Cali Kid Corals

Yikes my Magnesium is 90 ppm!!

wakskat

wakskat

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Hey Arnold and anyon else who cares. I never used to test for magnesium and thought that my bi monthly 15% water changes were enough to replenish it. But, as per Norman's suggestion today (Mr. Ugly), I bought a test kit and it was 90 ppm. Should be between 1300 and 1500. I guess that gigas was just sucking up the mag. and calcium so moniter that closely until you figure out how much dosing you need to supplement. Norman suggested testing the magnesium after I told him I have noticed that a very nice red and grey open brain that I have has been receeding, my coraline algae growth sucks, and I can't keep xenia in my tank, they just whither away in a few days. Maybe this mistake of not testing mag. can help some of you. Now it is off to the RC chemistry forum for me to do some nightime reeding. I also need a new calcium test kit. Can anyone recommend a good brand.

Thanks guys and thank you most norman,

Mark

P.S.- Norman is awsome and traded me some really nice zoos and montipora for an acro that I won in the raffle today. Great guy to deal with and I highly recommend him for trading. I know I will again in the future. :D
 
Salifert test kits seem to be very popular (most of my kits are by Salifert - so I am biased).

What is your salinity in your tank? I toasted a leather in my nano because I was getting lazy with the top-off.
 
Yeow!!! :)

I like SeaChem Reefstatus for Ca. I use Salifert for Alk, Mg, and I2. There has been discussion on RC about SeaChem vs. Salifert for Ca.

Looking at Alk and Ca in seawater, the Alk is the determining factor affecting the coral laying down skeleton. The Ca is in excess, so it's more important to watch your Alk levels.

If Mg/Ca ratio drops too low, you can lose Ca to precipitation rather than skeletal growth, and the corals will be unhappy. Sometimes you'll see tissue recession in your LPS when this happens.

Xenia can be a good indicator of pH and alk. Coralline and LPS can give clues about your Mg.
 
What an idiot!!! I read the test wrong and my Magnesium was really around 1250! Good thing I rechecked. Parameters as of this afternoon,

dKH 7.7 Alkalinity 2.74 pH 8.0 Mg 1350 Nitrate 0

What do you think norman? Should I raise the Alk.? and the Mag a little more?

Thanks,

Mark
 
Ah, I had been wanting to post again about making sure you're reading the scale correctly.

People that have a chemistry background will think the Salifert instructions are wierd or backwards. Their chart goes by the amount of titrant remaining rather than the amount used.

I'd bring up the Alk. I target 3.5-3.6 for Alk, and 1350-1400 for Mg. Is your Mg at 1250 or 1250. If it's 1250, I'd dose Mg. At 1350, your Mg is probably ok, especially with the salinity at 1.024.

1350(.025/.024)=1406

Here's a useful link:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Make sure you pick the right version of the Randy recipes if you using those.
 
Hi Mark,

So far the clam is ok, except for my lemon angle picking at it once in a while! It did that to my teardrop as well, but it has since stopped. I am trying to catch him! I don't really test for anything anymore, but I do have a PH monitor and good coraline growth. I will let you know how it goes. For Alk, I sometimes use Sea Chem reef builder.
 
I never used to think that Alk was a problem in my tank and didn't test for it but I should have cause it has probably been low for a while. I thought that my kalk dosing would be enough. Take some pics with a reference so you can keep an eye on the growth rate. I can post some pics that show the size when I got it.
 
Supposedly you can have high demands where you have to supplement your kalk dosing with other stuff. I'd guess a gigas in a small tank could qualify :)
 
Makes sense to me. It was cool to see how fast it grew but I'll have to wait until I get a biggger tank to get another gigas or beter lighting to get a slower growing clam.
 
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