Identifying bad CalMag and Calmag alternatives?

[RedReign]

A couple of months ago my Botanicare CalMag Plus went bad on me. It was cloudy and had fine dark sediment at the bottom of the bottle. It caused my plants to look like crap.

I bought a new bottle of CalMag and the plants recovered fine over the next 10 days or so. With this new bottle, the CalMag looked like apple juice and was translucent. It stayed translucent and wasn't even remotely cloudy the day it ran out.

The next bottle I bought was cloudy the second I opened it. Against my better judgement, I used it anyway. Sure enough my plants took a turn for the worse within days of using it. I dumped my rez and filled it with 1/2 tap water and 1/2 RO water instead of CalMag, along with my regular nutes, and the plants cleared up.

I returned the cloudy bottle of CalMag and the hydro store gave me a new one. I get to my grow, open the bottle, and sure enough this bottle was cloudy too. Thinking my local store had a bad batch, I went to a different hydro store and bought a bottle from them. Sure enough, this bottle is cloudy too. At this point, I start doubting myself whether CalMag should be cloudy or not, so I emailed Botanicare. Their rep responded that CalMag should not be cloudy.

So I wanted to check with the CalMag users here. Is your CalMag cloudy? Have you ever had CalMag go bad on you? How do you identify bad CalMag before your plants tell you it's bad?

What are some alternatives to Botanicare CalMag? Techniflora, Grotek, and AN make calmag suppliments, has anyone had success with any of these? What about using Calcium Nitrate and Magnesium Nitrate to make CalMag? Anyone know how to figure out how much of each it would take to equal 5ml of CalMag?

For the record, I don't want to continue using 1/2 tap and 1/2 RO because the tap water here is inconsistent. It is an older commercial building in a semi desolate area and the water has been anywhere from .6 ec to 1.0 ec.

 

[ManitobaMedical]

Ive had the cloudy one from botanicare before actually think it was organicare, so maybe that will answer y it was kinds cloudy orgsnic cal/mag , didnt like the looks of that for my hydro , but will use it in soil, got sensi cal/mag -bloom, from A.n and that is a clearer a.j liquid , seems to work ok but just started to use it.
MM

 

[supermanlives]

just checked my gallon jug and it was cloudy for sure

 

[RedReign]

just checked my gallon jug and it was cloudy for sure

Is it working fine for you?

 

[supermanlives]

actually i was having problems with it. guess i will dump it in my compost pile

 

[Grow Tech]

I bought a new bottle of CalMag and the plants recovered fine over the next 10 days or so. With this new bottle, the CalMag looked like apple juice and was translucent. It stayed translucent and wasn't even remotely cloudy the day it ran out.

QUOTE]

When you say "the CalMag looked like apple juice and was translucent" did it look like this or are you calling this cloudy?

Thanks!

 

[Cheerful]

Red, thanks for starting this thread! I've identified a CalMag deficiency in some of my plants and was wondering about how to pick a supplement. I'll be watching this thread!

 

[RedReign]

GrowTech, it's hard to tell from the picture if it's cloudy. Below are 4 pics of the cloudy CalMag. The 4th pic you can clearly see that it is cloudy. The 1st 2 pics are out of the bottle that I was given as an exchange for the bottle that was bad. The bad bottle looked just like this.

The 2nd 2 pics are from a bottle that I picked up from a seperate hydro store.

I haven't used either bottle on my plants. I won't use either one because they look just like the CalMag that has given me problems. The CalMag that has been problem free for me hasn't ever been cloudy.

 

[Grow Tech]

It looks like yours may be a little "thicker" but mine isn't far off. So should you be able to read something placed behind a clear glass filled with good CalMag?

 

[RedReign]

Grow Tech, I'm not really sure if you could read something through CalMag, but it should be clear and not cloudy. Also, it looks like both of my bottles of CM are darker than yours, and in my top picture the CM is darker than my lower picture, and both samples are from brand new bottles.

 

[Seismic]

Had the same problem a while back, with cloudy calmag causing random little deficiency and ph issues. Ending up dumping it and going with technaflora magical instead. So far so good, seems to keep much better as well.

 

[Highlight]

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[greenmatter]

my cal mag has always looked pretty much like the pictures that are posted. been running 100% ro for years with the botanicare and it has worked so far. i have never had a bottle that i would say was "clear". i think if "cloudy" was bad i would have problems really fast.

 

[RedReign]

Had the same problem a while back, with cloudy calmag causing random little deficiency and ph issues. Ending up dumping it and going with technaflora magical instead. So far so good, seems to keep much better as well.

Pretty sure I'm going to go with Magical too. The hydro store owner told me it's made with higher quality ingredients than CM. What does it look like? I want to make sure it 'looks' right before I use it.

 

[el dub]

Mine has always looked the same without problems.

lw

 

[RedReign]

my cal mag has always looked pretty much like the pictures that are posted. been running 100% ro for years with the botanicare and it has worked so far. i have never had a bottle that i would say was "clear". i think if "cloudy" was bad i would have problems really fast.

Greenmatter, I've been using CalMag for a couple of years, but never really paid much attention to it until it caused me problems. But I do KNOW that the 1st bad bottle I had was cloudy, the next bottle I bought was a shade or two lighter and was not cloudy, and this bottle worked fine. Then having problems with another cloudy bottle has brought me to the point of not trusting cloudy CalMag.

I'm not sure if ALL cloudy CalMag is bad, but two bottles of cloudy CalMag I've used have been bad. And like I said, the Botanicare rep said it shouldn't be cloudy.

I'm just trying to get feedback to figure out a DEFINITIVE way of identifying bad CM.

 

[greenmatter]

hey red did the rep you talked to say anything about shelf life. maybe the stuff starts clear and the haze we all see is it breaking down or slowly binding. anyone ever had any precipitate in the bottom of a bottle. i don't think i have.

 

[RedReign]

Mine has always looked the same without problems.

lw

Yours has always looked like the pics I've posted?

Thanks for the info.

 

[greenmatter]

Greenmatter, I've been using CalMag for a couple of years, but never really paid much attention to it until it caused me problems. But I do KNOW that the 1st bad bottle I had was cloudy, the next bottle I bought was a shade or two lighter and was not cloudy, and this bottle worked fine. Then having problems with another cloudy bottle has brought me to the point of not trusting cloudy CalMag.

I'm not sure if ALL cloudy CalMag is bad, but two bottles of cloudy CalMag I've used have been bad. And like I said, the Botanicare rep said it shouldn't be cloudy.

I'm just trying to get feedback to figure out a DEFINITIVE way of identifying bad CM.

not trying to argue with you red

 

[RedReign]

hey red did the rep you talked to say anything about shelf life. maybe the stuff starts clear and the haze we all see is it breaking down or slowly binding. anyone ever had any precipitate in the bottom of a bottle. i don't think i have.

The first bad bottle I used had dark sediment in the bottom. The second bad bottle I used caused problems after the 1st use. It was a gallon bottle so I never saw if there was sediment in the bottom of the bottle, I exchanged right away.

The rep did mention sediment without before I said anything about it. He said that CM with sediment on the bottom is 100% definitely bad.

Maybe cloudy is OK before the sediment shows up? That would suck checking the bottom of a gal bottle for sediment before every use though.