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2-part dosing question (Mag)

DurTBear

DurTBear

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So I've been dosing 2-part for almost a year but I'm still a little confused about the magnesium part. When I first started dosing 2-part, my weekly water changes were enough to maintain my Mag level. But now my Mag has been consistently dropping. They say on the website that after you exhaust a gallon each of Ca and Alk, you mix the High Purity Magnesium Sulfate and Chloride mix into 20oz of water and add that. Do all of you 2-part users do that? Or do you add Mag as needed? I'm in the process of slowly getting my Mag back up near 1400ppm. But after I achieve that and get my Ca and Alk dialed in again, I want to know how to correctly maintain everything. Should I mix up a new batch of Ca and Alk and when I use up those gallon jugs, should I throw in the Mag mixed in a 20oz bottle? Or is it best to constantly test for Mag and add it as needed? I feel like it would be bad to add the entire 20oz bottle of Mag all at once but that's just me... TIA!
 
Ideally, I would re-make the Mg solution so that the 20oz is diluted into a gallon. Then I would use 3 dosing pumps for equal dosing of Mg/Ca/Alk and tweak it. Then every couple of weeks, measure (after it was dialed in) and do manual re-balancing.


..but right now, I just measure Mg and adjust every few weeks.
 
I have dosing setup for Calc. & Alk. and for the magnesium I add manually, a cup every week or so. I figure it's probably better to add numerous small doses than 1 big. I believe that a large dose is ok, so long as it's not a *huge* amount.
 
Gomer said:
Ideally, I would re-make the Mg solution so that the 20oz is diluted into a gallon. Then I would use 3 dosing pumps for equal dosing of Mg/Ca/Alk and tweak it. Then every couple of weeks, measure (after it was dialed in) and do manual re-balancing.
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Good idea...maybe I will try this.

CookieJar said:
I have dosing setup for Calc. & Alk. and for the magnesium I add manually, a cup every week or so. I figure it's probably better to add numerous small doses than 1 big. I believe that a large dose is ok, so long as it's not a *huge* amount.
Click to expand...

I agree...I've always thought that more small doses spread throughout the day as opposed to one big dose was better for tank stability.
 
I'm using the two-part stuff from Bulk Reef Supply. Great products! Just need to get a controller now with some dosing pumps to automate it.
 
Man, Durwin, getting fancy :) I am still dosing by hand! :D
What happened to the Kent two-part you were using before? I was thinking of picking that up after I exhaust my ESV.
 
Haha! Yeah, I'm still dosing by hand but in addition to my laziness and quest to automate more of my tank stuff, I think it would be beneficial if I didn't dose everything all at once. Instead, if I could use a pump to spread out the dose throughout the day, I think my parameters would be a bit more stable.

I was originally dosing that Kent Turbo Calcium along with the Kent Super dKH Buffer but after one bottle, I realized it would be too expensive. The Bulk Reef Supply is really cheap and easy to use.
 
My tank was markedly happier when I moved from 1x/da manual dosing to 4-5x/day auto dosers for alk/ca. (using drew's dosing pumps from BRS)
 
I made a 2 part solution which is more dilute than "typical" then turn on the pumps 4-5x a day (i think 5 right now) for 15 minutes at a time using a timer.
 
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