low magnesium and calcium dosing??

[legacyline]

my magnesium and calcium aee low ..mag 1100 cal 360 do I dose magnesium first and get the levels up over a couple days and then dose calcium ? Or can i dose both at the same time
.thanks

 

[jbdreefs]

I usually dose mag first.

 

[bcavalli]

JBDreefs;1052846 wrote: I usually dose mag first.

+1 If your magnesium is low you will have a hard time keeping your calcium / alkalinity levels up. If your magnesium testing is accurate you will want to dose over three days or so to bring it back up to the correct levels. Generally you don't want to dose more than 100ppm of Magnesium per day.

 

[enderg60]

Doesnt matter, you can dose both at the same time since they dont react to each other. Since your mag is so low Id dose that up first since the calc will have trouble maintaining without it, as others said.

I stay under 50 ppm of each per day when dosing to bump them up.

And watch your salinity as dosing mag, the by product of dosing mag is salt. Ive seen my salinity go up as much as .002 when dosing my mag up 100 ppm.

 

[legacyline]

ok thanks everyone

 

[legacyline]

would doing large water changes drop magnesium? I use reef crystals ...I did 2 large water he's to get my nitrates down

 

[jennm]

legacyline;1052889 wrote: would doing large water changes drop magnesium? I use reef crystals ...I did 2 large water he's to get my nitrates down

It's possible.

If you are doing extra or large water changes to correct a nutrient issue, I would focus on that FIRST, then once that's under control, then work on dialing in the CA/MAG. Nothing will drop dead if the Calcium or Magnesium are a bit low.

DO keep an eye on pH and Alkalinity and buffer if need be, but don't expect lasting stability if you are still doing large water changes.

Dosing a bunch of stuff to water that you will be discarding in short order just wastes time, effort and money.

Every time you change a big volume of water, it knocks it out of equilibrium anyway.

Once you've got the nitrates under control, give it a few days to a couple of weeks doing normal water changes and let it settle out and find its equilibrium, *then* you can tweak it to dial it in.

Jenn

 

[legacyline]

thanks for the info Jen