Mix Salifert KH & Mg buffer in ATO reservoir?

Podle · Mar 4, 2016

Hello, does anyone know if its ok to mix Salifert KH/pH and Magnesium buffer in the ATO reservoir, or will they react and precipitate out of the solution?

The reason I ask is that i have a quite new aquarium with only a few corals, and so far i have not needed to add much additives. Only a little KH & Mg every now & then. (I have some DIY LR that is "dosing" Ca, so currently I have to high Ca)
But for the last week (maybe two) i have seen a significant increase of KH & Mg consumption, and today i have to leave home for two weeks, so i did not have much time to make up a plan for dosing these two. (in the future i will run a calsium reactor, but as long as my Ca is high and consumption is low i am happy to only go with the two buffers)
I have a tank sitter that feed and follow my tank every day, but she has no clue what she is doing, other than following my instructions

So to make it easier for her, I filled a few 25 liter drums of RO water and added some Salifert KH & Mg buffer in them, to be able to maintain the levels while i'm gone. But after i had added the buffers i started thinking if they would react in the RO water?
I tried to look for signs of precipitation in the containers, but I could not see anything....

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 5, 2016

Sorry, no. You'll precipitate magnesium hydroxide and possibly magnesium carbonate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 5, 2016

Magnesium should never need frequent dosing. At a depletion rate of at most a fee ppm per day usually less) either doing nothing for 2 weeks, or adding it all in advance are both fine options.

What do you think your magnesium consumption rate is?

Podle · Mar 5, 2016

Thanks Randy!
Unfortunately I dont know my consumption rate as it has been very stable up until now, when suddenly the KH & Mg consumption took off!
Up until now a few waterchanges and a little bit additions of KH buffer has kept all the parameters very stable, so it was a bit surprising to see this now. And the worst possible timing since i only discovered it just before going away for two weeks