High Mag

Hey guys just wondering what ill affect high Mag would have on an aquarium. My mag has always been on the high side at 1400 or so but lately has been around 1500. I do not dose any Mag. I did dose CA for a little bit to get my levels up from 350 to about 450 but my saltmix mixes up around 500 so my CA has been around 470-480 and I have not had to dose any calcification in awhile now. Seems the salt mixes up Mag around 1340 so I am not sure why my Mag would be climbing.

 

What is your magnesium before you do your water change? If its already high before the water change and you change out more water than you take out that would raise your level after the change. This could have been building over some time. You may want to use a salt that doesnt have elevated levels of mag and calcium. This switch should get your levels down.

 

My levels are higher than the saltmix. My salt mixes a Mag around 1340 but my aquarium is closer to 1500. Im not sure if it will eventually get used but or if I should be concerned everything seems happy. CA mixed up around 500 and my tank is around 480 so I am not to concerned with those levels

 

When doing water changes you are basically replacing the level of Magnesium from one level(tank water) to the other(New water) so you should not see a Magnesium increase unless you have a higher level in the new water.(and then it will depend on the ammount of water changed to the ammount of water in your tank as to what the level will end up being)I would think you have a bad test kit or maybe with all do respect not testing correctly.However Mag. levels of 1500 are not dangerous to anything and for a while I actually kept my tank at this level(and higher when I was fighting Bryopsis 1800).If you are keeping your calcium at between 450-500 your magnesium should be between 1350-1500 .Mag. levels in general should be 3 times the calcium level just like natural seawater.

 

Thanks Vinny, I still am getting used to the Red Sea Pro kit and Mag does seem to be my biggest weakness, I seem to have a difficult time performing the test and getting consistent results. The CA and ALk test are much easier for some reason.

 

The red sea pro mag kit is a pita,isn't it?lol,good,but a pita,i found with more frequency using it,it gets easier,but if i go a month without testing my mag,I have to treat it like a whole new test kit.Working the tritation syringe one drop at a time when getting close can be a challenge.

 

Yea I try to follow the instructions perfectly but the Mag test is by far the most time consuming and biggest PITA. I do believe my testing is fairly accurate since my numbers dont seem to vary to much. The little differences I do get I believe to be the result of added a few too little or too many drops to cause the test result to vary by only a couple points.

My results yesterday were Mag 1520 Ca 480 and Alk 8.4. I dosed a little alk and did a 5gal WC today and my Mag was 1480 Ca 465 and alk 9.2.