his mag a little higher at 1400.)

 

If you want pop, get some LEDs. I used to have 14k MHs and the pop wasn't there, even with actinic supps. I never really saw pop until I installed LEDs with royal blues. Get some royal blue LEDs and you'll see pop, no matter what your magnesium is at! (caveat - you probably won't see the POP with the 14k MHs on; you'd need to turn them off to see the pop w/ royal blue LED supplements). Or, add T5s... T5s would give you the pop while the MHs are running...

Edited September 14, 2012 by Ryan S