Difficulty maintaining Mg levels

mahi03

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Question:

- Is this level of Mg consumption normal? Seems like something is out of balance in this tank.
- Open to longer term daily dosing recommendations. I have 5 dosing pumps (1 is reserved for amino acids), so flexibility here.

Context:

Mixed reef. 110g system. A dozen small acro frags, plenty of LPS and euphyllia.

After dosing only AFR for a year (15ml/100L), my parameters were reading: Ph 8.2, alk 8.3, ca 550, mg 1150. Measurements taken with trident and backed by salifert.

So I went looking for a solution to boost mg, and reduce ca.

I started dosing brightwell magnesion (mag chloride + sulfate), aquaforest kh, and still continue with a lesser daily volume of AFR. Dosing the maximum recommended amount of Mg (10ml/20g) over the course of a few weeks, I was able to get params to alk 8.3, ca 480, mg 1400 (slightly elevated I know but by my understanding is better for euphyllia).

In theory, I thought I should be able to discontinue/reduce dosing the Mg and go back to only AFR, so I cut my Mg dosing by 1/2, and in a day saw my Mg drop from 1400 to 1350.

Seems like a rather drastic drop in daily Mg especially taking into consideration I'm still dosing 10ml/100L of AFR daily on top.

Thank you in advanced!
 

rtparty

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Test kit errors and inaccuracies. Typical for magnesium testing. Nothing in the tank will consume magnesium that quickly. Great read here:

 

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