Auto Dosing Times

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If I dont dose high my mag will be at 1100 which is low and percipitates the other two values. This may be to the correct dosage while im bumping up the mag to keep it in the 1400's. Im hoping if it rises any more then ill start dropping the dosage. Could be the water changes as mag values are a bit lower at 1200.

I'm not sure exactly what you've been observing, but magnesium at 1100 ppm be corrected fairly quickly to 1300 ppm (say, 25 ppm per day) and then you likely won't need any significant dosing except to offset the low magnesium in your salt mix (which probably comes from using low salinity).

 

[bklynreef]

Instead of dumping large amounts at any time I leave it to small amounts untill its stable then lower it or adjust it accordingly. Its been like tgis so far for almost 3 weeks.

 

[jasonandsarah]

Ah, well if you use a DIY two part, there's a specific ratio of magnesium to the other parts, and if you daily dose that amount in relation to the daily alk or calcium, it will remain stable. For my DIY recipe #1 (which is the more common recipe) it is about 1 mL of the magnesium additive for each 6 mL of the calcium or alk parts. So assuming you can dose that little, it can be added daily. However, dosing once a week is probably adequate for most people (dosing about the same amount used each day for calcium or alkalinity).

I use the Brs 2 part dosing dosing powders. I've never really looked into your diy recipe, but I may now [emoji4]

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I use the Brs 2 part dosing dosing powders. I've never really looked into your diy recipe, but I may now [emoji4]

You are already using it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Instead of dumping large amounts at any time I leave it to small amounts untill its stable then lower it or adjust it accordingly. Its been like tgis so far for almost 3 weeks.

FWIW, it takes a large amount of magnesium additives to significantly push up magnesium since even the solid materials are often only about 10% magnesium and reef aquaria contain huge amounts of it (a 100 gallon aquarium contains more than a pound of actual magnesium ion).

 

[Downbeach]

If I dont dose high my mag will be at 1100 which is low and percipitates the other two values. This may be to the correct dosage while im bumping up the mag to keep it in the 1400's. Im hoping if it rises any more then ill start dropping the dosage. Could be the water changes as mag values are a bit lower at 1200.

Where do you keep your SG? What are you using to measure it with.

 

[bklynreef]

Milwaukee electronic metwr and a sybon hydrometer in case I see a fluxuation with the milwaukee. Im at 1.026

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Milwaukee electronic metwr and a sybon hydrometer in case I see a fluxuation with the milwaukee. Im at 1.026

Surprising then that magnesium would only come in at 1200 ppm. What mix?

 

[bklynreef]

Im using esv and coralife 50/50

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Im using esv and coralife 50/50

Assuming you mixed the ESV correctly, it seems unlikely that that mixture has magnesium only at 1200 ppm at a sg of 1.026. So I suspect testing error. Both of those mixes typically give higher than natural magnesium levels.

 

[bklynreef]

Ill check again you may be correct it could be higher.

 

[jasonandsarah]

You are already using it.

I know it's probably easy to find but do you have a link?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I know it's probably easy to find but do you have a link?

Sure:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

 

[jasonandsarah]

Sure:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Places like Dr Fosteer and Smith and BRS sell the harder to find ingredients now (magnesium chloride and calcium chloride).

 

[AdamNC]

I've been using the BRS stuff since auto dosing and seems like really good stuff. After this batch is done I'll probably stick with it. Luckily my LFS sells a bunch of BRS stuff. Since starting last month I'm still above the halfway point in a 1 gallon jug on both Alk and Ca. I was using the Red Sea Reef Foundation ABC pack, it's good but expensive for how little you get.