Magnesium Low- help?

DracoKat · Apr 10, 2017

I am trying to get my calcium and alk up.. I am using BRS 2-part dosing but I feel like it's not enough. I keep increasing the dosing but my levels are still going down. I have demanding corals and my acans are showing signs of struggle now. my alk and calcium are too low.

So I feel like dosing kalkwasser or Pickling Lime will give me that bump I need.

I am confused between the two, I am reading different things on different sites.

I am leaning to pickling lime because it is cheaper.
However, can someone give me pros and cons of both?
and which is best to put in my ATO? (Where I'd like to dose from)

EDIT: I edited my title since this thread is now about raising my mag, lol. Didn't want to confuse people

Tori · Apr 10, 2017

How far apart are you dosing the two part?

Nano sapiens · Apr 10, 2017

kalkwasser, limewater or 'Pickling Lime'...all the same thing, namely calcium hydroxide. I've used both the relatively inexpensive Ms Wages pickling lime and the expensive 'pharmaceutical grade' product and I saw no difference in my reef system.

DracoKat · Apr 10, 2017

Both Calcium and Alk on Reef Keeper Lite

SMTWTFS
Start: 2:00PM
On: 00:02:00
Off: 11:58:00
Repeat: 1
Random: NO
Oscillate: no

if you have suggestions on better programing, please do let me know!

and thank you NanoSapiens

Tori · Apr 10, 2017

DracoKat said:
Both Calcium and Alk on Reef Keeper Lite

SMTWTFS
Start: 2:00PM
On: 00:02:00
Off: 11:58:00
Repeat: 1
Random: NO
Oscillate: no

if you have suggestions on better programing, please do let me know!

and thank you NanoSapiens

I'm by no means an expert but I have read that dosing ALK and Cal at the same time will cause them to percipitate out of the water and that it can even start to pull elements out. I was curious since you said you were adding more but your levels were dropping. How is your Magnesium level?

DracoKat · Apr 10, 2017

Mag is also low. I've been manually dosing that.

the programming i had was working well for a about 6 months, then I noticed the levels were starting to drop. That's of course, adding more corals and the present ones growing.

Tori · Apr 10, 2017

Just my opinion, but I would focus on getting mag up and stable first and then try to raise the other two. I'm not familiar with the reef keeper lite so I can't tell from the schedule there how much you're dosing. If you're putting a lot of both in the water and they are overlapping I think it can cause this issue. I'm sure one of the experts will weigh in shortly.

DracoKat · Apr 10, 2017

thank you for your advice! I'll try to get the mag stablized first

Slm222 · Apr 10, 2017

Agreed. Without mag your Ca and alk with precipitate out no matter how much kalk is dosed.

DracoKat · Apr 10, 2017

still lots to learn! thank you

reef life · Apr 10, 2017

When I used to use the 2-part I would dose Alk on each hour 24 hrs a day and Calc 30 min after 24 hrs a day. Mag testing will not be correct unless the first two are within PAR.

nervousmonkey · Apr 10, 2017

+1 to everyone's advice above. I would get your mag straightened out. Use an online calculator to tell you how much to add like the one linked to. Then just increase the BRS 2 part dosing amounts, once again, you can use the same calculator. I don't know RK programming but certainly you can increase the amount you are dosing. That's much more accurate than kalk. You can still use kalk to get you in the ballpark if you want; I used kalk for a long time, but it'll mess up your ATO pump eventually, so if you go the kalk route get a kalk reactor that doses inline with your ATO.
Otherwise, just increase your 2 part, and like everyone said, don't dose them at the same time, that'll definitely cause some precipitation (you'd see it on your pumps, heater, etc.). Give them at least 5 minutes apart, you don't need to wait a super long time, but you'll have *much* more stable levels using the BRS doser once you get your programming straightened out.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 11, 2017

If you are having trouble maintaining alk with a two part, limewater (kalkwasser) will not help.

How much are you dosing in dKH per day?

DracoKat · Apr 11, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you are having trouble maintaining alk with a two part, limewater (kalkwasser) will not help.

How much are you dosing in dKH per day?

I don't remember on top of my head, I have it at home (At work now).

How long after dosing should I test? I usually wait a day.

DracoKat · Apr 11, 2017

Tonight, I am going to stop my 2part dosing until I get my mag up. Once my mag is up, I'll reset my 2part dosing to where it was before, working fine and monitor from there.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 11, 2017

DracoKat said:
I don't remember on top of my head, I have it at home (At work now).

How long after dosing should I test? I usually wait a day.

As soon as it mixes in to the whole system you can test. How long that is depends on the system.

You may just not be dosing enough. Without knowing how much you are dosing, we cannot know if that is the simple explanation.

DracoKat · Apr 11, 2017

You're probably right.. I am afraid of overdosing. Will check back after tonight

nervousmonkey · Apr 11, 2017

With the BRS doser, you can achieve super accuracy, just keep increasing your doser levels, keep measuring and if you need to dose by hand, do that until you are good with your levels.

DracoKat · Apr 11, 2017

My mag tested today at 800ppm.

According to BRS calculator, I need to dose 3629 ml to get to 1300ppm, using BRS Magnesium mix.
(Tank is 75g, with 30 gal sump. I put in volume as 90 gals considering rock displacement).

Of course that is too much to do at once.. BRS recommended not to go up more than 100 ppm per day. I recalculated to 900 ppm as desired target and is recommended to dose 700 ml. That still seems like a lot.. anyone have recommendation please?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 11, 2017

DracoKat said:
My mag tested today at 800ppm.

According to BRS calculator, I need to dose 3629 ml to get to 1300ppm, using BRS Magnesium mix.
(Tank is 75g, with 30 gal sump. I put in volume as 90 gals considering rock displacement).

Of course that is too much to do at once.. BRS recommended not to go up more than 100 ppm per day. I recalculated to 900 ppm as desired target and is recommended to dose 700 ml. That still seems like a lot.. anyone have recommendation please?

That is very unlikely to be accurate. Confirm it another way before dosing that much.