Question about dosing Magnesium

[Paula]

OK - I have been battling low magnesium which has made it difficult to maintain calcium and Alk levels. As soon as I threw a whole lot of liquid magnesium into the tank, things have really gotten better. I am using Tropic Marin Pro for salt and I understand that this is an issue with this salt.
Anyways, I just picked up a 50lb bag of magnesium (from the last group buy) and I figured I would just mix up a cupful in a gallon of water and add it to the sump when I do a water change.

I am running a dual chamber Precision Marine calcium reactor with ARM media, and I run my top off water through a kalk reacter. PH is very steady at 8.1-8.2.

I have been pouring through all of the chemistry articles that Randy has written - and he refers to 2 and 3 part additives ...

Am I wrong to think that all I have to do is throw some in a gallon of saltwater, mix, and throw it in? or is that just too simple .....

Help. I never said I was good at chemistry ..
Paula

 

[marco67]

Paula search under posts by Greg....there was a whole lot of discussion after that last group buy as well as a recipe and a follow up recipe posted by Greg

 

[Cheetos]

It's 3 cups epsom salts and 5 cups mag flake or pellets to a gallon of RO water and mix. Here is the link to Randy's formula.... http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#6

 

[Troubleman]

664 grams MgCl2.6H2O
113 grams MgSO4.7H2O (Epsom salts, from the drug store costs $1.99 for 3 lbs)
plus enough DI water to make 1 gallon.

or if you want to do it on a larger scale, using pounds to weigh stuff out:

7.3 lbs MgCl2.6H2O
1.25 lbs MgSO4.7H2O (Epsom salts)
plus enough DI water to make 5 gallons


Adding this at the rate of about 10 ml/gallon of tank volume (in a stream of water where it will get mixed into the tank quickly) will increase the magnesium level in your tank by about 100 ppm. It's never a good idea to make changes too fast to a tank's water chemistry, so if your tank is low in magnesium by more than 100 ppm I'd still only add 10ml/gallon/day until you are back around 1250-1350 ppm. So, for instance, if your 100 gallon tank were 300 ppm low in magnesium, you'd need about 3 liters, or almost 1 gallon of this solution to get back into the proper range on magnesium.

Directions from a reliable fellow reefer I recieved........

 

[Paula]

OK - thanks for the replies, but my question is - and I should have been more clear ....
Do I need the epsom salt? This is part three of Randy's 3-part recipe - can I use just part three and not parts one and two? or is my calcium reactor part 1 and the kalk reactor part 2 .. .

Also the two recipes above seem to be conflicting in quantaties ... which is why I was confused. ... I don't have a scale to measure grams, but the 3 cups of epsom and 5 cups of mag cloride seems like an awful lot for a gallon..

I have all of Randy's articles on the subject printed. But it is confusing when I see all the different recipies ... I only need to add magnesium. I am just trying to figure out how . ..

 

[delta]

This is the recipe I use. I toss in 360ml once a week and that does it for me never tried the more potent newer recipe.

Bec post from Greg H's thread
I just measured the stuff out so that I culd mark a container to
use with the levels I want to mix for each batch. Right now I'm
only mixing 1 gallon at a time, which translates roughly to 1.5 lbs.
of Mag chloride and .25 lbs of Mag sulfate per gallon. That works
out to about 2 cups of Mag chloride and about 1/3 cup of Mag
sulfate per one gallon of DI water. For my 300 gallons of water,
that gallon should keeps my levels in check for about a month
(or so)...FYI. Hope that helps.


Edit: You can just add the mag either recipe just add more or less depending on recipe

 

[Mrs Fish]

I am having the same problem, but my Calcium is OK at 400. It seems that I constantly have to raise my alk and mag levels. My mag seems to run at 1250.

 

[starrfish]

Paula, Randy's new and improved recipe (and the one I use) is:

5 cups magneisum chloride hexahydrate
3 cups Epsom salts
1 gallon of water

It's documented in this thread on RC:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6421260#post6421260

I have a 5 gallon poland springs jug and I drip it in for a couple of minutes every day using a timer.

HTH -
Daire

 

[Paula]

Thanks guys .. .That is exactly what I needed.
Off to the store to buy some Epsom salts.

Paula

 

[maurod]

I should really start testing

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, for a stand alone magnesium supplement (when not using the remainder of my DIY two aprt system), use more chloride and less Epsom salts (~10:1). This article compares different recipes:

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

 

[ReeferMedic]

I was using the 5 cups mag and 3 cups epsom recipe and found it hard to dislove the epsom salt completely. I'm now using the new recipe with 7 1/4 cups mag and 3/4 cups epsom with enough rodi to make 1 gallon and have no problems with it disilving completely.

 

[starrfish]

Don, you gotta shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake ya booty!!

 

[smcnally]

FWIW, for a stand alone magnesium supplement (when not using the remainder of my DIY two aprt system), use more chloride and less Epsom salts (~10:1). This article compares different recipes:

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Randy, where in that article does it speak of this? I couldn't find it anywhere. How much chloride how much Epsom to a gallon of RODI?

 

[ReeferMedic]

Don, you gotta shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake ya booty!!

My booty doesn't shake very well.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>Do I need the epsom salt?<

This helps to balance out all the chloride that you will be adding when you add the Magnesium chloride.

Regarding problems mixing. There is no particular reason you need to prep supplements at really high concentrations. If it's not working for you...add twice as much water, then use twice as much of the supplement.