dosing mg, dead pods and other junk

[voidg]

Been having trouble keeping my alk up and found that my mag was low. Bought some mag chloride and sulfate to mix up. Made a batch in 6 cups of Rodi water that should raise my mag by 100ppm, triple checked my math. Dosed one cup in the sump, waited to see if there was a negative reaction. Corals look ok, same with fish and shrimp. Only thing is that I now have sediment collecting on the top of my water. Upon closer inspection there are dead pods and other debris floating at the surface.

Is this normal, maybe just junked I kicked up in the sump or maybe critters that were in the direct path of mag water? Or is this a sign of something worse?

[dartier]

I have only recently started dosing Mg myself, but 100PPM strikes me as a lot to increase by all at once. Perhaps if you dripped it rather than poured it in all at once. Not sure if that much being added quickly could lead to precipitation.

Dennis

[voidg]

100ppm per day is the generally accepted max, also I dosed 1/6 of the batch (one cup) so about a 17ppm jump.

[Handil]

From what I've read and experienced myself, you should max at about 50ppm in a 24 hour period. What prank are you using? I've used kent in the past and dose about 25 ml which raises my 40 gal tank by about 18ppm.

[voidg]

Using a home brew solution of reef supplement magnesium chloride + Epsom Salt USP. The plan was to dose 1/2 of the 6 cups over 24 hours (raising 50ppm) then check magnesium levels tomorrow night.

[bertoni]

Did you measure the magnesium level before and after? Is the debris in the sump or the tank? What's in the sump?

I suspect you just stirred up some debris, but we can check a bit more.

[greyreef]

does the sediment look white?
could be you are getting precipitation of calcium carbonate out of solution because of your low magnesium

[greyreef]

What are your parameters?

[tmz]

What was the magnesium level? What exactly did you mix?

Sediment could have been stirred up detritus and could be cause for concern. or it culdbe something in the mix you dosed. Dead pods concerns me. Was there any odor? Any blackish deposits in the area that was strirred up?

[voidg]

Sediment does look a bit white. Still a little crud on the surface of the water in my DT.

Mag was 1200 prior to dosing
Now it's 1260 after dosing approx 1/2 my solution (2 cups last night separated by 5 hours, 1 cup this morning)

Given my dose raised my params to within 10ppm of where I thought it should be proves my mixing/dosing amounts were nearly spot on so I don't think I OD'd. :)

I dosed a reef supplement Mag Chloride bought from a local online reef shop that sells bulk. Mixed that with Epsom Salts USP from the local drug store. They were mixed in a 3:5 ratio as describe in many articles/posts. The two were mixed with RODI and there was no sediment or anything in the mixing vessel. I was impressed at how clean both supplements were.

Tank life seems to be doing ok, corals that are happy are still happy. Colt looks bad, but not too surprised as a few days ago my rockscaping tumbled and he took a beating. Fish are acting normal, as are my inverts with the exception of two ceriths that may or may not be dead. One hadn't moved since days before the dosing...FYI I hate ceriths can never keep them long. My trochus, nassarius and stometella are doing well.

[tmz]

The mag is not high enough to cause any problems and the materials you used sound safe enough. I'd guess something got stirred up . Maybe even pushed out some hydrogen sulfide. I'd watch the colt(klyxum sp) closely; a sick/decaying leather coral can do serious damage to other invertebrates in a reef tank.

[bertoni]

That'd be my guess, too.

[voidg]

@tmz Not reef chem related but, been worrying about this with the colt. At what point should I pull him? He's not sliming up or decaying, just looks incredibly ticked off 24/7: never expands, polyps pulled in most of the time. He was a grumpy coral even before he got trounced, any little change would set him off while the rest of the coral were perfectly OK. Only think I am worried about after the rockslide is that one branch seems to be quite droopy, perhaps he sustained some damage there.

[tmz]

I'd look for decaying spots (mushy or black areas and cut them away if any are there)). It it collapses and stays that way for a few days it might be time to go.

[brandon429]

something other than peroxide killed some pods? :)