Ca Up and Mg Down.. and Reverse (Trident)

[Jon's Reef]

New to Trident. I noticed that there is s strong correlation between Ca and Mg.

Background: Tank is "newer", not many corals. Using Triton method, 10 ml of Alk (Triton #3) per day. Since Ca and Mg are elevated, dosing 0.2 ml of each per day (Triton #1 and #2).

I noticed that when Mg goes up, Ca goes down... When Ca goes up, Mg goes down. Is this an artifact of how the Trident works... or real chemistry at work?

 

[Bleigh]

It's the chemistry.

To put it simply, magnesium pushes calcium to deposit more readily into corals. When magnesium is lower, it allows the calcium to stay at a higher concentration in the water column.

 

[JAC-]

A rule that I know many of us wish wasn't true, but once you learn how to exploit it it can be helpful. Additionally, KH plays a factor here. In short its almost impossible to maintain KH if you're lacking magnesium.

 

[Bleigh]

A rule that I know many of us wish wasn't true, but once you learn how to exploit it it can be helpful. Additionally, KH plays a factor here. In short its almost impossible to maintain KH if you're lacking magnesium.

True, You can also have more issues with faster evaporation with lower magnesium. Mg has a lot of indirect impacts.