Help lowering magnesium

[xaacuetara]

Hi guys!

I've struggling with high levels of magnesium in my tank, I check parameters every week, and for the past 3 weeks, magnesium has been going up. Also my nitrates are kind of high, but those are going gradually down, so I'm not too worried about it.

So I would really really appreciate any advice, to control magnesium a little. Thanks a lot!

Specific gravity 1.026
Calcium 380
Phosphate 0305
Alkalinity 10.2
Magnesium 2000
Nitrates 20
Ammonia 0

 

[Lavey29]

What salt do you use? How did it get to that level? Have you taken sample to LFS for second test check?

 

[Timfish]

As inferred by Lavey29, I'd first question the test kit results and I would want to see if a different test kit gave a significantly different number and if your current test kit gave a significantly different number on new saltwater that's been sitting a while to stabalize or on another system. If after verifying the number you are sitting at 2000 the only thing I would do is maybe larger water changes, I've seen high magnesium in systems a few times and haven't figured out why but also noticed it doesn't appear to have any negative affect on corals over the short term.

 

[monfilsi]

I recently had this issue and posted my journey here:

Snail die off

Hi! All of my Banded Trochus Snail seem to be suffering from paralysis. They have all fallen off the glass to the floor. Their foot shows that they are alive, but they seem to lack the enegy to attach back to glass and just lie there slowly diying/starving. I have pulled them all out of the...

www.reef2reef.com

I found test kits to be quite unreliable for Magnesium. But once I got a reference sample and was able to calibrate the test kits around the reference samples, that improved my confidence in the measurements. Aquaforest has a magnesium test kit with a reference sample.

Also found that snails become lethargic and eventually die (starve?) at levels around 1700ppm for prolonged periods (3+ wks). People report the same with clams.

I did 8% water changes per day for ~25 days with Tropic Marine salt (~1330pm Mag) to bring my levels back in check. If you don't have any issues with your wildlife I would do smaller water changes over a longer period of time.

What are you dosing? The magnesium has to be imported from somewhere: dosing, salt mix, some foods have magnesium as an additive.