using Epson Salt for Mg

[Dhayden]

I got a 50 gal tank sucking through 150mg or so of Mg a week. Seems a little excessive to me, I use IO salt. If I use Epson Salt, which I never have I estimate about 150-200g of it a week. Should I worry about that raising my salinity level? I mean i dont know how much salinity 7oz or so of Epson Salt will effect 50 gal of water, maybe not much.

 

[Boomer]

Are you sure ? That is crap loads of Mg++ @ 22 ppm / day. That is high for Ca++. You must have some kind of testing error. For some thanks that 150 ppm takes a year.

Either mag sup, be it magnesium sulfate or magnesium chloride, is going to raise the salinity. You are better of using a ratio of chloride to sulfate @ 10:1, as the sulfate rises at a much greater rate than chloride. Doing 30 % monthly WC will almost produce a flat graph over a year with almost no off-set in Salinity

Some food reading

Do-It-Yourself Magnesium Supplements
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/rhf/index.php
for the Reef Aquarium

 

[Dhayden]

Yea it really makes no sense. Maybe since it is a new tank and theres coraline coming to its own on everything? Ive never had a tank do this. Maybe I need a new test kit. Its a Salfert but year or two old. Ill go get a Elos one this weekend.

 

[Boomer]

OK, keep us informed