Kessil

Quick question about BRS Magnesium

Hi, so I'm using the BRS Magnesium Chloride + Magnesium Sulfate cocktail per mixing instructions but I'm nit picky & was curious about something;

It has to sit, how long do you let it sit for? do you cap it or leave container open? do all the crystals dissolve or are you always left with some at the bottom of container?

Second part is, I don't need to dose too much and I am pretty good about water changes every 10 days, should I supplement my salt mix with mag or dose the mixed liquid? trying to find the most convenient way to do this long term. It was only recently that I needed to raise magnesium.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Mix until its crystal clear. Leave the cap on, it will evaporate the RO just like your tank. If it doesn't clear up, soak the jug in hot water to get the rest to dissolve.

Best to watch their video for further instructions ;)

 
I completely forgot they make videos for all their products, thanks Dan :)

Quite awesome that I've been using the wrong recipe lol it does not help at all that their instructions in the product description are different than the video...
 
Suggest:
Add it to the water mix barrel before you add the salt.
Doing so reduces the chance of precipitate from your normal salt mix.

Generally it dissolves right away, almost before it hits the bottom.
At less than a cup in a 30G RODI barrel, no surprise.

As a side note: Personally, I think all the BRS AC/Alk/Mg suggested mix ratios are about 2X too high.
They push the limits, making it harder to dissolve, and easier to precipitate.
And we add so much top off RODI anyway, why not mix a lighter solution.
 
Something told me their recipe sounded off after pouring in the third cup of sulfate, really I should not have been lazy & went back to the DIY article and followed that instead. Fortunately I have not been doing this long, on my second week of dosing this stuff but I have a whole gallon of the wrong mix now.

Is BRS really the purest to be had? I know it's debated that magflake may or may not be ideal but what about sulfate? essentially it's just epsom salt so is there a known brand that's pure enough & can be used? not that I'm going to run out of the BRS stuff anytime soon but I'd rather spend the $$ on their chloride instead next time since the ratio of sulfate to chloride is minute...
 
I guess for most smaller tanks dosing magnesium isn't too common as long as regular water changes are maintained and most people who do dose it say they only add it once in a while, I used to be able to maintain it through water changes but for the past 2 months or so it has been creeping lower & lower till it dipped under 1100 and I realized water changed are not maintaining it. This started out close to the time I switched salt mix and the new brand is deficient in calcium & magnesium.

It's not a question of testing either I verified the results within 50 ppm variation between Red Sea & Salifert test kits.
 
reef crystals is probably one of the salt mixes with the highest calcium & magnesium, tank was always on the plus side with those two when I was using reef crystals.
 
Back
Top