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.
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
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.
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?
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!
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Chris!!! Good to have you here!
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