Let's see 'em - Before and After pics of Vodka Dosing!
- Thread starter Genetics
- Start date
Slow,
In carbon dosed systems, its believed that the bacteria consume K. Low levels of K contribute to paling of SPS corals, usually noticed first in Monti's.
This happened in my tank. After a few months of dosing, my monti became very pale and the rest of the SPS lightened. once i raised K back to normal levels the color returned to all the corals.
The test kit isnt the greatest. Its tough to read.
Stony,
My K levels tested at 220. So I needed to raise it appreciably. Hence my response to tastingSalty.
In carbon dosed systems, its believed that the bacteria consume K. Low levels of K contribute to paling of SPS corals, usually noticed first in Monti's.
This happened in my tank. After a few months of dosing, my monti became very pale and the rest of the SPS lightened. once i raised K back to normal levels the color returned to all the corals.
The test kit isnt the greatest. Its tough to read.
Stony,
My K levels tested at 220. So I needed to raise it appreciably. Hence my response to tastingSalty.
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André Silvestre
Reefaholic
I am beginning to think that it does.
Here´s my experience:
I have been dosing KNO3 in my tank for the past 2 months to raise my Nitrates for the same reasons: pale corals, few patches of Cyano here and there, stunted growth on the sps, poor polyp extension. As I was dosing, I saw really nice results; corals gained much more colour, more polyp extension, growth began again, Cyano gave signs of weakness and some patches totally disappeared. On the downside, two Acroporas began to loose tissue only in the tips, exposing the white skeleton.
I mixed the solution to add 1ppm of NO3 for each ml of KNO3 solution in 300L of water and for two weeks, I raised " slowly" the NO3 from 0mg/L to 1.5mg/L with a dosing regimen of 2ml daily in the first week and 4ml daily in the second week. Testing was also done everyday.
After two weeks, the signs began to show on those two Acropora.
I searched on the Internet for something related to " potassium overdosing" and it was in the Zeovit Forum that I found a possible answer. The same signs I observed are related to Zeovit users that dose too much K-Balance in their tanks and the suggestion is always to stop the addition of K that the corals will recover in 3-4 weeks.
I immediately stopped the KNO3 dosing and, as suggested, in 4 weeks my Acroporas recovered 100%. I even snapped some pictures to follow the recovery on one of them.
Last week, I began dosing KNO3 again because corals were turning pale again and take a stronger conclusion if it was indeed the excess of K that was causing the tip tissue loss or if it was the instability of raising NO3 from zero to 1.5mg/L in two weeks.
This time, the dosing regimen was 1ml of solution ( the same solution) day yes/day no and after two weeks, the same Acropora began to show, one more time, tissue loss on the tips.
I don´t know what was my K level before and I don´t know what is my K level now but I am more convinced that the KNO3 solution is saturating this parameter ( potassium) in the water and some corals are showing little to none toleration for this excess.
I do bi-weekly water changes with the ELOS salt and before the second KNO3 dosing, I performed a 15% WC with NSW.
I am using the Balling Method and all parameters related to this are/were in check and stable ( Ca, Mg, kH). The same for the density and temperature.
After two weeks of KNO3 dosing - some affected tips
After three weeks after with no KNO3 dosing - recovering stage in the same tips
This is my experience with KNO3 dosing.
Regard,
André
Not sure Potassium is the root cause here in such a short time frame.
Your adding 1.5 ppm of KNO3 so of course adding only part as potassium and part as nitrates. Knowing a target of 400 ppm is needed as target for potassium, you only effected levels by 1-2% maybe.
Sodium nitrate can be used. I would fully understand if you don't want to experiment with such nice corals. You may even want to try a spike of amino acids but that would be a shot in the dark for cyano from what I know.
I am now of the opinion that Potassium Nitrates will be does to 2-5 ppm as needed when first signs of cyano reappear only, along with reducing Vodka amount steadily.
I feed corals heavily and this may be why mine didn't react that way yet. Your still look very good!
Your adding 1.5 ppm of KNO3 so of course adding only part as potassium and part as nitrates. Knowing a target of 400 ppm is needed as target for potassium, you only effected levels by 1-2% maybe.
Sodium nitrate can be used. I would fully understand if you don't want to experiment with such nice corals. You may even want to try a spike of amino acids but that would be a shot in the dark for cyano from what I know.
I am now of the opinion that Potassium Nitrates will be does to 2-5 ppm as needed when first signs of cyano reappear only, along with reducing Vodka amount steadily.
I feed corals heavily and this may be why mine didn't react that way yet. Your still look very good!
tastingSalty
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15494633#post15494633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zedar
This should supply you with years of KNO3
http://cgi.ebay.com/KNO3-Potassium-...in_0?hash=item27a84c4ed0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Just bought some of this
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tastingSalty
New member
Please do! Keep us informed throughout dosing.
tastingSalty
New member
If I wanted to raise my nitrate level from 0 - 5 ppm in a tank with 15g of total water volume, how many grams of potassium nitrate would that be? Also, how much if safe to raise NO3 by every day?
Update:
Nitrate = 8
Still no Cyano anywhere. Sand is white.... even at the end of the day. same as last month.
I did however have dino's. And here is what I found to fix that.
http://www.rimlessreef.com/1/post/2009/04/dinoflagellates-and-the-treament-of.html
On a sad note.... my KH test kit was reading inaccurate and I lost most of a blue tip stag due to high alk
Nitrate = 8
Still no Cyano anywhere. Sand is white.... even at the end of the day. same as last month.
I did however have dino's. And here is what I found to fix that.
http://www.rimlessreef.com/1/post/2009/04/dinoflagellates-and-the-treament-of.html
On a sad note.... my KH test kit was reading inaccurate and I lost most of a blue tip stag due to high alk
xvinnyax74
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15494633#post15494633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zedar
This should supply you with years of KNO3
http://cgi.ebay.com/KNO3-Potassium-...in_0?hash=item27a84c4ed0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Thanks for the link.. LOL I just bought it... I had cyno take off ever since I started Dosing..
Have to figure out the amount to dose.. But I am at very very low Phospates 0.0 something.. and nitrates are 0 to .1 if any also..
100 gallons... hmm I will go slow... I tried Chem clean... as a Last resort. I was tired of bending over to clean the refugium. (No Cyno in display just refug..) Just bought a new mini wav maker type thingy to put in there to stir the water up more.. hope this along with improved water flow will help..
And a little KNO3 (Sounds like a radio station...)
Thanks for listening to KNO3, like to give a shout out to cyno, that little bugger who has wreaked havock on many tanks..
