Red Sea magnesium (ammonia?)

[jcrusher556]

Help,

So I started dosing some Red Sea magnesium (part C) because it was a little low and I just wanted to bring it up some, which it worked. My numbers were 1320 mag and I just wanted to bring it up to 1380-1400. My hammer is much happier with the raised magnesium level. I tested my tank today and noticed I had quite a spike in ammonia. I’m always at 0 and today was the first time I seen a bright green test on the api ammonia test. My question is, does this solution from Red Sea raise ammonia? It doesn’t say it does in the box. I immediately put some prime in there to hopefully knock it down . (That’s the only way I know how to lower ammonia). Other than that all parameters are in check.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Maybe the hammer likes the ammonia and is indifferent to the magnesium rise. Seriously.

In any case, there often is some ammonia in magnesium chloride materials and that may have made its way into the product. Unless it is more than 2 ppm in the tank, I would not worry about it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, Prime will do nothing useful to elevated ammonia. Actual tests as opposed to marketing claims show no benefit.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This has more on ammonia:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ammonia-is-our-friend.1062/

 

[jcrusher556]

Maybe the hammer likes the ammonia and is indifferent to the magnesium rise. Seriously.

In any case, there often is some ammonia in magnesium chloride materials and that may have made its way into the product. Unless it is more than 2 ppm in the tank, I would not worry about it.

So much information ! Thank you so much for this!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So much information ! Thank you so much for this!

You're welcome.

Happy reefing. :)