Blog Comments

Don't forget that some magnesium supplements are magnesium chloride, which can drive your salinity levels up

Just to clarify, when I suggested dosing morning and evening, I meant to take that day's worth of additive and divide it evenly, dosing half in the morning and half at night. That way you are dosing gradually and never too much per session.

Originally Posted by DJ in WV

25ml aday gets 3ppm = 50day for 150ppm raise with any variables(short math). I really need to get a kit and check mine I have just been basing my two part additions off kh readings and just adding equal part to maintain 220ppm and counting on water changes for mag. really need to pick up a test for cal and mag before I get mine all jacked up Im so cheap :P

My though process was exactly the same. I guess that is what happens when you take things for granted and don't actually test. Wish I was testing sooner. I don't have much experience with Magnesium test kits but the Elos test kit was simple and straight forward. The color changes where distinct and I am very pleased with it.

Originally Posted by melev

Your math sounds safe, but you can really bring it up faster than that. Rather than taking two months, I would do it in two weeks. Bring it up 50ppm every four days.

Since I run bigger tanks, I realize that I can get away with some nutty dosing, but I wouldn't raise it 3ppm per day for 50 days. What's happening is your coralline and Montipora sp. suffer growth and color because the numbers are so low. I've never seen ill effects from dosing Magnesium heavily and quickly. I dose it into the sump's skimmer section so it has time to mix up before it makes it back into the display.

For safety's sake, why not dose morning and night each day until you get it up to 1350 - 1400ppm. I prefer 1400 for my reef. 1380ppm is the lowest I'll let it get down to.

I'm just worried that the directions specifically state that if you Magnesium level test lower then 1280ppm that the maximum dosage should be no more then 10ml per 20 gallons of water. That being the case I actually sent an Email over to Brightwell Aquatics to ensure that my calculations are correct and also to inquire why I cannot dose more then 25 ml per day with my water volume. Is is a solubility issue? I'm not sure but I would like to play it safe. I'm going to test again this even before I dose to see if everything is proceeding as I think it should. Sometimes I wish I would have just bought a house sooner so I could get a bigger aquarium. All in due time I guess.

25ml aday gets 3ppm = 50day for 150ppm raise with any variables(short math). I really need to get a kit and check mine I have just been basing my two part additions off kh readings and just adding equal part to maintain 220ppm and counting on water changes for mag. really need to pick up a test for cal and mag before I get mine all jacked up Im so cheap :P

Your math sounds safe, but you can really bring it up faster than that. Rather than taking two months, I would do it in two weeks. Bring it up 50ppm every four days.

Since I run bigger tanks, I realize that I can get away with some nutty dosing, but I wouldn't raise it 3ppm per day for 50 days. What's happening is your coralline and Montipora sp. suffer growth and color because the numbers are so low. I've never seen ill effects from dosing Magnesium heavily and quickly. I dose it into the sump's skimmer section so it has time to mix up before it makes it back into the display.

For safety's sake, why not dose morning and night each day until you get it up to 1350 - 1400ppm. I prefer 1400 for my reef. 1380ppm is the lowest I'll let it get down to.

For GFO, you should definitely use the sponges. They protect your fish and corals from harm from the fines that come off the media. I don't know anyone that has run without them - seems like a dangerous method to me.

Originally Posted by melev

Did you use any sponges with this media?

There are sponges that came with my media reactors but they got clogged with sand so I just decided to do without them for the time being.

Did you use any sponges with this media?

Originally Posted by chuck

How are the Avast products working out for you? I have been looking at them myself.

They are working quite fine. I am actually working with Justin of Avast to get some custom made items as well. I would recommend them without a doubt in my mind.

How are the Avast products working out for you? I have been looking at them myself.

Originally Posted by NanaReefer

Which reactor are you using for this?

I re-purposed on of my Avast Marine Works MR-5 "You Build" Media Reactors to fluidize the media. I originally had sand in it but it kept clogging and so I decided to remove it until I could get some custom designed equipment delivered.

Originally Posted by baker.shawn

how many times can you regenerate this media? looks like a real money saver compaired to GFO, the particle size is so small id be scared of loosing half of it before it comes time to regenerate

The regeneration process requires a separate media called RegeneratePhor which is not expensive at all (about $9.00 for 1,500ml of it). I have about 175ml currently and that amount will regenerate the media up to 8 times. I don't think you can go wrong with that. Also I wouldn't be worried about the small size because I have used GFO before and this media once in water appears pretty heavy. I have actually had to increase the water flow to get the boiling water affect going. My only issue it that it is so small it fell through the reactor plate a bit and collected on the very bottom of the reactor which is more annoying then detrimental in my opinion.

Which reactor are you using for this?

how many times can you regenerate this media? looks like a real money saver compaired to GFO, the particle size is so small id be scared of loosing half of it before it comes time to regenerate

I had some cyano, brown stuff that bugged me, and some dinoflagellates. My tank too was new and it bugged me. I just cleaned out what I could to keep it under control.

I dosed with Chemi-Clean twice in my frag tank (10g) but never the main system. I used Peroxide (3%) for 8 days twice in the 400g. And I did quite a bit of sand stirring with a Kent Scraper to get that brown dust water-borne.

Algae-phases are part of new tanks no matter how you set them up.

I was getting a lot of cyano within the display tank which I have read and also heard from other members regarding their experiences as well. I guess its not something I should use when just starting the aquarium but I am going to take it back to basics for a while and slowly change things around. First I have to deal with my lighting issue.

id also like to know, i have had nothing but good results with the exception of having ultra low nutes and loosing color, but that is because my tank has hardly no fish (bio load) and i feed 3 times a week

What was the specific problem you were fighting that made you opt to remove the biopellets?

Originally Posted by Eric B

If you take off the 40 degree optics then run without them or you could just remove some until the others arrive. LED's have a 120 degree optic with no extra lenses.

I am contemplating on whether or not I should. My wife suffers from severe migraine headaches and I would hate to add to her discomfort by not utilizing lenes.