Emergency Severely elevated mg 1600+

[ZombieEngineer]

I accidentally left my 1.1ml dosing pump on overnight after priming the lines and my mg is now 1600 according to my trident test that just happened. This was 1450 yesterday.

Is this elevated value dangerous to coral and require an emergency water change?

Am I fine and best off just letting it fall on its own with normal water changes?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Also can someone fix the typo in my title?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

1600 ppm is high, but not an apparent problem for corals. What material was dosed? The purer the better for overdoses.

Snails seem to become lethargic at that level.

Do you notice that?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

1600 ppm is high, but not an apparent problem for corals. What material was dosed? The purer the better for overdoses.

Snails seem to become lethargic at that level.

Do you notice that?

It was BRS Magnesium Chloride. Approximately 700ml in a 65 gallon tank, so probably 60 gallons actual water volume.

I haven't seen the tank yet. My wife said corals still have polyp extension and didn't notice anything about the snails but I didn't ask her about that specifically.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Snails seem okay according to the wife. Still clinging to the glass and eating. Perhaps a little slower than usual, but nothing extreme.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you do regular water changes, I'd just accelerate the next one to a time soon, but not go wild in the effort.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I do continuous water changes with the DOS 1 gallon per day. I could accelerate that a lot larger, but I use reef crystals so the alk difference is quite high (currently 9.4 in the tank). I could limit alk swing to no more than 0.2 as long as I don't exceed 8 gallons per day.

Maybe just increase AWC to 4 gallons a day until levels are below 1500?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

An alk swing might end up worse than the magnesium. Maybe just stick with the current routine.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Thanks Randy.

I upped it to 2 gallons per day and reduced my carbonate dosing by 5ml to account for the rise in alkalinity from increased AWC.

That should keep alk stable but speed the process a little without shocking any corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy.

I upped it to 2 gallons per day and reduced my carbonate dosing by 5ml to account for the rise in alkalinity from increased AWC.

That should keep alk stable but speed the process a little without shocking any corals.

Sounds good.

Let us know how things progress!

 

[ZombieEngineer]

So far, zero issues. Polyp extension good. Alk stable. CUC doing their thing without being lethargic. Mg down to 1593

Looks like I got worried for nothing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Glad things seem OK.

 

[brmc1985]

An alk swing might end up worse than the magnesium. Maybe just stick with the current routine.

Agreed. People need to look at the relative percentages of the swings for elements.