Crucial Help Needed! Mag, Cal and Alk.

[yousefbassam123]

Hello people of the reef central,

I have been facing a lot of trouble with keeping my tank up. The Mag, cal and alk supplements are just too expensive for me. I have a 120gal tank. I used the Aquaforest components 1 2 3 but it's not even making a difference.. It's too costly for me to keep buying them in bulks.

I have read through a couple of DIY threads of how to do home-made supplements, but I have no clue where to get some items from..

I live in the UAE.. this makes BRS not reachable.

Also.. Where do you guys get Magnesium Chloride from? and specific brands?

[Volcmreefer]

Kalkwasser is cheap, FWIW. Have you tried dosing Kalc?

[yousefbassam123]

There's nowhere you can get that here. Never seen a store selling it.

[nereefpat]

There's nowhere you can get that here. Never seen a store selling it.

Kalk can be purchased at a grocery store as pickling lime. Mrs wages is the brand I use.

Baking soda for alk.

[bertoni]

If you can get baking soda, that'll do for alkalinity, as was stated. Your tank might not need much magnesium. Many tanks get by with water changes. Do you have a source for calcium chloride?

[yousefbassam123]

How much do you dose from Mrs Wage's pickling lime?

And is it a calcium or mag supplement?

[bertoni]

Pickling lime adds calcium and alkalinity in the proportion that corals use them. It is a very dilute supplement, and should be dripped into the tank. This article has more:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

It's very inexpensive and can help increase the pH a bit, in some cases.

[theshaman]

I would order some mrs wage pickling lime from amazon.


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[Reefiez]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

What you need to make 2 part:
Calcium Chloride 2-Hydrate (for calcium) - pharm grade
Sodium Bicarbonate, aka Baking Soda (for kH) - food grade or better
Magnesium Sulphate 7 Hydrate, aka Epsom Salt (for Mg) - pharm grade
Magnesium Chloride 6 Hydrate (for Mg) - pharm grade

I did a quick google search for you and found this:
http://www.dubichem.com/products?title=magnesium+sulphate

Seems to ship to dubai, but it's probably up to you to contact them to see if they ship smaller amounts for non commercial customers, or to see if they can find you a local distributor that sells smaller amounts.

I did the math for my cost savings compared to using Red Sea CA, KH, using DIY chemicals bought wholesale in Hong Kong, accounting for PPM of solution:

it costs me 41% of what red sea calcium would cost
it costs me 6% of what red sea alkalinity would cost

good luck

[slief]

Join this group (ReefersQuest) on facebook. The group moderator Jan Korbijn is a long time reef hobbist and aquarium professional and he lives in the UAE. I’d bet he can help you since he’s from your neck of the woods. I would suggest posting this same question in that group. He will chime in and I’m sure you can direct you to some local sources.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReefersQuest/?fref=no