JBL ProAquaTest Mg-Ca Magnesium-Calcium

JBL ProAquaTest Mg-Ca Magnesium-Calcium is a pair of tests in one box, for magnesium and for calcium. Both are values a marine tank is run on: corals take them out of the water continuously, and the two have to be read together to make sense. JBL supplies two test kits, five reagents, two cuvettes, a syringe and a dosing spoon.

Key Features

• Magnesium and calcium in one box: the two readings belong together, because a calcium figure means little without the magnesium behind it.
• What is in the box: one Mg kit, one Ca kit, five reagents, two cuvettes, a syringe and a dosing spoon.
• Two-step method: JBL keeps each test to a short sequence rather than a long titration.
• For reef keeping: stony corals and calcifying algae consume both, so both need replacing.
• Cuvettes and syringe included: a measured sample is the difference between a reading and a guess.
• When to test: weekly while a tank is new or while you are chasing a problem, and monthly once everything has settled.

Reading Them Together

• Get magnesium into range first. When magnesium is low, calcium and carbonate hardness will not hold wherever you put them.
• Test calcium and KH alongside magnesium, and dose against the trend rather than a single reading.
• Re-test a day after dosing, not an hour. Additives need time to disperse and react.
• Keep a log. Consumption rates tell you how much your corals are actually growing.

Getting A Reading You Can Trust

• Read the colour in daylight, against something white, and not through the side of the aquarium.
• Hold the reagent bottle vertical rather than tilted. A drop counted at an angle is not the same size as one counted straight down, and drop tests are counted in drops.
• Take the sample from mid-water, away from the filter outlet, and test it straight away.
• Rinse the vials in tank water before and after, and never with detergent.
• Write the numbers down with the date. One reading tells you where you are; a run of readings tells you which way the tank is going, which is the useful part.

Good To Know

• Reagents have an expiry date and they drift as they age. A test that has been open for years will quietly give you the wrong answer.
• Store the kit closed, cool, out of direct sun and away from children. The reagents are chemicals, not accessories.
• Heat and humidity are hard on reagents. Keep the case indoors rather than in a garage or on a balcony.
• These tests are for marine and reef tanks. There is little reason to measure either value in an ordinary freshwater community tank.
• Dose additives slowly and separately. Calcium and carbonate added together in quantity will precipitate out and cloud the tank.