Magnesium dropping over 200ppm in a few days.

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Hello everyone, my tank is a fairly new 60 gallon system and has been running for over 2 months now. I added one torch coral 2 weeks ago to the tank and it has not been looking happy for the past few days. Prior to adding the coral everything was within normal parameters and the torch was initially happy. Everything is still within normal parameters except magnesium. Magnesium was at around 1280ppm last week. Yesterday i did a mg test with salifert 3 times and kept getting it at around 1000ppm (300ppm drop in a week.) So i did a 20% water change yesterday. I tested the new water (salted with blue bucket red sea salt) before adding it to the tank and it read at 1300ppm. This morning about 20 hours later, i retested tank water and its reading at around 1015 ppm (tested twice.) Why is there such a significant drop in magnesium? My alkalinity is at 7.5 and calcium at 430.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Test error. I'd stop measuring it since that drop is not possible, except by a big drop in salinity.

Use this instead:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/

 

[Deej1534]

agree with above go get a different mg test kit and compare the two.

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Thank you for posting this thread. I was also wondering how or why magnesium would drop that quick, it didn’t make sense. Do you have any idea why the torch is upset? When i mean upset, it’s not fully extended.
I should mention that I have a hanna phosphate checker and it’s reading my phosphates as 0.8 ppm. I see mixed reviews regarding phosphates. Some people say it’s fine and others say it’s extremely high for a reef tank

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

agree with above go get a different mg test kit and compare the two.

Randy did not say to go buy another test kit though lol. He said to just stop testing magnesium.

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Test error. I'd stop measuring it since that drop is not possible, except by a big drop in salinity.

Use this instead:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/

Thank you for posting this thread. I was also wondering how or why magnesium would drop that quick, it didn’t make sense. Do you have any idea why the torch is upset? When i mean upset, it’s not fully extended.
I should mention that I have a hanna phosphate checker and it’s reading my phosphates as 0.8 ppm. I see mixed reviews regarding phosphates. Some people say it’s fine and others say it’s extremely high for a reef tank.

 

[exnisstech]

No help but torches can be difficult, at least for me. I've been in the hobby for 9 years and have decent success with acros but I've never been able to keep a torch alive in any tank.

EDIT Maybe post an image or two of torch including the flesh band and see if someone has any suggestions.

 

[Deej1534]

Thank you for posting this thread. I was also wondering how or why magnesium would drop that quick, it didn’t make sense. Do you have any idea why the torch is upset? When i mean upset, it’s not fully extended.
I should mention that I have a hanna phosphate checker and it’s reading my phosphates as 0.8 ppm. I see mixed reviews regarding phosphates. Some people say it’s fine and others say it’s extremely high for a reef tank.

we would need to know all of your tanks parameter to have an idea of what is going on - people will argue but there are ranges you want to be within which are acceptable after that its all about consistency. tanks like stability and being a number chaser won't give you that. submit your full parameters and ill see if anything sticks out if not > probably going to be flow or lighting

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Thank you for posting this thread. I was also wondering how or why magnesium would drop that quick, it didn’t make sense. Do you have any idea why the torch is upset? When i mean upset, it’s not fully extended.
I should mention that I have a hanna phosphate checker and it’s reading my phosphates as 0.8 ppm. I see mixed reviews regarding phosphates. Some people say it’s fine and others say it’s extremely high for a reef tank.

we would need to know all of your tanks parameter to have an idea of what is going on - people will argue but there are ranges you want to be within which are acceptable after that its all about consistency. tanks like stability and being a number chaser won't give you that. submit your full parameters and ill see if anything sticks out if not > probably going to be flow or lighting

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1ppm
PH: 8.15
Magnesium: 1015
Calcium: 430
Alkalinity:7.5
Phosphates: 0.8

Thank you for taking a look. I should say my torch is on the sand bed but it does get good flow there. Should it go on the rocks?

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

No help but torches can be difficult, at least for me. I've been in the hobby for 9 years and have decent success with acros but I've never been able to keep a torch alive in any tank.

EDIT Maybe post an image or two of torch including the flesh band and see if someone has any suggestions.

I will post a picture of my torch in a few hours once I am home. I just don’t know what could be going on. It was happy and eating manual foods.

 

[rishma]

agree with above go get a different mg test kit and compare the two.

Then you can have two inaccurate numbers to compare!

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Thank you for posting this thread. I was also wondering how or why magnesium would drop that quick, it didn’t make sense. Do you have any idea why the torch is upset? When i mean upset, it’s not fully extended.
I should mention that I have a hanna phosphate checker and it’s reading my phosphates as 0.8 ppm. I see mixed reviews regarding phosphates. Some people say it’s fine and others say it’s extremely high for a reef tank.

we would need to know all of your tanks parameter to have an idea of what is going on - people will argue but there are ranges you want to be within which are acceptable after that its all about consistency. tanks like stability and being a number chaser won't give you that. submit your full parameters and ill see if anything sticks out if not > probably going to be flow or lighting

Salinity is at 1.025

 

[rishma]

I will post a picture of my torch in a few hours once I am home. I just don’t know what could be going on. It was happy and eating manual foods.

A wise reefer recently said that few coral issues are actually chemistry related. As a reef chemistry geek, I initially thought…that cannot be right! But actually the more I think about it the more I agree.

Nothing alarming in your chemistry. The magnesium value isn’t real. You might look into double checking salinity, calibration, etc. Phosphate is higher than I like, though I’m loathe to recommend reducing it because that causes more problems more often than not.

 

[Deej1534]

A wise reefer recently said that few coral issues are actually chemistry related. As a reef chemistry geek, I initially thought…that cannot be right! But actually the more I think about it the more I agree.

Nothing alarming in your chemistry. The magnesium value isn’t real. You might look into double checking salinity, calibration, etc. Phosphate is higher than I like, though I’m loathe to recommend reducing it because that causes more problems more often than not.

I dont totally agree with you here, but it's all about balance > I think nitrate is low - we have learned that the tanks do need nitrate in the tank. Personally I aim for between 5-10 Also Kh is low 7.5 I like to personally keep mine higher between 9-10. Everything else looks fine... with the PO4 is that supposed to be 0.08 or is it 0.8?

 

[Troylee]

Numbers don’t look bad but nitrate I’d like to see higher! Get that up to 10-20… how’s the flow and lighting? Torches love super high lighting like sps and flourish in it!

 

[rishma]

A wise reefer recently said that few coral issues are actually chemistry related. As a reef chemistry geek, I initially thought…that cannot be right! But actually the more I think about it the more I agree.

Nothing alarming in your chemistry. The magnesium value isn’t real. You might look into double checking salinity, calibration, etc. Phosphate is higher than I like, though I’m loathe to recommend reducing it because that causes more problems more often than not.

I dont totally agree with you here, but it's all about balance > I think nitrate is low - we have learned that the tanks do need nitrate in the tank. Personally I aim for between 5-10 Also Kh is low 7.5 I like to personally keep mine higher between 9-10. Everything else looks fine... with the PO4 is that supposed to be 0.08 or is it 0.8?

I don’t disagree with your comments, the values are not ideal but just not alarming. I don’t see a certain reason for torch unhappiness.

I also like more than 5ppm nitrate but 1ppm is not a crisis. I’d probably boost with ammonia or nitrate.

I aim for 8-9 dKh. I think above 7 is ok. I’d work it up slowly with dosing if it were my tank.

0.08 would be better than 0.8 phosphate. I like around 0.1 or 0.2.

Torches are tricky. Depends on their origin and other reasons I don’t understand. Sometimes one LPS in my tank is unhappy while all others are thriving and parameters are exactly on target.

My point is, I’m not confident this is a chemistry issue.

 

[Deej1534]

I don’t disagree with your comments, the values are not ideal but just not alarming. I don’t see a certain reason for torch unhappiness.

I also like more than 5ppm nitrate but 1ppm is not a crisis. I’d probably boost with ammonia or nitrate.

I aim for 8-9 dKh. I think above 7 is ok. I’d work it up slowly with dosing if it were my tank.

0.08 would be better than 0.8 phosphate. I like around 0.1 or 0.2.

Torches are tricky. Depends on their origin and other reasons I don’t understand. Sometimes one LPS in my tank is unhappy while all others are thriving and parameters are exactly on target.

My point is, I’m not confident this is a chemistry issue.

lol do you mean .01-.02?

I can totally agree with that - this may not be a chemistry issue, but corals sitting at those value for a long period of time have a higher likelihood of failure then ones in more recommended ranges

the next question would be what lights and how low is the coral as well as is it just getting too much flow. I remember years ago someone told me that high PO4 really upset torches and they would eject if it became too much. I haven't kept torches for a year or two and my experience with them is brief but this statement held true is my case..

 

[rishma]

I don’t disagree with your comments, the values are not ideal but just not alarming. I don’t see a certain reason for torch unhappiness.

I also like more than 5ppm nitrate but 1ppm is not a crisis. I’d probably boost with ammonia or nitrate.

I aim for 8-9 dKh. I think above 7 is ok. I’d work it up slowly with dosing if it were my tank.

0.08 would be better than 0.8 phosphate. I like around 0.1 or 0.2.

Torches are tricky. Depends on their origin and other reasons I don’t understand. Sometimes one LPS in my tank is unhappy while all others are thriving and parameters are exactly on target.

My point is, I’m not confident this is a chemistry issue.

lol do you mean .01-.02?

I can totally agree with that - this may not be a chemistry issue, but corals sitting at those value for a long period of time have a higher likelihood of failure then ones in more recommended ranges

the next question would be what lights and how low is the coral as well as is it just getting too much flow. I remember years ago someone told me that high PO4 really upset torches and they would eject if it became too much. I haven't kept torches for a year or two and my experience with them is brief but this statement held true is my case..

No, I mean 0.1 or 0.2.

I am not aware of torch sensitivity to phosphate. Interesting.

In my experience torches love high flow.

 

[Troylee]

No, I mean 0.1 or 0.2.

I am not aware of torch sensitivity to phosphate. Interesting.

In my experience torches love high flow.

Agreed.. my tank is full blown sps and I have a couple torches and they flourish! 500 par and high flow and they love it!

 

[Deej1534]

No, I mean 0.1 or 0.2.

I am not aware of torch sensitivity to phosphate. Interesting.

In my experience torches love high flow.

Agreed.. my tank is full blown sps and I have a couple torches and they flourish! 500 par and high flow and they love it!

lol something was up with my brain there no that makes totally sense I like to stay closer to .1 - mixed reef as well but slowly starting to add more SPS and want to start to make it more of a SPS dominant tank. Too many softies right now lol