Magnessium

[SLIM]

How do I know what levels of magnessium is in my water?

I need to know if I need to dose magnessium sulphate or not when I start my EI dosing.

Thank you

 

[StandbySetting]

What's your GH? I'd start without, you'll soon know if the plants are lacking, they'll turn yellow, you can assume that this is then an Mg deficiency if all other nutrients are in order.

 

[SLIM]

I dont know my KH or GH yet. The test kit is in the post, hopefully shud have it tomorrow. Il post up the results here as soon as I know. Thanx once again.

 

[StandbySetting]

Your trace elements should contain enough Mg even if your tap water doesn't anyway.

 

[SLIM]

Oh really? The reason I ask is because the post on EI in the PARC section says only does magnessium sulfate if your water lacks in it.
Im looking to buy all my dry ferts on aquariumplantfooduk and they do a EI starter pack that comes with potassium, nitrate, phosphate, chelated trace, and magnessium.
I was thinking to myself, do I need the magnessium?
I think I live in a hard water area as I get calcium build up around the top of my tank from evaporation. I wont know for sure tho until tested.

 

[SLIM]

Ok got my GH and KH tests this morining so here goes...

GH is 17! (200-400ppm) Abit concerning as the chart says tropicals and plants should have 3-11(50-200ppm)
KH is 9 (161.1ppm)

WOW i suspected i had hard water but not that hard!
Im assuming DONT dose with magnessium then?
Should i be concerned with the high KH and very high GH?
Suppose on the up side at least il always have a stable PH. Thinking about it my PH has never moved from day 1.
The last thing i want to do tho is mess about buffering GH and KH.

Any advice is welcome

 

[StandbySetting]

Your water chemistry is similar to mine, and most of the UK, I wouldn't worry about it, most fish in the hobby have been bred to withstand a wide range of water parameters, and you can be fairly certain you wont need to dose any additional Mg[sup]2+[/sup].

 

[SO19Firearms]

Doesn't look like a need to dose GH Booster, Mag Sulphate or Calcium Sulphate in your case. The 'high' GH is likely nothing to worry about.
Aquarium plant Food's Trace mix is the same as TNC Trace from The Nutrient company - Neither contain Magnesium.
A very good trace comparison chart containing the most common traces can be found here - http/theplantedtank.co.uk/traces.htm

 

[SLIM]

Thats a relief. So wen it comes down to EI, im just looking to dose with trace mix, potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate?
Should I also dose iron seprately or will the trace mix contain enough iron so I wont have to?

 

[StandbySetting]

The trace mix should contain enough, if you're mixing them all together you might want to mix in a bit of hydrochloric acid to prevent the chelated iron from breaking down.

 

[SLIM]

I was thinking of mixing all 3 seperately to give me more control of what im adding in terms of nitrate and phosphate.
Micros one day then macros the next. This way I keep the iron and phosphate seperate.

Thanx for your advice and help once again sbs

 

[StandbySetting]

Sounds good to me.