pebble
01-11-2008, 3:57 PM
wat exactly does strontium and magnesium do?
cyclops23
01-11-2008, 4:06 PM
not entirely sure on strontium, i think it's just something that corals and such need to survive, but not enough that you you really need to worry a whole lot about it.
magnesium needs to kept around 1230ppm, or thereabouts. without proper levels of MG, your calcium will reach a lower saturation point, and precipitate out. basically, with out proper Mg, you're limiting the amount of Ca that's available to the corals.
there's several good articles on the importance of Mg and Strontium, do a search on the web. adavanced aquarist has some great articles, but can be a little hard to follow if you're not an ace in chemistry :) they do get the main points across very well, though.