epson salts

[gonzo1]

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Hello has a cheap and effective way of raising Magnesium levels I have been adding epsom salts to my reef tank,I have noticed steady growth in coralline presumably due to the raised magnesium levels in conjunction with a good calcium level couertesy of a kalk stirrer,and other obviously favourable conditions.Can any one tell me if there is a sting in the tail regarding,possible raising of sulphate levels which is also derived out of the salts.Although I believe that sulpher levels in sea water are also quite high.I am not a chemist and replys appreciating this would be very welcome.EPSOM SALTS ONE OF THE BEST KEPT SECRETS. or not?

 

[Anonymous]

I used epsom salt to treat a case of popeye on my clown fish about a month ago. It seemed to work on the fish but I'm currently battling a nasty outbreak of red cyano. Not sure if the two are related, my RO membranes may need changing which could be the contributing factor.

Glenn

 

[Kenzy]

Here's an article on mag. supplements that may be worthwhile reading. http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1999/june/bio/default.asp[/url]

 

[Mac1]

Hehe, thanks for finding the link Kenzy, I was just going to say... Dr. Bingman did an excellent write up on using Epsom Salts, explained all the chemistry in detail and everything. The short version of the story is, yes, your salinity can creep up, but if you monitor it very closely, you should be OK.

- Mac

 

[gonzo1]

thanks for the article kenzy thats just the kind of thing i am looking for still not sure about epson salts but i have a friend who with puts 5mils in 1lt of sea water a day for the last 8 weeks and you would not believe the coral line that has grown on live rock as he says its like some one has just turned on a tap his setup is around 3 years old

 

[Bob Studt]

Gonzo, Consider this: Adding ~1g of MgSO4.7H2O per each litre of tank water will raise your magnesium ion level by 100mg/l; this would also raise your sulfate ion level by ~400mg/l or about 15%. This is because mag sulfate heptahydrate is about 10% Mg++ by weight and about 40% SO4-- by weight.
If you were to use magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2.6H2O) instead to cause the same 100mg/l increase in Mg ion level then you would only be raising your chloride level by ~1.5%. I personally recommend using the chloride as your tankwater will have the least variation from NSW. If you are performing regular water changes that would certainly help even out the variations.

Bob

 

[CraigBingman]

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Hello has a cheap and effective way of raising Magnesium levels I have been adding epsom salts to my reef tank,I have noticed steady growth in coralline presumably due to the raised magnesium levels in conjunction with a good calcium level couertesy of a kalk stirrer,and other obviously favourable conditions.Can any one tell me if there is a sting in the tail regarding,possible raising of sulphate levels which is also derived out of the salts.Although I believe that sulpher levels in sea water are also quite high.I am not a chemist and replys appreciating this would be very welcome.EPSOM SALTS ONE OF THE BEST KEPT SECRETS. or not?

Well, magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (epsom salts) isn't really all that much less expensive per unit of magnesium than magnesium chloride. The main advantage is that you can trot down to the pharmacy or grocery store and get epsom salts, whereas USP grade magnesium chloride requires a call to a chemical supply house. There are less expensive sources of magnesium chloride, like the MgCl2 snow melt products, but I am skeptical about using them in a marine aquarium.

The first thing that I suggest that people do if they feel they measure low magnesium concentrations is to re-check the salinity in their system. *By far* the major cause of low magnesium in a reef aquarium is low overall salinity. If you do really honestly have low magnesium concentration in your tank, and the salinity is fine, then there are several ways to go.

The first is to start a program of partial water exchanges with a quality salt that contains NSW magnesium concentration. Look at the salt review that Marlin and I did a while ago. Most of the major brands of salt come in pretty close to NSW magnesium. It sounds like a pain in the butt, but if a salt vendor can't get the magnesium concentration right, chances are they can't get much else correct, either. So you may be correcting a number of "invisible" problems with a series of partial water exchanges.

If you do decide to try to do a surgical repair of magnesium, then you can either use one of the commercial supplements (ESV has a magnesium supplement that is fine, albeit somewhat expensive) or you can roll your own. I wouldn't use pure magnesium sulfate to do this, because you will appreciably bump the sulfate concentration if you make a large correction. I think that you want to use about 10:1 hydrated magnesium chloride to hydrated magnesium sulfate if you want to make your own custom cocktail to bump the magnesium concentration up. If you are really interested in that, I can bear down a little harder and spec out a mixture that will give you exactly NSW Cl/SO4.

However, I doubt that you have a real magnesium problem. Check that salinity first.

Craig Bingman