Magnesium or Calcium ?

[finley]

What is more important in a reef nano tank Magnesium or Calcium ?

 

[CasperOe]

Seems to be the same post as you posted about an hour ago! :rolleyes: Click!

Which one do you prefer we use? ;)

 

[finley]

Seems to be the same post as you posted about an hour ago! :rolleyes: Click!

Which one do you prefer we use? ;)

Yeh, sorry I have really bad Wi-Fi as I live in the middle of no where hence why I posted twice (didnt know if first one posted)
I think this one
Thanks

 

[redfishbluefish]

Double post removed.

 

[Matt Bravo]

To answer your question, both are equally important for good coral health and growth. You need to monitor both and keep at acceptable levels

 

[CasperOe]

Equally important I would say!

It's impossible to determine which one isolated is more important than the other- because magnesium plays an important role by inhibiting calcification in the tank. The solubility of calcium in seawater is increased by preventing the formation of calcite (calcium carbonate, insoluble). Magnesium keeps calcium in solution longer so that it does not precipitate.

There is plenty of videos on YouTube as well as articles across the internet (incl. here on Reef2Reef) that explains just how the chemistry in your reef tank forks.

I can personally recommend the Fauna Marin knowledge database :)

I am sure that @Randy Holmes-Farley can explain it much, much better than me!

 

[Lavey29]

Actually alkalinity is the most important element to check weekly because it will tell you your tank consumption for cal and mag also as they are proportionate to each other. Typically alk and cal deplete at similar ratios while magnesium depletes at 1/10th of the other two.

 

[DJF]

Alk: gold, calcium: silver, mag: bronze…. But there’s no Olympics without all 3

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Alkalinity will deplete first, the you’ll notice calcium depletion. It may take months, if ever, to not the extremely slow depletion of magnesium.