Potassium

[Az reefer]

Is there a DIY formula for potassium? @Randy Holmes-Farley any and all help is always appreciated!!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Do you already have a potassium salt that you're trying to figure out how much to dose? Or are you looking to buy one?

 

[Az reefer]

Do you already have a potassium salt that you're trying to figure out how much to dose? Or are you looking to buy one?

I currently use Brightwell Potassion. It is a good prodycr vut I wiuld like to start using a diser for the potassium and it will be too costly to run the Brightwell on a doser.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Are you sure you're consuming enough potassium to require it to be on a doser? Potassium can be consumed in reef tanks, but needing to add it so frequently that it has to be on a doser sounds like testing error.

Regardless, you can use potassium chloride powder to make your own stock solution. I would choose a powder that is at least food-grade, like this one from Etsy.

You could make a stock solution of any strength. I personally would shoot for something generic, like 1 ml per 10 gallons gives a 1 ppm increase in K. To do this, mix about 72.187g of KCl in 1 liter of water. KCl is about 52.44% K by weight. So, 72.187 g in 1 liter of water will give you about 37.854 g/L of K, which is about 37,854 ppm. 1 mL of this solution should raise 10g of tank water by 1 ppm. To make one gallon of this solution, add 280g of the KCl to one gallon of water.

It looks like from your other posts that your tank is 165 gallons. To calculate doses of this supplement, multiply the ppm increase you want by 16.5. Let's say you want a 10 ppm increase of K. You would need to dose 165 ml (16.5 * 10 = 165 mL).

Randy or anyone else, feel free to double check my math

 

[Az reefer]

Are you sure you're consuming enough potassium to require it to be on a doser? Potassium can be consumed in reef tanks, but needing to add it so frequently that it has to be on a doser sounds like testing error.

Regardless, you can use potassium chloride powder to make your own stock solution. I would choose a powder that is at least food-grade, like this one from Etsy.

You could make a stock solution of any strength. I personally would shoot for something generic, like 1 ml per 10 gallons gives a 1 ppm increase in K. To do this, mix about 72.187g of KCl in 1 liter of water. KCl is about 52.44% K by weight. So, 72.187 g in 1 liter of water will give you about 37.854 g/L of K, which is about 37,854 ppm. 1 mL of this solution should raise 10g of tank water by 1 ppm. To make one gallon of this solution, add 280g of the KCl to one gallon of water.

It looks like from your other posts that your tank is 165 gallons. To calculate doses of this supplement, multiply the ppm increase you want by 16.5. Let's say you want a 10 ppm increase of K. You would need to dose 165 ml (16.5 * 10 = 165 mL).

Randy or anyone else, feel free to double check my math

Thank you very much for the info. To clarify what I want to do is use a less concentrated solution and like you said 1ml per 10 and set to auto dose as the tank uses the potassium. I use the salifert pptassium kit and my k is consistent at 420 and I dose 10 mil Brightwell twice a week. My ca reactor takes care of alk cal and mag with trace elements being dised manually 5 mil once a week.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Thank you very much for the info. To clarify what I want to do is use a less concentrated solution and like you said 1ml per 10 and set to auto dose as the tank uses the potassium. I use the salifert pptassium kit and my k is consistent at 420 and I dose 10 mil Brightwell twice a week. My ca reactor takes care of alk cal and mag with trace elements being dised manually 5 mil once a week.

Ah okay. 10 mL of Brightwell K in a tank your size is probably only a few ppm. If you're dosing and testing regularly and have consistency, this sounds like a reasonable consumption rate.

Glad to help

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Also worth mentioning, consider quantity when choosing your KCl product. It takes 72g of KCl to make 1 L of solution. That KCl I showed earlier only has about 110g, so it'll make only about a liter and a half of solution. This entire liter of solution will raise your tank by about 60 ppm. If you need about 5 ppm of K per week, that liter will last you about 3 months, which isn't bad. If you need 10 ppm of K per week, however, that liter will only last you about a month and a half. The more you need, the more sense it makes to try to buy in bulk to get savings.

 

[liam]

Are you sure you're consuming enough potassium to require it to be on a doser? Potassium can be consumed in reef tanks, but needing to add it so frequently that it has to be on a doser sounds like testing error.

Regardless, you can use potassium chloride powder to make your own stock solution. I would choose a powder that is at least food-grade, like this one from Etsy.

You could make a stock solution of any strength. I personally would shoot for something generic, like 1 ml per 10 gallons gives a 1 ppm increase in K. To do this, mix about 72.187g of KCl in 1 liter of water. KCl is about 52.44% K by weight. So, 72.187 g in 1 liter of water will give you about 37.854 g/L of K, which is about 37,854 ppm. 1 mL of this solution should raise 10g of tank water by 1 ppm. To make one gallon of this solution, add 280g of the KCl to one gallon of water.

It looks like from your other posts that your tank is 165 gallons. To calculate doses of this supplement, multiply the ppm increase you want by 16.5. Let's say you want a 10 ppm increase of K. You would need to dose 165 ml (16.5 * 10 = 165 mL).

Randy or anyone else, feel free to double check my math

I used your formula and it worked perfectly,thanks