You pick the change poll
Ok, I have the day off today and thought I'd make a change to the system. The two items I've read about and wondered if I should care are A. Giving a damn about magnesium or B., moving my carbon to a reactor vs passively sitting in a bag.
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C. Create a poll for Kien.
I think you already picked C.:wink: |
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Oh goody another poll:lol:
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D. kick back & admire your tank.
E. Take a long afternoon nap. |
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where is the all of the above??? and where is my god damn kien option~!!!!
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So far the results surprise me. With all the talk about Mg, nobody thinks it's important? That works out well, as the carbon thing is much easier -lol
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What carbon are you using?
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Not sure about either one to be honest.
Thoughts on Mg: IME, Mg technically isn't a problem unless it's very low. I do actively dose Mg I suppose you could call it, but I do it via my water changes: I add just enough MgCl and MgSO4 to my new water to bring it up to around 1500. That tends to keep the Mg in the tank at "good enough" levels. So I don't think "worry" about Mg. It's just a routine. I don't understand the science behind it, but I've noticed that things just look better when Mg is at "good enough" levels (versus "far too low"). The change is most noticeable in anemones (of which I have a handful). Ever since adopting the water change technique however I haven't noticed them looking off due to Mg levels in probably 4-5 years now or more. Guess the thing to try is seeing if your Mg is low, then dosing it back to seawater type levels, then see if you notice a difference in your tank. Thoughts on carbon: I used to think that reactors were a better choice for carbon as I thought water passing through the column of carbon would make for better absorption of the baddies because of better contact to more surface area blah blah blah something or other. But seem to have read more than a few credible articles in the last few years that seem to suggest just having a bag in a high flow area in the sump is good enough because osmosis or something blah blah blah the main take away is it still works as carbon. I made the investment in TLF reactors so I figure I might as well use them for carbon but if I didn't have them already I'm not sure I'd worry about it too much. Guess the thing to try is move your carbon into a reactor and see if you notice a difference in your tank. :lol: |
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Tony, your ideas give me more time off today, meaning longer nap. I should have had a do nothing option :)
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I'd consider 1150 to be in the "good enough" levels. I think basically 1000-1100 or above is sort of my own threshold. I think NSW sits around 1300. I haven't seen any adverse effects having it as high as 1400-1500. I haven't tested any higher because it takes a surprising amount of Mg to raise the levels at all so going any higher than that wasn't economical. I would imagine, however, that there is a point where it's too high and could cause problems .. I just haven't empirically tested for the limits.
When I did notice problems with low Mg, I found that Mg was somewhere around 600-700 and it was due to the salt I was using at the time. Not sure if I had a bad batch or a bad brand but it was one of those little life lessons where the takeaway was that you should test your incoming salt from time to time. (One more reason I choose to stick with IO these days: it's been the most consistent for readings out of any I've tried, and if the levels aren't exactly optimal, they are at least the same amount not exactly optimal from bucket to bucket and I like consistency more than I like paying more for salt that ends up being less consistent.. Oops I just turned your poll into a salt talk.) In particular, when Mg starts to dip under 1000, I first notice that the anemones expand during the day less than they normally do. This I've noticed enough times (maybe 5 or 6?) that I'm convinced it's not a coincidence. And the lower the Mg drops from 1000, the smaller they get. Also, they start expanding again when I start raising the Mg in the tank (I never adjust more than 100 per day, just for the sake of keeping changes slow). It is the strangest thing, I don't know why anemones care about Mg, but I'm convinced they do. Not sure it counts as empirical evidence to back the claim, but there have been a few times people would ask "hey how come my anemones don't expand like they used to" on here, I'd usually chime and say "check your Mg, couldn't hurt" and I seem to recall most, if not all, came back and confirmed that they had low Mg levels. So I'm totally convinced there's a connection, even if intuitively I can't understand why an anemone cares about Mg. |
As far as the relationship from Mg to Ca and Alk .. yeah, there's a bunch of fancy articles you can read but my main take away from all that is "it takes more Ca and Alk dosing to maintain more gooder levels of Ca and Alk when Mg is low."
So raising your Mg a wee bit (because I don't think I'd worry too much about 1150, although if it were my tank I'd bump up the Mg on the next water change) I'd expect that you might need to bump down your Alk and/or Ca dosing by a wee bit. That said, you might not need to because who knows maybe the uptake will increase thus keeping everything stable, except maybe stuff grows a tiny bit faster. (A bit of a stretch but who knows..) |
Also from back when I did run a reactor for Ca and Alk, I found that Mg just worked out to where it needed to be.
I've been kind of thinking actually of putting a Ca reactor back online on my tank. When I look back I always had way better SPS growth on tanks with them than without them. I just don't cherish the thought of needing to refill CO2 tanks every few months (which for me was sort of the ultimate push away from a reactor in the first place). I wonder though, if one could just just keep the Ca and Alk dosing and have a small reactor as a kind of supplementary measure and then it's not as big a deal to take the reactor offline for a week to get a tank refilled or whatever. |
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Why were you filling your CO2 so often? I have a 20lb tank and I fill it every 10 months or so. Unless I muck up the gasket, in which case I fill it twice in two days :razz: |
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I wouldn't use the word problem as much as I would say it could be holding you back in terms of growth. In my tank Mg is directly tied to the speed at which my clams grow new mantles and how quickly I see growth in most of my SPS. Magnesium helps in the uptake of Calcium and alkalinity (like vitamin D in bones), or at least that's how I've always understood it. |
Tony if you buy a tank at Oxipro in Calgary they do instant exchange so no waiting. I also have two tanks so ideally always have a back up but I use the CO2 for my keg as well so dual purpose for me.
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A tank exchange program would be better. Ok in the end it wasn't the only reason, I always had issues with the designs of the ones I was using, I also had issues maintaining steady slow flow through those things (would be easier nowadays with peristaltic pumps and controllers so a bit of a moot point perhaps) and plus there was the whole "I want to reduce my CO2 footprint because I *care* blah blah blah". Like I said I am sort of considering going to back to a reactor. As soon as a few other projects are off the to-do list I was thinking of building myself a new one. Been far too long since I did any acrylic fabrication for this hobby. Might be time to revisit that. :lol: |
Oh I totally forgot that the other reason was I wanted to devote my CO2 resources towards my planted FW tank. Although I kind of haven't refilled the tank yet from when it last went empty about 12 months ago.
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The reading of this thread is more time spent than on my reef haha. I vote just do nothing and nap all day. Mg levels? I think mine were at about 1200 three years ago, but I have no idea now. In terms of Ca and Alk? I have no clue what my levels are at. The only parameter I know/check is my salinity once every three weeks when I do my water change. Just kick back and enjoy your tank (as long as it looks good).
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I vote for doing something nice for the mrs!
screw the tank today, do house cleaning!:mrgreen: then start something yum for dinner. |
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if you picked carbon then you'd be thinking how often to change, how much flow, do the kick back thing
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So how was your nap?
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