Adding Mg to change water...

[sn4265]

I'm about to start using the Randy DIY 2 part and Mg. I'm curious as to adding Mg specifically directly to my fresh change water. The plan is to get a bag of the MgCl from a local hardware store and Epsom salt from anywhere and use these for the mixed Mg DIY supplement. The question is, in mixing up my fresh salt water I believe that my mix comes in about 1300ppm. I'm wanting to maintain closer to 1500ppm so how much of each MgCl and MgSO4 would be a good starting point for mixing up about 25gal of fresh saltwater?

I may end up deciding to similarly add some CaCl to my fresh saltwater to bring it up from about 420 to more like 450, but I'm not entirely sure on that one yet. I'll have to do a little more research and reading before I really decide on that particular issue. I know that the Mg is significantly lower than what I would like to maintain, so that's the reason I'm asking about that more specifically.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[skunkmere]

you may want to try kalk if dosing by ato is your thing,

[sn4265]

I'm running kalk already, and I just started adding vinegar to supersaturate the limewater. My hope though is over time my Ca demand is going to outpace kalk and diluting my Ca via water changes is just something else that I'll have to compensate for. Seems like it would be easier to simply boost the Ca of the change water to prevent that dilution.

Of course, kalk does nothing for Mg concentration so I'll just have to handle that one on the water changes and with dosing. I figure though if I bring my change water up to about 1500ppm that should go a long way to keeping my Mg up over 1400 or so.

[marc nichols]

I've been adding Mg to my change water for about 4 months and so far it has worked fine.

[sn4265]

I guess my biggest question is how much of the MgCl/MgSO4 mixture should I add to raise 25 gal by about 100 ppm? I'm just trying to get some kind of ballpark so I'm not testing my first batch of water 7 times or something.

[Psyops]

I guess my biggest question is how much of the MgCl/MgSO4 mixture should I add to raise 25 gal by about 100 ppm? I'm just trying to get some kind of ballpark so I'm not testing my first batch of water 7 times or something.

5 parts of MgCl to 3 parts MgSO4. The easy way to do it is 5 cups of MgCl to 3 cups of MgSO4 to make a total volume of 1 gallon solution.

to raise 25 gallons by 100 ppm with this mixture formula you would need 201.6 mls of 6.8 fl. oz. of the solution.

What I actually did is went to the bulkreefsupply.com website. There is a blue tab on the right upper area that says videos and instructions. Go to instructions and click on recipe 1 bulk mixture instructions. You will also have the calcium and alkalinity instructions. The mag instructions are there also.

Also on the website there is a reef calculator for these mixtures. Good luck.

Alex

[bertoni]

This calculator is fine for picking a dose:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

[Psyops]

This calculator is fine for picking a dose:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Thanks Jonathan for that link. I was at work yesterday and could not remember that link.

Alex