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Question for KAREN RANDALL

On Nov 6 1996 you wrote,

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Magnesium Supplementation


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•To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com •Subject: Magnesium Supplementation •From:
krandall at world_std.com (Karen A Randall) •Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 21:28:57 -0500


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Subject: Magnesium Supplementation

> Another nutrient to seriously consider is magnesium.  Magnesium 
> also causes older leaves to die back.  Typically, they lose chlo
> become yellow before dying.  Often the edges and end of the leaf
> yellow and start to die while the midrib is still green.  Magnes
> deficiency has not been considered very much, but it could be mo
> prevalent than most aquatic plant people think.  If you come fro
> dolomite limestone region, the water will have both calcium and 
> hardness, but if you come from a soft water region, the municipa
> system may add some lime to the water to give you moderately har
> but that water will have very little magnesium.  Fishfood is not
> supplier of magnesium, either.  MgSO4 is easy to get.  

I've had this problem before.  It looks like the plants are iron 
deficient when I know there's plenty of iron present.  When I add 
magnesium (I've just used Epsom Salts... is ther any problem with 
this?)  everything has greened right up.

BTW, I think I overdosed my tank the last time I did this... some 
plants showed no negative reaction, but I lost almost all my H. 
difformis within the next week or so, and some of the other stem 
plants took a bit of a hit too.  The rosette plants, OTOH, look 
better than ever.

Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA




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     Is it possible to overdose your tank with Magnesium Sulfate?  
I recently started using distilled water for water changes and now I have to
add the Calcium
and Magnesium back to the water.  I use Calcium Carbonate (Sundown Vitamins)
for
Ca and MgSO4 for the Mg.  George Booth uses the caco3  (not sure of his
source) and epson salts for the Mg at a 3:1 ratio.  (75 ppm Ca : 25ppm Mg)
     You said you lost a few plants and you think you may have overdosed your
tank with
MgSO4.  Was this the case?  I do know that MgSO4 will raise your Sulfur levels
more
than anything else.  Should I use Magnesium Carbonate instead?    
Now, back to the CaCO3:  The vitamins I am using for Ca also contain Vitamin
D.
Is there any problem with this?  I am not sure exactly what vitamin D is or
what affect it
would have on my plants.  ( Or my filamentous green algae that is taking over
the tank)
Thanks,
Andrew