Is the magnesium mix in the "BRS Pharma Balling Method Bulk Total Package" unnecessary?

[MikeTheNewbie]

Hi, I'm using the "BRS Pharma Balling Method Bulk Total Package" components and their videos as a guideline to supplement my tank.
Does anyone know if the magnesium mix (Magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate) that is included in the package along with Tropic Marin Part C is really necessary?
I saw in the forum that Tropic Marin Part C is primarily magnesium.

While trying to learn more about the balling method using this forum and the Tropic Marin website, I noted that Tropic Marin's original balling components only include:

• Part A: Calcium Chloride
• Part B: Sodium carbonate/bicarbonate
• Part C: Sodium chloride free sea salt

I wonder why BRS would include additional Magnesium mix on top of Part C.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Spare time]

Part C is a pinch of trace elements as a way to correct the effects of adding sodium when dosing A and B. Without it, overtime, your salinity will rise, and when you correct it with fresh water, you end up lowering the levels of elements down in the tank by diluting them via the fresh water.

This might be handy http://www.reefedition.com/the-many-methods-for-supplementing-calcium-and-alkalinity/

This is from Randy
"The original Tropic Marin Balling method does add all trace elements, but is not intended to be, nor is it useful as, a trace element supplement. It simply takes the left over sodium and chloride in the water, and adds all the other ingredients in seawater to keep the sodium and chloride from causing a rise in sodium or chloride over time (at constant salinity). Some two part methods work this way as well."

 

[MnFish1]

Hi, I'm using the "BRS Pharma Balling Method Bulk Total Package" components and their videos as a guideline to supplement my tank.
Does anyone know if the magnesium mix (Magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate) that is included in the package along with Tropic Marin Part C is really necessary?
I saw in the forum that Tropic Marin Part C is primarily magnesium.

While trying to learn more about the balling method using this forum and the Tropic Marin website, I noted that Tropic Marin's original balling components only include:

• Part A: Calcium Chloride
• Part B: Sodium carbonate/bicarbonate
• Part C: Sodium chloride free sea salt

I wonder why BRS would include additional Magnesium mix on top of Part C.
Thanks for the help!

The way I understand the BRS method (which is different than the Tropic Marin method) - is that to balance out the sulfate/Cl ratio, you need to periodically add the MgSO4/MgCl2 mixture ("2 Gallons of BRS Magnesium Mix for 2-Part Maintenance)
. This is my understanding. The BRS method (per their website) - is a way to add 'trace elements' to the traditional BRS 2 part method.

 

[Spieg]

Don't really know. Never used that method of dosing. You could try it and see if your Mg levels drop or not.

 

[MikeTheNewbie]

I contacted BRS and they confirmed that the balling C does contain a fair amount of magnesium but in some cases
not be sufficient to maintain Mg levels without raising potassium levels too high (which is the other major component). "The separate magnesium is always handy to have on hand for separate adjustments, especially in an established tank with coralline algae (which tends to uptake Mg more quickly)."
My tank has historically reported high magnesium (trend here) so I guess I might not need to use the separate magnesium mix for a while.