What is your tank consuming in 1 day

I have no issues with mag, I've just never had to dose it as water changes maintain it in my tank but again each tank is different, personally I feel a lot of reefers dose it too much and run it too high, it's one that shows its lack of a high enough level very quickly as your alk and cal bind together and precipitate out and you see it via cloudy water, and white build up on pumps or heaters as the alk and cal bind and are not in the tank at a high enough level to keep the alk and cal from doing that, again every tank is different and if you are testing, know your levels, know generally what your levels should be then dosing just the chemicals you need is fine, my comment was only aimed at the less informed who feel you need those expensive pre-mixed additives when in fact you most likely don't, now choosing to with the knowledge it isn't needed is totally acceptable as mixing it up can be a pain haha (I know I don't like it), I just remember how drastically my maintenance costs dropped when I started mixing my own and truly understanding what chemicals I was trying to maintain and why and what they did (understanding why one would dose sodium bicarbonate vs sodium carbonate vs a mix of the two and the impact on ph) and how they were being depleted or supplemented by my tank and maintained or depleted by other routine maintenance I was doing such as water changes, running various media, etc.

Yes, it is daunting but by asking this question, you have entered a larger world.  Personally I love this stuff; the technical aspects of this hobby. When I first found out that Alkalinity was simple baking soda and washing soda that we can buy at the grocery store and make ourselves and that it was pure enough to use in my tanks, I thought it was really cool and it still is .

Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) is the chemical that we use for Calcium and Magnesium Chloride is what we use for Magnesium, as well as Epsom Salt (MgSO4), but we don't really want them mixed together since we use different amounts of each. The bags/bottles we find that indicate they are like 99.5% pure are what we want to use.

Potassium Chloride (KCl2)is a salt our tanks need but only a very small amount.

Of course, Sodium Chloride is regular table salt.

I think it's a 3 lb. bag of Epsom Salt I get at Walmart for about $2

Aloha,

Mark 

Edited by Mark Peterson - April 08 2016 at 3:13pm

Is this safe as a magnesium supplement? Seems a little daunting to use things that arent specifically marked for aquariums.

Im going to pickup a BRS kit next week. I just havent decided if im going to get the kit that has the kalkwasser or not. Pretty much the same price. Both kits come with Ca. Alk. Mag., one comes with mixing jugs, the other comes with Kalk and is designed to be used in your ATO.

Btw my mag is running low at 1180 so I want to get it fixed soon. I think my salt has low Mag. Its regular Instant Ocean.

Maybe I don't know the answers Shaun :)

love2skiutah wrote: You're correct, I should have specified.  I was using BRS

Edited by love2skiutah - April 06 2016 at 9:51am

ML is just a measure, however, it does not account for the strength of the solution. For instance- it may take 100 ML of one solution to raise my Alk as much as say 70 ML from another solution. Some solutions vary dramatically- I might need 200 ML of what I would only need 30 ML of with another solution. There are people that might dose 2000ML with a calcium reactor but with two part it may only need to be 1/4 of it.

HEY MARK I'M NOT YELLING, JUST EXCITED!!!!! You're funny

Well said Bryce.