Randy's DIY two part magnesium

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

Ok, so I've found what appears to be conflicting information on this two part solution. And if someone could clear it up real quick, that'd be great!
I'm dosing kalkwasser in my ATO. I have BRS magnesium chloride and Walgreens magnesium sulfate. I've read his write up and it's confusing to me(sorry). I want to follow recipe #1 3a but I don't understand adding the "stock solution" after each gallon? What stock solution?

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

Do I dissolve 3 cups of epsom salt to 5 cups magnesium chloride to make up 1 gallon of water?

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

or do I use #3 in this recipe?? Which is 3/4 cups epsom salt to 7 1/4 cups magnesium chloride?

redfishbluefish · Oct 13, 2017

ReeferMadness80G said:
Do I dissolve 3 cups of epsom salt to 5 cups magnesium chloride to make up 1 gallon of water?

Yes....and this is your "stock" solution.

The rest of that mumbo jumbo has to do with balanced concentrations of the alk, calc and mag parts. After using a gallon of alk or calc, for balanced ions, you need the 610 mls of mag for everybody to be happy ionically.

Hope this helps.

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

redfishbluefish said:
Yes....and this is your "stock" solution.

The rest of that mumbo jumbo has to do with balanced concentrations of the alk, calc and mag parts. After using a gallon of alk or calc, for balanced ions, you need the 610 mls for everybody to be happy ionically.

Hope this helps.

Ok I'm just using the two part for magnesium supplement, so what do I use?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 13, 2017

ReeferMadness80G said:
Ok I'm just using the two part for magnesium supplement, so what do I use?

10:1 chloride to sulfate.

You posted my explanation of the difference:

Note also that this recipe (#3) is different from that given in my DIY two-part recipe, because in that case more magnesium sulfate is necessary to offset the rise in chloride that is provided by both the calcium chloride and the magnesium chloride.

The optimal recipe:

3. Using both Epsom salts and MAG flake, dissolve 7¼ cups MAG flake and ¾ cup Epsom salts in one gallon of water, and use that to supplement magnesium in amounts determined using this linked online calculator, with the entry "Randy's Recipes 1 and 2 Versions A and B," and ignore for this purpose what those designations mean. This recipe is preferred, but its advantage over recipe #2 is minimal in most cases.

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
10:1 chloride to sulfate.

You posted my explanation of the difference:

Note also that this recipe (#3) is different from that given in my DIY two-part recipe, because in that case more magnesium sulfate is necessary to offset the rise in chloride that is provided by both the calcium chloride and the magnesium chloride.

The optimal recipe:

3. Using both Epsom salts and MAG flake, dissolve 7¼ cups MAG flake and ¾ cup Epsom salts in one gallon of water, and use that to supplement magnesium in amounts determined using this linked online calculator, with the entry "Randy's Recipes 1 and 2 Versions A and B," and ignore for this purpose what those designations mean. This recipe is preferred, but its advantage over recipe #2 is minimal in most cases.

Thank you Randy, will I still need to use the stock solution after finishing 1 gallon of this mixture?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 13, 2017

ReeferMadness80G said:
Thank you Randy, will I still need to use the stock solution after finishing 1 gallon of this mixture?

What mixture? In your case, just dose the magnesium supplement if and when testing shows you need magnesium.

ReeferMadness80G · Oct 13, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What mixture? In your case, just dose the magnesium supplement if and when testing shows you need magnesium.

Thanks Randy, the #3 recipe was spot on and worked perfectly. Thank you

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 14, 2017

That's great to hear.

Happy reefing.

zeeGGee · Nov 6, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That's great to hear.

Happy reefing.

Hi. Just wanna know if I could use this for my DIY magnesium supplement? TIA.

plus EPSOM SALT.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2017

I can't tell how pure such a material might be.

zeeGGee · Nov 6, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I can't tell how pure such a material might be.

Any mag chloride and sulfate brand that you can recommend thats in the market right now or store? Thank you so much.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2017

Epsom salt from a drug store is USP grade and is fine for the sulfate.

Unless the calcium chloride is made by the Dead Sea Works, or is USP, FCC, reagent grade, etc, then I can't be sure it is OK (but it still might be).

zeeGGee · Nov 6, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Epsom salt from a drug store is USP grade and is fine for the sulfate.

Unless the calcium chloride is made by the Dead Sea Works, or is USP, FCC, reagent grade, etc, then I can't be sure it is OK (but it still might be).

Thank you Randy.[emoji846]

taikss · Dec 14, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Epsom salt from a drug store is USP grade and is fine for the sulfate.

Unless the calcium chloride is made by the Dead Sea Works, or is USP, FCC, reagent grade, etc, then I can't be sure it is OK (but it still might be).

Randy - how should i navigate in Europe through the 47% MgCl2? Need to raise my Magnesium about 350ppm in a 245g tank....that's a lot of Mg.

Another question is, (1) how to dose it and (2) what happens to my salinity if i add 3kg of Mg salt?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 14, 2017

This calculator shows how much to dose of it:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

Each 100 ppm boost to magnesium with magnesium chloride will boost salinity by 0.39 ppt.

taikss · Dec 14, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
This calculator shows how much to dose of it:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

Each 100 ppm boost to magnesium with magnesium chloride will boost salinity by 0.39 ppt.

okay, but how about the epsom and esp the MgCl2 - which products should i look for and which ones avoid. As i understand, the MgCl2 that is used for foot baths is rather safe as most we have here come from Netherlands, an underground sea 1600m inside the core, they ofc claim it's as biologically pure as it can be and has no toxic additives etc. it costs around 7-10 eur per kg here

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 14, 2017

Is the MgCl2 you have there listed as USP or BP grade?

taikss · Dec 14, 2017

if u mean United States Pharmacopea, then no, this is a us specific term. In Europe i'm not even sure we have an equivalent, but on other hand the normatives here are very strict, so i'm guessing that anything that has to do with humans is chemically very clean. MgCl2 for foot baths has to be exactly that as the pharmacist was ready to have a bet on it.