What can influence a tank's Mg reading

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

IO

Steve

Ah, sorry no IO for me:
To much dirt and still need to supplement, this means more testing, more time and more money involved.

[tang daddy]

I love IO.....

so much so that I've even made my own song IO IO it's off to the salty shops I go.......

I've been using it from the day I started and will until the day I stop reefing, adding abit of Ca and Mg costs pennies compared to spending $20 more per bucket.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

Ah, sorry no IO for me:
To much dirt and still need to supplement, this means more testing, more time and more money involved.

Too much dirt? Say what?

To quote myself:

Originally Posted by Myka

I use Instant Ocean salt. When mixed up to 1.026, IO usually has readings of 365 ppm calcium, 11 dKH alkalinity, and 1280 Magnesium. This means that you will need to bump up the Calcium and Magnesium to the proper levels before doing your waterchange. Even though I have tried many different brands of salt I always go back to IO because I haven't seen a difference using "better" salt, and IO costs WAAAAY less, even after supplementing.

To get the proper readings, for every 5g of water change water I make with IO salt I dose:

15mL Kent Liquid Calcium (everyone knows liquid is expensive to supplement)
1 tsp SeaChem Reef Advantage Magnesium
Alkalinity is ok

So, if my calculations are right I will go through 1 1/2 of the 16oz Liquid Calcium jugs (about $15), and about 1/2 of a 600g container of the SeaChem Magnesium (about $4) for each bucket of salt. So that's a total cost of about $19 of additives for each 160 gallon bucket of IO salt. So that makes each bucket of IO cost me about $59. Any other $59 bucket of salt you have to put additives into it too, so that makes it cost more. SO...at $59 per 200g bucket of salt with additives included, IO is the cheapest.

Plus, if you use cheaper additives (which would be smart!) it could cost 1/4 of what it costs me to supplement the IO.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Myka

Plus, if you use cheaper additives (which would be smart!) it could cost 1/4 of what it costs me to supplement the IO.

why are you increasing Ca if you are getting a NSW level of 380?

Steve

[Delphinus]

I'm kind of apprehensive about the future of IO with the chapter-11/receivership/whatever of Aquarium Systems/Spectrum Brands/whatever-they're-called. From all I've been able to read though, for now and the foreseeable future, they intend to keep operating. Hope that they are able to resolve and continue, because it would truly suck if IO went away.

I ran with IO for many years early on in the hobby and yeah, never had a problem with it. Only switched because I wanted to see why there were so many other options but at the end of the day, any lesson I've learned is that a salt is just a salt. It is a commodity item.

Let's face it, you have to dose stuff anyhow, and you have to test stuff anyhow, no matter what. Maybe with one salt or another you may have to dose more of this or less of that but you're not doing any less testing, ultimately if you do you're taking a risk (this is a lesson I seem to need to relearn every 6 months or so ).

I'm pretty sure I'm "coming home" to IO for the next little while...

[Werbo]

For IO, anyone know what the average Mag level is? Roughly.

[Myka]

Usually it is around 1270-90, but my new bucket is 1170. Usually the Calcium is 360-370, but my new bucket is 400. Alk is always around 11-12 dKH. This is the first "off" bucket I ever had. I don't care...I test every new bucket anyway.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

why are you increasing Ca if you are getting a NSW level of 380?

Steve

Sorry, I bolded my mistake. When I test IO it's usually 360-370. I just looked at my recordings. My quote was wrong.

Where do you get that number from? Randy Holmes Farley always writes that NSW around the world averages 410 ppm.

It is known that calcium levels of 360 and under start to inhibit growth of stony corals. I don't have a calcium reactor, so I rely on dosing. It is easy for my tank to drop 20 ppm calcium between dosing (mostly because my tank sitter isn't very good at dosing often enough, which is annoying, but at least she does it), so it's too risky for me to be at 380 ppm. I dose my tank to be 415-425 ppm, but as long as it's at or over 400 I'm happy.

[Delphinus]

WOW, Mg at 1100(ish)... LOL. It's so nice and high! I'd only need to add a LITTLE Mg as opposed to .. the entire $#@$#@! bottle!

[RuGlu6]

BTW have you guys herd that as per SeaChem, all liquid additives are contaminated with ammonia(!)?
i wonder if that is true?
quote: Reef Advantage Magnesium contains no ammonia! This is a common contaminant in every liquid magnesium supplement on the market.end quote
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc...+600+Gram.html