Need help with magnesium dose

kaceyo

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Hey Reefers, I just had a situation come up that I'm a bit confused about. I tested my mag and it was 1220ppm, a bit low, so wanted to bring it up to 1350ish. The Red Sea bottle says each ml will raise the mag 1ppm in 25g of water. Red Sea recommends not to raise it more than 10mg p/d. Thinking I was gonna dose on the safe side, I added 10ml p/d to my 45g tank, After 4 days of dosing I tested again and it is at 1600ppm! I checked the "reef app" Red Sea calculator, and it said I should be adding 36ml a day on top of my usual daily dose. I can't imagine what it would be at if I had followed that dosing schedule.
I want to check with the successful reefers here to see if my math is off some where. Or if there might be something I'm overlooking.
I've been having problems with my coral growth coming to a stop and now some dark brown algae that is growing on my corals and killing it. I want to get my parameters back in line with what they were when the tank was doing better.
Any advise will be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,

Kacey
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Magnesium tests are very unreliable in the hands of reefers. I’d be more inclined to think you are seeing testing errors, not a substantially more potent product than claimed.
 

theMeat

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Agreed

and 1600ppm, if it is, is not a problem, but going higher will be
 
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kaceyo

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Red sea said not to raise it more than 10ppm p/d. Is that just not a true concern?
10 mL of Red Sea Foundation magnesium C will boost 45 gallons by about 6 ppm mag.
This is exactly what I thought when deciding on how much to add. It would be safe as it's an even slower rise than Red Sea said I could do. Making changes slowly is usually the best course of action.
Thanks for the quick reply,

Kacey
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Red sea said not to raise it more than 10ppm p/d. Is that just not a true concern?

This is exactly what I thought when deciding on how much to add. It would be safe as it's an even slower rise than Red Sea said I could do. Making changes slowly is usually the best course of action.
Thanks for the quick reply,

Kacey

The rise rate depends on purity since it is the impurities you want to add more slowly, not the magnesium itself. How slow is slow enough is mostly opinion, but there is rarely a reason to rush.
 
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