Sudden High Magnesium. Sodium silicate link?

Stephers · Nov 14, 2020

@Randy Holmes-Farley I'm really hoping you can clarify this for me...
I was recently dosing large amounts of sodium silicate to help with dinos. Prior to that my magnesium was hovering around 1300 but it has recently jumped up to 1500. I noticed in my sump where I pour it, there seems to be some precipitation lingering from the sodium silicate, which I've read from you is likely magnesium hydroxide. Is there anyway that this is feeding into my suddenly high magnesium? I have not dosed anything with magnesium in it in months and my salt is regular IO. I can't find any other link that might explain the magnesium increase.
Thanks

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 15, 2020

No. It is probably test error. The amount of magnesium supplement that you would have to add to boost by 200 ppm is huge.

Stephers · Dec 4, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
No. It is probably test error. The amount of magnesium supplement that you would have to add to boost by 200 ppm is huge.

Randy, It's now been almost 3 weeks. It's been consistently reading higher and higher. I ordered a new Red Sea kit today to rule out a bad test and it's still high. Now it's reading 1620ppm. I'm really at a loss. I'm only dosing alkalinity (daily), brightwell neophos (daily), and vibrant (weekly). I'm going to test the Instant ocean fresh mixed saltwater just in case, but I have no other ideas other than the precipitate from the silicate that still seems to be hanging around in the sump. I'm going to siphon it out this weekend and see what happens.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 5, 2020

Stephers said:
Randy, It's now been almost 3 weeks. It's been consistently reading higher and higher. I ordered a new Red Sea kit today to rule out a bad test and it's still high. Now it's reading 1620ppm. I'm really at a loss. I'm only dosing alkalinity (daily), brightwell neophos (daily), and vibrant (weekly). I'm going to test the Instant ocean fresh mixed saltwater just in case, but I have no other ideas other than the precipitate from the silicate that still seems to be hanging around in the sump. I'm going to siphon it out this weekend and see what happens.

I don't see how that raises magnesium. it would lower it if it is precipitating out, even if most of it redissolved, unless you are specifically sucking precipitate up into the test.

I expect it is a kit issue and it will read the IO as high too.

Stephers · Dec 23, 2020

Thanks for your help Randy. I figure I would update in case anyone came across this in the future. A bucket of newly mixed saltwater tested at 1620ppm with 2 separate magnesium tests... This was the last straw for me and instant ocean salt, so I've now switched to Red Sea blue bucket. I've got my tank magnesium down to 1480ppm through water changes and I'm still slowly working it down... I've used regular instant ocean for many, many years and never had this problem, but the trust is now gone.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 23, 2020

Stephers said:
Thanks for your help Randy. I figure I would update in case anyone came across this in the future. A bucket of newly mixed saltwater tested at 1620ppm with 2 separate magnesium tests... This was the last straw for me and instant ocean salt, so I've now switched to Red Sea blue bucket. I've got my tank magnesium down to 1480ppm through water changes and I'm still slowly working it down... I've used regular instant ocean for many, many years and never had this problem, but the trust is now gone.

You measured the new Red Sea salt water as well to be sure it wasn't the kit that was off?

Stephers · Dec 27, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You measured the new Red Sea salt water as well to be sure it wasn't the kit that was off?

Yes, I did. Same test kit read 1340ppm for Red Sea.

RyansReef · Dec 28, 2020

I am having same issue with a relatively new box of IO. My Red Sea test kit is expiring soon so I bought new kit today to make sure that older Chemicals weren’t the cause of high readings. New kit reads at about 1640 on a fresh batch of sea water (15 gallons). I read on IO website they should mix to 1320 mg/L ( is this same as the directions in kit using ppm?)

Sea Salt frequently asked questions answered by the experts at Instant Ocean.

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My DT Mg reading is also high at 1640 after having done a couple of water changes now. I am starting to have some tissue loss on acans but zoas hammers goni and my first sps stick are all ok so far. Could high Mg be affecting my acans?

Stephers · Dec 28, 2020

RyansReef said:
I am having same issue with a relatively new box of IO. My Red Sea test kit is expiring soon so I bought new kit today to make sure that older Chemicals weren’t the cause of high readings. New kit reads at about 1640 on a fresh batch of sea water (15 gallons). I read on IO website they should mix to 1320 mg/L ( is this same as the directions in kit using ppm?)

Sea Salt frequently asked questions answered by the experts at Instant Ocean.

Find the aquarium answers you need with the experts from Instant Ocean, including topics like aquarium salinity and mixing aquarium salt!

www.instantocean.com

My DT Mg reading is also high at 1640 after having done a couple of water changes now. I am starting to have some tissue loss on acans but zoas hammers goni and my first sps stick are all ok so far. Could high Mg be affecting my acans?

I'm sorry you seem to be having a similar issue. That would be equivalent to ppm. I have a mixed reef and only saw slight STN on a bonsai acro on the shaded undersides, which has now stopped and is starting to regrow since slowly lowering my magnesium back down. I have acans and did not see any issues with them, but I don't personally know enough about magnesium that high to say if it could be affecting yours... If there was a sudden spike, I might definitely suspect that might be the cause. I hope they hang in there.

RyansReef · Dec 28, 2020

Thanks. Didn’t mean to hijack your thread. Just wanted to chime in and say I have a batch of IO that seems to be like yours and mixing at a very high Mg level. I wonder if others are also seeing a problem with their batches too and if IO has a production issue. Now I am questioning my use of it as well.

Stephers · Dec 29, 2020

RyansReef said:
Thanks. Didn’t mean to hijack your thread. Just wanted to chime in and say I have a batch of IO that seems to be like yours and mixing at a very high Mg level. I wonder if others are also seeing a problem with their batches too and if IO has a production issue. Now I am questioning my use of it as well.

I was thinking about sending them an email with any batch info on the bucket and see what they say. I've just been busy with the holidays, but maybe I'll do that this week. Ive been using IO for about 10 years but I had been thinking about switching in recent months due to the desire to get closer to natural sea water levels and do a modified Triton method, so this just concreted it for me. But I'll update if I hear back from IO.