Neptune Aquatics

Low Magnesium

I've only been in the hobby for about 9 months and this is about the third time I've heard of off-spec salt from SeaChem. At least you didn't get a bucket that was contaminated with something that would kill your tank like the first story I heard.
 
I discontinued Sea Chem Reef salt for low mag.

I roll my salt on the lawn and got 1100 from beginning to end of that bucket.
Cal was good and ALK was LOW! 7 the whole batch.

It got me in the habit of testing the big 3 before using any mixed up salt.

I switched to Salinity and it mixes up to under 1300 but much better than the reef salt.

I add mag every day.. or I will dip and have issues.
I have alot of SPS and a growing clam just using it up.
 
NOTE: If you adjust mag, you need to add LOTS AND LOTS to get a small change. You'll also be substantially changing the salinity.

If you are raising your tank Mg levels by 100 ppm or more, closely watch your salinity. If your salt is low on salinity to begin with, add MgCl2/SO4 to your make up water then add salt till you reach the right balance of ions/salinity.
 
bondolo said:
I've only been in the hobby for about 9 months and this is about the third time I've heard of off-spec salt from SeaChem. At least you didn't get a bucket that was contaminated with something that would kill your tank like the first story I heard.
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I should know now that every salt I use will be the bad salt :D

http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/705

I used to use IO and switched to RC. It was ok for a while, then I ran into a batch of bad buckets. Ended losing a lot of coral and also dropped out of reefing for a while as a result.

Used Seachem for a while, and did fine. Also did fine with Salinity. Tried to get more Salinity but LFS was out of stock. Figured that Seachem should be ok, but the 2 buckets I got had low Mg, as confirmed by Seachem.

I caught it before anything died. Was wondering why my Mg seemed to be dropping with water changes.
 
So go back to Salinity :)

I'm a little baffled as a manufacturer why they didn't give you new buckets?
 
Maybe they don't have confidence in their SeaChem mixer?

Yep, I wanted Salinity, but the only thing available at the store was SeaChem. I went with that because it did well for me before.
 
houser said:
Norm,
is it the low Mg or the inconsistency that has your feathers ruffled?
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Both.

1060ppm is ridiculous too.

At least their customer service response has been better than from Aquarium Systems.
 
Would have been even better if they did some kind of recall though.

They had to have known about the problem by now. Especially if "everybody" in the industry has been having problems with the contractor that mixes their salts in the recent years.

We just found out about some bad Chemglass valves at work this week. We were all over it to track down affected customers. Got our EH&S people notified. Researchers informed. Got written documentation from Chemglass. Went through our database and identified all the glass apparatus that were made with the bad valves. Had the customers return those. Went to the labs to follow up on flakey customers. Grabbed another batch of glassware out of the labs where the customers had mixed and matched parts with the known bad components. Developed a test procedure to verify that the returned glassware actually was the bad stuff we were looking for. Made sure that all the known bad components were accounted for. Double checked that there weren't more bad components than we knew about, in case Chemglass slipped on identifying the problem.

I didn't need any labs blowing up.

I hate when people know about a problem and do a half assed job of resolving it.
 
anathema said:
I'm so glad I still buy Half Moon Bay water.
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You're kidding right? If not I'll take you to where the water is collected, it might change your mind... Also, you might want to check the Mag on the HMB water ;)
 
tuberider said:
anathema said:
I'm so glad I still buy Half Moon Bay water.
Click to expand...

You're kidding right? If not I'll take you to where the water is collected, it might change your mind... Also, you might want to check the Mag on the HMB water ;)
Click to expand...

X1.
I switiched to a mixing station in Dec. due to a back injury. Only good thing to come out of injury. :beer:
Realized how " bad " HMB water was.
 
Mr. Ugly said:
From SeaChem Tech Support:

Hi Norman,

I just wanted to let you know that we did receive your sample of Reef Salt and were able to test it here in our lab. Our results are listed below:

pH = 8.41
Alk = 3.2
Ca = 430
Mg = 1060

Unfortunately, we also tested a low magnesium in the sample that you provided. It is lower than our acceptable range and we certainly do apologize for this issue. We will not be able to replace your buckets of salt, but we would be more than happy to send you a magnesium supplement to compensate you and to help you to maintain a higher magnesium. This is not something that we run into that often, but when we do, we definitely make a record so that it does not occur with future buckets of Reef Salt. We hope that you will continue to use Seachem products and we appreciate all of your cooperation. Again, we are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. We will get the magnesium supplement out to you very shortly. Thanks for your patience and have a great afternoon!

Product Support
100215
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Well, I had a box sitting outside my door this evening... :D

With a Seachem label on it. Yay!!!! :D :D

Must be Mg supplement. How cool :D :D :D

/me opens box...

*rip*
*tear*
*peel*
*peel*

Oooooh.... lots of styrofoam peanuts....

And a bottle of Mg supplement!

A whole liter of it...

AN ENTIRE..... LITER!

As in 1000ml....

Where 10ml/48 gallons will raise Mg 5ppm :D :D :D

That's like SOOOO much Mg supplement!!!

It's like enough to...

enough to...

hmmm.....

/me hums theme from Jeopardy

(1000ml / 10ml) x 48gal / (160gal + 160gal) x 5ppm + 1060ppm = 1135ppm

*bzzzzzz!*

"What is, enough to bring my 2 buckets of salt up to 1135ppm Mg!"

:( :( :(

I am underwhelmed...

On the bright side....

I only need...

(1317ppm - 1060ppm) x 320gal / (5ppm x 48gal x 1000ml / 10 ml) - 1 = 2.43

2.43 more bottles of supplement to bring the salt up to Seachem's stated "typical" Mg levels for their reef salt.

Gee thanks, I guess.

/snarky
 
tuberider said:
melly mel said:
Robert and a couple others here suggested to roll the bucket around for a couple minutes.
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NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Bad info!!!!!! the salt comes from the mixer properly blended, the more you toss it around the more the blend "sifts" itself and composition can change, especially if you're not making up large batches of saltwater.

Personally I've never had low mag levels with SeaChem Reef, not to say that it can't happen, but if anything IME the mag level is a little high. I use about 2 buckets a week, so I have a decent idea of the QC.
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Dam, Jer! I was gonna build a rock tumbler set-up to automate it. Guess I'll build something else..... :|
 
I contacted Seachem about getting more Mg supplement. They were pretty quick to respond.

They asked for some information so they could calculate out how much additional supplement to send. Except that the info they asked for wouldn't be useful for the calculation.

So I sent them what they asked for. And also sent them my calculations from my earlier post.

They replied back saying that they would send me 4 more liters :D

I'll have to say that they've been polite and responsive.
 
tuberider said:
anathema said:
I'm so glad I still buy Half Moon Bay water.
Click to expand...

You're kidding right? If not I'll take you to where the water is collected, it might change your mind... Also, you might want to check the Mag on the HMB water ;)
Click to expand...


Not kidding at all. I'll take dirty ocean water over random guesses at what's in the ocean any day.
 
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