hi there yall.
was reading about the importance on magesium and had a few questions on the topic.
1. what are the side effects to low magnesium in a reef tank?
2. causes of low magnesium levels.
3. does magnesium tie in with hair algae at all?
.........and if yall know something interesting that all us reefers should know about magnesium, please share it.

latez

I too would like to know, I just started testing my magnesium level. I have mangroves in my sump and I read somewhere that they bring down your mag.level. the test came out perfect. seems like my monthly water changes replace the mag. that my tank uses up. I'll probibly only test every few months now. what the hell, i just check it once in 17 months.

Mg slows the decay rate of a CA ion, as u know calcium carbonate contains a calcium ion & a carbonate ion. the carb ion trys to waste away the existance the calc ion, think of Mg as an jelly bean coating. the proccess allows the calcium to remain in a usable form in the tank for longer.

magnesium or MgSO4.7H2O, is essentually epsom salt,
in natral sea water Mg is about 1300ppm
personlly i wouldn;t be concerned about the issue to much, unless u have a major problem with your reactors, then in this case a test kit is needed, and if u need to increase levels past 200ppm , best raising it over a couple of days
on the subject of levels i forgot to mention that mg needs to be 3times the Ca levels, so if Ca is 400 Mg is 1200

i'l post a link for further reading. im hoping it answers your questions u posted

http://www.masna.org/ms/fall2003.pdf

and the chem calc ok
http://www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm

Agreed.

1. Most noticable effect will be an inability to maintain normal calcium and alkalinity levels. Seawater is supersaturated with respect to calcium and carbonate. The other salts in seawater (notably Mg) interfere with crystal formation which keeps the two from precipitating out abiotically (like a "snow-storm" after adding too much buffer, but at much lower levels). Other less noticable things like reduced coralline growth and who-knows what else.

2. Usually 1. lack of supplementation for a longer period of time, especially in a tank with high demand (e.g. lots of coralline), or 2. salt mix deficient in Mg.

3. Not directly--maybe indirectly by limiting coralline algae, etc. and favoring other algal species.

Chris

welcome jury, i cant remember if id said hello before, sad story this bad memory of mine, sausage!
if not welcome, & thanks for jumping in.

welcome Chris Jury.

Hi Chris,

I don't think that I've said welcome to TR before either.

:welcome: Chris!!! Good to have you here!

well i found out my mag levels were about 1100 which is below nsw. im dosing seachems magnesium to bring it up. hopefuly things will color up. is 1100 a dangerous level?

well i found out my mag levels were about 1100 which is below nsw. im dosing seachems magnesium to bring it up. hopefuly things will color up. is 1100 a dangerous level?
can it be that the new system you are using are rapidly depleting mag, or is this new system capable of masking your mag test?

ur not far off the mark, try to aim for the natral conditions
1300 =natral seawater
1200= easy calc for the tank level in relation to CA, considered in the normal range for domestic tanks.

have u tested before and after a water change, cause the levels should be increased via the new sea salt addition in most cases too!
whats the other values of the tank?

1100 won't harm the tank, as long as you start getting them back up again.

do most of you dose magnesium? I do....

everyone should have a box of epson salt there just in case, cheaper that the products u buy in the LFS

can it be that the new system you are using are rapidly depleting mag, or is this new system capable of masking your mag test?

masking your mag test?

1100 won't harm the tank, as long as you start getting them back up again.

do most of you dose magnesium? I do....

im starting to dose now, i got mines up to 1200 today but it seems that i need to use so much. i do waterchanges with nsw and not salt mix.

i would advice increasing at half the speed u just jumped, 100points might not sound like much, but animals are super sensitive to their surrounding environment! undue stress could cause more problems that just having low Mg

nsw= natral salt water yes?
in this case it doesn't matter wether its natral, Mg is natrally present in SW, natures equalibrium.

ive also noticed in another thread ur using the new nutrient reduction method, i dont know enough about the whole proccess to comment wether it is masking any reading ur taking, i should think we should get an answer to this quickly in case false readings are happening. others more experenced in this please chime in!

i would advice increasing at half the speed u just jumped, 100points might not sound like much, but animals are super sensitive to their surrounding environment! undue stress could cause more problems that just having low Mg
is that fast? i drip mines with ro water as my top off. it took me like 2 days to get it to 1200

masking your mag test?
almost all tests that hobbyist have available to them are all based on color comparison. very often, recent additions of other liquid products or trace amounts left in vials used for other test will lead to color contamination.

i dont think i was wrong in saying aim for natral SW levels, but ive seen doing some extra research on the subject that tanks are up to 1500. personally, i wouldn''t aim to reach this level, but maybe a middle ground beween the two figures, u brought up the tank super quick, just take your time bringing it up over the next few days. its prob relates to everything in the hobbie, do it slowly!
i would still aim for 1300mg & see how your inhabitants respond!

almost all tests that hobbyist have available to them are all based on color comparison. very often, recent additions of other liquid products or trace amounts left in vials used for other test will lead to color contamination.

ahh nice explanation, ill make sure to clean my vials good.

I've been a hobbiest for 8 years now. Today, I finally purchased a Mg test kit. In the past, I added Aragamite to my top off water. Aragamite has both Mg and Strontium added in addition to Calcium. The tank that I did this with was incredible. I grew a 2 inch piece of Staghorn Acropora into a colony bigger than a basketball, not to mention that all of my corals looked amazing.

For the past year, I've had a 400 gallon set up, primarily SPS dominent. The colors that I have are bland. I haven't even come close to what I had in the past. My corals aren't brown, but they aren't vibrant. I'm going to start checking and keeping my Mg at the recommended level. I had a conversation with a local experienced hobbiest about his antecdotal observations and dosing Magnesium. When he is dilegent and has his Mg levels where they should be, he thinks that his Magnesium levels have a lot to do with his colorations. Not sure if this is true, but I'll be interested to see what happens in my tank.

Hi Servo,

Keep us posted. It would be really nice to see before/after pix...

Ryan "Servo,"

I think that magnesium should definitely be considered. It is a major component of natural seawater. Magnesium is 4x the amount of calcium in natural seawater. Behind Sodium & Cholride, magnesium is the next largest in this composition. It is also known that magnesium interacts with calcium in a negative or positive way. Simply put, not enough magnesium, substaining natural levels of Calcium(between 420ppm) can be very difficult. If there is appropriate levels of magnesium(1320-1380ppm in our tanks), calcium can easily reach 420ppm and even reach levels of 500ppm if you don't monitor it regularly.

Do I think magnesium plays a major role in the colors and health of corals in a reef tank? Well any way that we can mimic what is proven growth around the oceans of the world, I think it definitely benfits in these areas. I think it will be difficult to keep your corals thriving with their most beautiful colors or polyp extension for long periods of time without trying to keep water levels where they should be.

Some suggested reading and happy reefing:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php

3 times that of sea water if im not mistaken bubble.

ryan, after 8 years, what did the new test result show?
at least your on the jedi path now!:p

I've always tested for Mg2+ and I've definitely noticed that it's a component of the water that definitely needs to be supplemented. I'm not able to keep up the levels of Mg2+ just through water changes...

damn skippy;)http://www.lightengine3d.com/downloads/plugins/rayDiffuse/userImages/pp_driod1a_th.jpg
to the point of becoming a driod!:o

Thanks for the correction verrian, I guess my math slipped off for a moment. :p

Christi,

most sea salts will not replenish mag to what your inhabitants will take in, so the best thing to do is periodically dose magnesium when needed(testing first). Some have had great success with epsom salts, Kent's liquid mag, and I definitely have had no problem keeping optimum levles with E.S.V.'s liquid b-ionic magnesium. It can be costly for large systems as to why people may prefer the epsom salt method. It is not something that I am dosing like calcium and alkalinity so it goes a long way. All systems are different as to their needs, so take it slow and keep testing until you are where you want to be. The Salifert test kit has not let me down yet.