Overdosed Mg

drblank1 · Dec 10, 2021

Last week, I miscalculated and severely overdosed Mg. It is up around 1750. I've had my system up for almost a year now. I have not added any corals just yet as I'm trying to master water chemistry and letting the let the system age before adding corals. Is this high of Mg a problem? Right now I am testing Ca and dKH daily. Seems Ca and Alk are dropping daily. I'm dosing BRS 2 part (via Apex DOS) 150 ml every day just to maintain the levels below. That doesn't seem right since I don't have no corals. Does high Mg cause precipitation by chance? FYI - I also have a GHA outbreak.

Ca - 375
Alk - 9.6
mg - 1750
Nitrate - 1
Ph - .01
Sal - 35
pH - 8.2

Thanks,
Dennis

MichaelReefer · Dec 10, 2021

Should be fine, maybe do a small water change and let it drop.

BanjoBandito · Dec 10, 2021

I don't think high Mg is that big of a deal? I've heard of people keeping it around 1500, but I would do a water change to cut it down some. I don't think inverts do well in high Mg though.

vtecintegra · Dec 10, 2021

I agree that consumption seems weird with no coral. I dose 50ml/day of CA in 125 gallons with a number of corals that build skeletons. Mg is suppose to prevent CA precipitation. Not sure what is going on.

drblank1 · Dec 10, 2021

vtecintegra said:
I agree that consumption seems weird with no coral. I dose 50ml/day of CA in 125 gallons with a number of corals that build skeletons. Mg is suppose to prevent CA precipitation. Not sure what is going on.

Could the GHA be consuming the alk and ca?

Dolphins18 · Dec 10, 2021

Do you have a lot of coraline algae growing?
Any calcifying algae will cause higher consumption.

vtecintegra · Dec 10, 2021

GHA shouldn't be consuming any significant amount of CA.

drblank1 · Dec 10, 2021

Dolphins18 said:
Do you have a lot of coraline algae growing?
Any calcifying algae will cause higher consumption.

Not yet. But maybe that is a causation as just last week, I added Algae Barn's purple and pink coralline algae elixir. I do not see anything yet. But could that be it and consuming that much alk and ca already? I have a 70 gallon tank.

Dolphins18 · Dec 10, 2021

drblank1 said:
Not yet. But maybe that is a causation as just last week, I added Algae Barn's purple and pink coralline algae elixir. I do not see anything yet. But could that be it and consuming that much alk and ca already? I have a 70 gallon tank.

I would not imagine so. Is there any reason you are shooting for 9+ alk? With low nutrients I would recommend being closer to 7.5-8.

drblank1 · Dec 10, 2021

Dolphins18 said:
I would not imagine so. Is there any reason you are shooting for 9+ alk? With low nutrients I would recommend being closer to 7.5-Tr

Trying to get good at maintaining water chemistry and everything I've read/watched indicates higher alk is good for growing corals. And I have found it easier to maintain pH of 8.2 with higher alk.

Neon_Devil · Jan 3, 2022

drblank1 said:
Trying to get good at maintaining water chemistry and everything I've read/watched indicates higher alk is good for growing corals. And I have found it easier to maintain pH of 8.2 with higher alk.

What's your coraline algae growth looking like?

drblank1 · Jan 4, 2022

Non-existent. I've tried Algae Barn's elixirs twice with no luck. I recently bought turbo snails who's shells are covered with coraline. I am hoping that spurs growth.

Santervas · Jan 4, 2022

Tengo altos niveles de magnesio, pero también KH y calcio. El problema que veo es que tienes un calcio muy bajo en comparación con el KH y el magnesio.

Santervas · Jan 4, 2022

al calcio que quería decir

drblank1 · Jan 4, 2022

Santervas said:
Tengo altos niveles de magnesio, pero también KH y calcio. El problema que veo es que tienes un calcio muy bajo en comparación con el KH y el magnesio.

The magnesium is coming back down inline with my alk and ca. No ill effects of the hi Mg.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 6, 2022

Thanks for the update.

How did it get so high? Must have been a huge amount of supplement added.

Some folks have testing issues that makes them think it is super high, when it is not.

drblank1 · Jan 7, 2022

Hi Randy, Stupid me not paying attention to that I was making an obvious dosing correction mistake.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 8, 2022

OJK, no problem. Just wanted to be sure it wasn't a testing issue.

Rmckoy · Jan 8, 2022

Sounds weird .
no corals , no coralline algae . Why dose ?
There should be very little consumption

unless everything you’re dosing is precipitating out of solution

have you tested a fresh batch of saltwater ?