Lowering Magnesium

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Certain pieces I have loose color and STN when my alk gets up to 12. Also I doubt you will get you mag much lower than that with waterchanges using rc, doesn't it have mag around 1400 or 1500 from the start?

[Origami]

I've heard of tips burning from high alk, but the STN he's seeing is from the base of his slimer.

 

I've never run my tank at 11.5 (instead I target 9.5-10.5). I've heard, though, of others running upwards of 13 dKH without problems, unless carbon-dosing (when the burnt tips problem surfaces).

[STEVE]

sorry for the delay....Your not going to believe what I just did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bringing my fuge back on line from cleaning it (long story) My water level was low in the sump and the top off kicked on for about 5 mins...know what that means, yep PH at 8.6 now.....not my day!!!! we can now change the post from how to lower Mag to how to lower ph from kawlk overdosing. :cry:

[flowerseller]

you may have lowered your Mg a tad in the process.

Don't do anything rash as far as water exchanges but I would look at the SG to see it is back to your desired level. I aim for 1.025 and should be raised slower than your lower it for say hypo salinity treatments

[LCDRDATA]

sorry for the delay....Your not going to believe what I just did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bringing my fuge back on line from cleaning it (long story) My water level was low in the sump and the top off kicked on for about 5 mins...know what that means, yep PH at 8.6 now.....not my day!!!! we can now change the post from how to lower Mag to how to lower ph from kawlk overdosing. :cry:

Just in case you're still working the problem, I'd recommend this thread on how to respond to a kalk overdose.

[STEVE]

Kalk is all good, it wasnt very much, just enought to spike it.

 

 

[Origami]

sorry for the delay....Your not going to believe what I just did !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bringing my fuge back on line from cleaning it (long story) My water level was low in the sump and the top off kicked on for about 5 mins...know what that means, yep PH at 8.6 now.....not my day!!!! we can now change the post from how to lower Mag to how to lower ph from kawlk overdosing. :cry:

Ugh. If it's not one thing, it's another on some days.

 

8.6 is kind of high, but I wouldn't over-react. First, kill your lights for today. There's no need for you to have the diurnal swing push your pH even higher. Then, take a look at the link in the last post and follow from there. You can choose to ride it out or work with the vinegar addition. This will also add a carbon source which can spur bacteria growth so you may want to aerate the tank in this case.

 

Another option is direct, slow! addition of muriatic acid but you need to be careful - 1 ml per every 3 gallons of tank water will drop alk by 2.8 dKH (1 meq/l) and depress pH.

 

Also, check our salinity. It's probably depressed right now.

[STEVE]

It was 8.10 this morning . Did not do anything except go to bed....was too frustrated with it last night, but it seems fine this morning.

[Origami]

Great news.

 

Check the salinity. It's not always the right way to do it, but in a situation like this (I had something similar happen to me, but I was not using a kalk stirrer at the time), if the salinity is below 1.025 or so, I'll do the calculations to raise salinty and hang the required amount of salt in a nylon stocking with only about a half-inch of the toe sticking in the water. This slowly dissolves the salt and begins raising the salinity. I've done this only once and did it *right after* the fresh water accident so basically the salinity crashed and then was restored in the period of an hour or so. Nothing was lost in the process.

[STEVE]

Update on the Kalk....everything looks fine, except seems to have some powder residue in the tank, I would think that is the left over kalk....but seems to be ok. SG is 1.025. I will be testing the mag shortly.