Hanna Magnesium test.

[SteveMM62Reef]

I bought a New Hanna Magnesium test kit. Went twice through a Dry Run, then did my test. Then tested with the Red Sea Magnesium Kit. Hanna ran low. Decided to do another test, it came up, but still didn’t agree with the Red Sea. Which should I trust ?? Today I had a little more time to play with it. Out came my two 10 ml Graduated Cylinders. I found it was extremely hard to figure out where I should be with the Syringes, on the 4ml and 5ml measurements. I finally did put a a dot on each of the Syringes, for the liquid level. Also I measured 4ml into the vial, and put a line on it, ditto for the 5ml. I wrote to Hanna, with a suggestion. Will see what their response is.

 

[Reef Wizard]

This is from the marine master manual for Mg. Alot of people dont worry about Mg but I still like to test

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Yes, that’s from the instructions, but I tested using Dry Graduate Cylinders, with the Level in the Syringe at the 2.5 and 3.5ml mark. I wasn’t accurate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I bought a New Hanna Magnesium test kit. Went twice through a Dry Run, then did my test. Then tested with the Red Sea Magnesium Kit. Hanna ran low. Decided to do another test, it came up, but still didn’t agree with the Red Sea. Which should I trust ?? Today I had a little more time to play with it. Out came my two 10 ml Graduated Cylinders. I found it was extremely hard to figure out where I should be with the Syringes, on the 4ml and 5ml measurements. I finally did put a a dot on each of the Syringes, for the liquid level. Also I measured 4ml into the vial, and put a line on it, ditto for the 5ml. I wrote to Hanna, with a suggestion. Will see what their response is.

Trust that it may be better to not measure it at all. lol

Just say NO to magnesium testing: RMM is born

OK, this thread has been many years in the making, and I'm posting it here since folks in the chem forum are probably already tired of all the threads relating to problematic magnesium testing. I'm going to propose a method, let's call it the Randy Magnesium Method, or RMM for short. All good...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[14 foot reef]

What @Randy Holmes-Farley says ^^^^

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I want to up my Magnesium levels to the Maximum level, to control Hair Algae. My Tangs, have been lazy and are not eating it. I got a Spotted Sea Hare, but it’s in Quarantine. BTW, Spent years doing water test on Cooling Towers and Closed Loop AC System. I took a lot of care performing the in field test. It showed when samples were sent to the labs.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I want to up my Magnesium levels to the Maximum level, to control Hair Algae. My Tangs, have been lazy and are not eating it. I got a Spotted Sea Hare, but it’s in Quarantine. BTW, Spent years doing water test on Cooling Towers and Closed Loop AC System. I took a lot of care performing the in field test. It showed when samples were sent to the labs.

I do not personally believe that higher magnesium controls hair algae. I believe that is an offshoot of the fact that long ago using Kent tech M to suddenly boost magnesium substantially killed it, but other brands often did not, leading me and others to conclude it was an impurity, not the magnesium level.

Ones ability to use kits does not necessarily translate to accurate magnesium results, and you are an example since two different kits do not agree.