Magnesium

yup! i use to use that tech-m magnesium and will never use those diluted magnesium solutions again. same as with calcium and alk.

bulkreefsupply all the way baby!

 

Maybe my experience with Magnesium is different from most of the others on this thread

over last 3 years, I have found that once you have it where you want it , it tends to stay there for very long periods, without the need for routine supplement

I mean the 3rd port on my 3 way doser would be semi redundant should I have chosen to use it to supplement mag.

I figured at the start that the bulk dry ingrediants you mix yourself where bound to be more cost effective than the liquid supplements (which is certainly the case with my calcium and alkalinity)

but over last few months, I think I have dosed magnesium a couple of times only
I am running at about 1450 and stopped weekly testing for the simple reason I was unable to interpret any difference from 1 week to the next (salifert kit, allowing for user variation )
I now test monthly for that and maybe it has dropped 10 or 20ppm in that time, but again that could be user interpretation of result or technique variation

(as Clint might say if he was a reef aquarist "I know what your thinking punk, was that 5 drops or 6 drops I added, well in all the excitement, I clean forgot myself" )

thus have a bottle of the Brightwell Mag supplement, that I have had for over 6 months and I have used it twice in that time


Steve

 

I see what your saying. I don't have a test kit for magnesium, so I don't keep up on it regularly I just keep up on my calcium and alkalinity and it tends to stay at a good level..

 

Steve, I agree. I only test monthly or every other month these days as my auto dose keeps Ca and Alk solid.

Like you said, Mg only barely drops in this time period. So it just takes longer for bulk Mg to be cost effective, but it still is over the long haul.

It's also IME that when you do have to dose Mg, you do a lot more than you do daily for say Ca. That is to say, though I dose Ca daily and Mg maybe every three months, over time, both bottles empty at roughly the same time. Mg does take longer to use up but not by long given the amount needed to bump Mg 100 ppm or so. (and i can make several bottles of solution when I have several gallons of raw elements, where as these pre-bottled solutions have to be repurchased every time you run out).