AAAHHHH Help!!!!

[My2heartboys]

OK, I will be getting a magnesium test within the next couple of days--my only question is what is the level of magnesium in an aquarium supposed to be?????

I've tried looking it up, but cannot seem to find the number. This will depend on which test I get--both of the ones that I am looking at are popular one, and no, neither one of them is Red Sea.

Thanks,

Anne

 

[Kensn]

Here ya go....

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

[MikeS]

You can figure it based on your salintity....NSW (35ppt salinity @ 1.026) has a Mg concentration around 1280 ppm. Figure your salinity based on your temperature corrected SG and you can determine the proper Mg level for your tank. For example, if you keep your tank at 1.024 sg, which if correct for temp correlates to 32 ppt salinity...so, 32/35= 0.914....0.914 x 1280ppm Mg = 1170 ppm Mg.

MikeS

 

[My2heartboys]

Here ya go....

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
__________________
Ken

_______________________________________________________________
Thank you a million times over. )

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

You can figure it based on your salintity....NSW (35ppt salinity @ 1.026) has a Mg concentration around 1280 ppm. Figure your salinity based on your temperature corrected SG and you can determine the proper Mg level for your tank. For example, if you keep your tank at 1.024 sg, which if correct for temp correlates to 32 ppt salinity...so, 32/35= 0.914....0.914 x 1280ppm Mg = 1170 ppm Mg.

MikeS

Mike I do appreciate the time you took to type out the equation and the explanation--but my husband is the math teacher and shakes his head at me when I give him "those" looks on stuff like this. His attitude--simple math---my attitude is---uh, where did you go, how did you get there, I'm totally lost.

Just my luck I would marry A high school math teacher. )

Anne

 

[drew_mbu]

LOL cheers for that link, I've been searching for ages for an all in one broad spec sheet like that... I'm trying to get to grips with a new 600galln reef system I now have to run :> cheers

 

[WaterDogs]

Welcome to RF drew_mbu!

 

[MikeS]

Mike I do appreciate the time you took to type out the equation and the explanation--but my husband is the math teacher and shakes his head at me when I give him "those" looks on stuff like this. His attitude--simple math---my attitude is---uh, where did you go, how did you get there, I'm totally lost.

Just my luck I would marry A high school math teacher. )

Anne

:lol: Understood...my Mom is a math teacher and my Dad is a civil enginner...I work in Engineering as well....and I understand that what may considered simple math to one person may be complex to another...If you'd like, give us your SG, your Ca, Alk, and Mg levels and we can figure it for you...

Mike

 

[mojoreef]

Heres a goofy way of looking at it.

The salinty of your tank is a total of all the elements that make it up. So if you run your tank at 35ppt or 1.026 you are going to have 35,000 parts.

So as a different way of looking at lets do this. Lets pretent that all the different elements (calcium, alk, mag and so on ) are marbles, each element a different colored marble. So if you ran your tank at 35ppt allthese 35000 marbles would fit into the bucket (bucket being the salinty level) not one more or one less then that level. Now at the 35ppt bucket you are going to have: 415 calcium marbles, 1290 ma marbles and so on in your bucket (alk at 8 dkh). Sooo ow what happens if you have a smaller bucket?? say your bucket will hold only 30ppt or 30000parts?? well its a smaller bucket so it will hold less marbles, if you are going to keep all the marbles in perfect balance then all the marbles should be reduced at the same percentage as the bucket was reduced. So in reducing the bucket size from 35000 to 30000 you have reduced the elements down 14%, Soo simple reduce the levels of the different elements by the same percentage and you are in balance but at a lower salinity?? So reducing calcium from 415 ppt at 35ppt to 30ppt (1.023) would mean 415 - 14%. Just do this with all the elements and you will be balanced.

Another way to use the marble analagy is as follows. If you have this bucket (salinity) that is equal to 30ppt or 1.023 the bucket is full, if you raise one of the elements beyond its balanced ammount either two things are going to happen. One is that you are going to need a bigger bucket to hold these extra elements (as in your salinty is going to go up) or some other color/kind of marble is going to fall out of the bucket (be percipated out of solution). So this would apply for say someone that runs a salinty at 1.023 and should have a calcium level of 356, now some folks run this salinty level but have a calcium level of 450. So what they are trying to do is to add almost a 100 parts to a bucket (salinity level) that cant take anymore marbles, so what ends up happening is that they push a 100 marbles (parts) out of the bucket. In most cases alk marbles.

anyway hope that helped and didnt make it more confusing.



mike

 

[Ohgee]

Every once in a while someone with a whole lot more brains then myself can create an analogy that make things click and simplifies a very deep subject.

I've been following this thread and now I'm glad I did. Thanks Mike!!!!!!

Duane

 

[My2heartboys]

:lol: Understood...my Mom is a math teacher and my Dad is a civil enginner...I work in Engineering as well....and I understand that what may considered simple math to one person may be complex to another...If you'd like, give us your SG, your Ca, Alk, and Mg levels and we can figure it for you...

Mike

_____________________________________________________________

Thank you Mike. Problem is that I do not know my MG levels. I did do tests this morning.

Time 9:14
Temp 77.5
SG 1.026 (top of needle there rest below)
pH 7.8
ALK 120-180
DKH 11 degrees (1 degree=17.9ppmKH)
Cal 420 ppm

I test my salinity by using an Instant Ocean plastic hydrometer. OK-I know that it is not top of the line and not accurate down to the milligram--but it is all that I have at this point.

I am doing tests 2x daily for a week or so because I had my pH bottom out on me the other night (or so I thought---long story) come to find out I think it was my testing proceedure that was off.

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

Heres a goofy way of looking at it.

The salinty of your tank is a total of all the elements that make it up. So if you run your tank at 35ppt or 1.026 you are going to have 35,000 parts.

So as a different way of looking at lets do this. Lets pretent that all the different elements (calcium, alk, mag and so on ) are marbles, each element a different colored marble. So if you ran your tank at 35ppt allthese 35000 marbles would fit into the bucket (bucket being the salinty level) not one more or one less then that level. Now at the 35ppt bucket you are going to have: 415 calcium marbles, 1290 ma marbles and so on in your bucket (alk at 8 dkh). Sooo ow what happens if you have a smaller bucket?? say your bucket will hold only 30ppt or 30000parts?? well its a smaller bucket so it will hold less marbles, if you are going to keep all the marbles in perfect balance then all the marbles should be reduced at the same percentage as the bucket was reduced. So in reducing the bucket size from 35000 to 30000 you have reduced the elements down 14%, Soo simple reduce the levels of the different elements by the same percentage and you are in balance but at a lower salinity?? So reducing calcium from 415 ppt at 35ppt to 30ppt (1.023) would mean 415 - 14%. Just do this with all the elements and you will be balanced.

Another way to use the marble analagy is as follows. If you have this bucket (salinity) that is equal to 30ppt or 1.023 the bucket is full, if you raise one of the elements beyond its balanced ammount either two things are going to happen. One is that you are going to need a bigger bucket to hold these extra elements (as in your salinty is going to go up) or some other color/kind of marble is going to fall out of the bucket (be percipated out of solution). So this would apply for say someone that runs a salinty at 1.023 and should have a calcium level of 356, now some folks run this salinty level but have a calcium level of 450. So what they are trying to do is to add almost a 100 parts to a bucket (salinity level) that cant take anymore marbles, so what ends up happening is that they push a 100 marbles (parts) out of the bucket. In most cases alk marbles.

anyway hope that helped and didnt make it more confusing.



mike

Thanks for the explanation. Still hasn't clicked-but my HS chemistry teacher figured out that he could try to explain it until he was blue in the face-and I still didn't get it. That is why I do so much better with a chart stating what my levels should be.

Anne