Potassium... should we be dosing it?

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Hey guys, just an anecdotal observation here. After switching my food to frozen food for the past year and a half. I found that I no longer needed to dose K that much anymore. Only 20ml a week to keep the rates stable at 400ppm. Before when I used pellet food, I would have to dose around 40-50ml of KCl (fauna marin) every day. This is with more coral and seagrass biomass in my tank now as well.

I can't remember where Randy put it before about Tanks getting their K from food (I think it was on RC) but yep, after a year and a half I'd have to agree now.
 
Nutramar Foods
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
1 meq/mL means 74.6 mg/mL potassium chloride or 39.1 mg/mL potassium
2 meq/ml means 78.2 mg/mL potassium

65 gallons = 246 L

Thus, adding 1 mL of this fluid to 65 gallons will boost potassium by 78.2 mg/246 l = 0.32 mg/L or 0.32 ppm.

To get a boost of 60 ppm (340 to 400) you'd need 188 mL. :)
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Randy, can you recommend a product to to raise potassium? I see lots of potassium chloride but are there some known to be reef safe. On all the calculators I see it just says potassium chloride KC1. I would like to buy something that last a long time that I cam mix instead of premade mixes.
 
for what it's worth,I have been using "bulk supplements" potassium chloride for several years and am unaware of any bad effects. According to my records I've used about four kilograms over many years for a large tank with a big algae turf scrubber. I don't really do any ICP testing so I can't say for 100% sure , but I think it's safe. I am dosing 40 ml to 240 gallon tank to hopefully raise the level 27 parts per million, not sure that's happening but I do use a red Sea potassium test kit to keep an eye on it. I have heard anecdotes that you don't want to go over 450 and that's right about where I keep mine. Hope that helps.
 
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pfoxgrover said:
for what it's worth,I have been using "bulk supplements" potassium chloride for several years and am unaware of any bad effects. According to my records I've used about four kilograms over many years for a large tank with a big algae turf scrubber. I don't really do any ICP testing so I can't say for 100% sure , but I think it's safe. I am dosing 40 ml to 240 gallon tank to hopefully raise the level 27 parts per million, not sure that's happening but I do use a red Sea potassium test kit to keep an eye on it. I have heard anecdotes that you don't want to go over 450 and that's right about where I keep mine. Hope that helps.
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Do you have a link you can send?
 
Will this work with the calculator at ultimate reef? All it says for the calculator is potassium chloride KCI
 
Chewy.com
This video from Chris at ACI was interesting. Seems to be a little dangerous but if you have PH issues and want to dose K, then it's something to look into. I would like to see a little more testing and proving on this subject. Not recommending this, i just thought it was a new look at things

 
skydirt said:
This video from Chris at ACI was interesting. Seems to be a little dangerous but if you have PH issues and want to dose K, then it's something to look into. I would like to see a little more testing and proving on this subject. Not recommending this, i just thought it was a new look at things

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Only trying to dose potassium chloride.
 
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skydirt said:
This video from Chris at ACI was interesting. Seems to be a little dangerous but if you have PH issues and want to dose K, then it's something to look into. I would like to see a little more testing and proving on this subject. Not recommending this, i just thought it was a new look at things

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This is so strange.

If you want to dose potassium, dose potassium chloride or sulfate.

If you want to use a high pH alkalinity supplement, use sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide.

There's zero reason to combine these two different efforts into potassium hydroxide so that they necessarily limit each other.
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
This is so strange.

If you want to dose potassium, dose potassium chloride or sulfate.

If you want to use a high pH alkalinity supplement, use sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide.

There's zero reason to combine these two different efforts into potassium hydroxide so that they necessarily limit each other.
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Hello Randy, if I like to dose Potassium chloride or sulfate, what form will you recommend?
 
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ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
Tidal Gardens
sundog101 said:
I've been keeping my K at around 420. It takes quite a bit dosing to keep it there. Would I be right to assume the corals are taking it up, or could it be something else? (I don't have sea grasses but do run an ATS.)
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I’ve read that the protein skimmer draws out potassium in water, specially the needle wheel type.
 
Chueco said:
I’ve read that the protein skimmer draws out potassium in water, specially the needle wheel type.
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That does not make sense (potassium by itself cannot be skimmed at all), except that potassium inside of cells is typically higher than in seawater, so any export of whole tissues (macroalgae, corals, bacteria, etc.) will tend to export potassium (just as foods bring it in).

Skimmers that remove more plankton will thus tend to export more potassium.
 

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