KH and magnesium
 

New to saltwater. Been freshwater all my life.
Loving this new adventure so far!

I just have 2 problems...KH and magnesium levels!

KH constantly stays high and magnesium constantly stays low. What can I do?

Here's some background info...

15g tank that never went through a cycle. Used cured live rock.
Tank has been running for a month
Instant ocean salt with distilled water
A few zoa polyps
Small war coral
Hammer coral
A couple small mushrooms


Salinity 1.026
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1150
Alkalinity 3.42
KH 9.6
PH 8.4

The above levels are always constant. Even after 2 gallon water changes every week
I dose 5ml mg daily to try and get levels up

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Add magnesium? Eventually Alk will come down on its own. Go to the reef chemistry section and read through those threads, Christy has some good stuff in there.


This will help you figure out what you need to add:
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

According to this:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator

Using Randy's recipe for magnesium you'll need about 242 ml of solution to get your Mg up to 1350 (ish). Many salts have low Mg in the 1100 range so water changes can work against you if you're trying for a higher concentration. Doing water changes with a reef salt that's high in Mg might be less expensive than buying retail Mg supplements to increase levels. Just a thought.

Cheers

This may be a stupid question... But can you add Epsom salts? I'm assuming Magnesium Sulfate is Magnesium Sulfate...


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Magnesium sulfate is just 1 component of a good magnesium supplement. Adding just Epsom salts could unbalance the sulfate ions in the tank.

See article http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry

If you can get your magnesium to a level you want, check your salt mix level of magnesium before doing a water change and top it up to the same as your tank so the level stays the same in your tank. You are just not dosing enough to bring up the levels you need to.