Mag Levels

I'm assuming you disolve the epsom salt with tank water
?

 

Yes, dissolve the the epsome salt in tank water, then dump it into the tank.

And if you have a 55 gallon, you'll need close to 1 cup as Otty said, depending on where you have it exactly now.
A little over-shooting on the Mag won't hurt anything either. Don't worry about increasing it by 200 ppm in one day either. Some label brands say only go 25 ppm per day, but whatever . I don't know of any fish or coral that would be negatively affected.

 

I have been using Instant Ocean salt and epsom salt to get my mag to 1450ppm.
I do 10 gal water changes every other week, and I usually only need to add 1 or 2 tablespoons of epsom salt every 2 weeks to keep the mag level up around there.
Test at least 2 hrs after you add the mag to give it time to even out in your tank, and dump it in right in front of a powerhead, that helps. If you notice no changes in mag level then get a different test kit. Salifert may be ok, but I use the RedSea kit, and it works fine.

 

oh yeah my bad.

 

Thanks Bogie. I'll try it out.

 

Best thing to do is test your Mg. Then add a 1/2 cup or 1 cup and wait 4 hours then test your water again. This will give you the ratio you need to raise it in the future. All tanks are different in their consumption of Mg.

 

ditto