Potassium experts

[jarrett shark]

Runnning into this issue in the past 2 months that sps is rtn more and more and no answers why... Well a buddy came over and tested my potassium and said level was super low at 150ppm out of 415
Well I first lost purple digi, then stylo then Green porcporo and now all my milli and acros.... Anyone ever have this problem with low potassium with sps???

He believes this new octopus needle skimmer is sucking it right out of my tank... I read alot of post on this and starting to believe this more...

I added 25ml but dont have a test kit till Friday so is there a calculator for this???

 

[jbanks]

Hey Jarrett,

I'm inclined to think it is something else.. Are you doing regular water changes? That should replenish trace elements you may be lacking if done on a regular basis. If not, you can alwasy try to supplement the potassium as long as you can test for it. If you get good result... great. If not, then you know it's something else..

 

[dzhuo]

Are you using Zeolites?

 

[MIKE NY]

no he isn't...Jarrett I'm dosing Potassium, among other things, because mine was low also to help with colors....I'm dosing 15ml a week along with my weekly WCs with 300 gal total volumn and I don't see a difference. It's been a few months now. Your probably not going to see a difference either with only dosing 25ml in 820 gal. I agree with Jonathan thinking it's something else....alk,PH, temp swings?

 

[dzhuo]

no he isn't...

Then potassium probably isn't the problem: Potassium in the Reef Tank (?)

 

[anthony27]

You can only get so much from potassium in water changes also alot of rrefes that I know dose that because of the skimmer we run. You are running a needle wheel pump and that can cause a problem. I know in talking with a fellow reefer ricky he said that potassium for a sure sign could be caps. They will start to loose color.

I do know know if potassium makes a diFF in the color in the coral but I do know caps need it as well.

i would like I told you check the alk and also mag. You are probly a little off.

I said that because you did nothing to change the tank since 2 months ago except vodka and also the skimmer. I do not know alot about vodka at all, so I know Harry knows alot about that ask him, as for the skimmer it is a needle wheel so idk.

You cant hurt to try it out, also try to clean out the cal reactor and make sure you are all good with the bubbles and also the ammount it is letting out

 

[batt600]

What does zeo have to do with potassium. It is very easy to clear this subject up, buy a potassiuam test kit, red sea make a very easy to read potassium test kit . Your potassium (AKA K levels) should be from 350 to 400 ppm. And Jarret use a alk test kit like elos or faunamarin If you search here and on the web you will see salifert alk test kit aways give you a wrong reading.

 

[jarrett shark]

Yeah Anthony used a test kit yesterday like I said.... Not sure how good elos is as a test kit for potassium??? Getting new test kitS tomorrow to test myself and Hana alk checker to compare it with salfirt.. I just don't see anything else wrong and all my levels have been so perfect past year??? Also went from 8hrs to 5hrs light period and still same issue...feel like breaking down tank... Going to do 50gal wc every 4 days for 3 weeks to see if helps

And no AEFW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MechEng99]

It doesn't sound like potassium to me. IME, it's a STN, not RTN with potassium issues. Seriatoporas go first, then things like Stylophoras/Pocilloporas, then you'll start to lose your blues on your Acroporas. After you've lost your blues, you'll start to lose your Montiporas...and eventually your Acroporas.

Last I heard, the kits aren't great for testing potassium either. It's more of a relative scale - you test while your tank is good...and try to keep the level there.

What salt are you using? Make sure it's one known for adequate levels of potassium. What are you using to dose? Please tell me not "potassium iodide" (it doesn't contain enough potassium to raise potassium levels significantly without overdosing iodine).

 

[jarrett shark]

It doesn't sound like potassium to me. IME, it's a STN, not RTN with potassium issues. Seriatoporas go first, then things like Stylophoras/Pocilloporas, then you'll start to lose your blues on your Acroporas. After you've lost your blues, you'll start to lose your Montiporas...and eventually your Acroporas.

Last I heard, the kits aren't great for testing potassium either. It's more of a relative scale - you test while your tank is good...and try to keep the level there.

What salt are you using? Make sure it's one known for adequate levels of potassium. What are you using to dose? Please tell me not "potassium iodide" (it doesn't contain enough potassium to raise potassium levels significantly without overdosing iodine).

Sorry yes coral are STM not rtn....
I am using esv salt and I have calcium reactor so don't dose...
I use the esv potassium iodide"??

 

[Ocean Hugger]

You mentioned that you are dosing vodka. I know that can cause acros to bleach and rtn if too much is introduced to quickly or that it is working and the coral starts to starve in such a low nutrient tank. what are your phosphate and nitrate levels at?

 

[rickyjai8]

Sorry yes coral are STM not rtn....
I am using esv salt and I have calcium reactor so don't dose...
I use the esv potassium iodide"??

jarrett whats the level in your tank and also when u mix those esv salt the level alway off even though u mix and add the same way also when did this happen ? other then changing skimmer and stuff what else did u change?

 

[batt600]

You mentioned that you are dosing vodka. I know that can cause acros to bleach and rtn if too much is introduced to quickly or that it is working and the coral starts to starve in such a low nutrient tank. what are your phosphate and nitrate levels at?

I would agree it could be the vodka dosing

 

[jarrett shark]

I just started vodka not even a week so I rule that out
Ricky all I did was change bulbs like I do every 7 months, got new skimmer and went from reef cyratal to esv salt?? I even test new salt to make sure it's close in alk,cal,mag

 

[S.B.D.]

I have tried the new Red Sea test and it is quite different from the other brands when it comes to the last stage. The other tests require an assessment of turbidity but RS has a final titration that has a sharp color change. (This is a K test that I might finally use up before the expiration date).

Drops in K are mostly due to the use of Zeo or a bad salt whit low levels, I have not had any significant changes due to the use of needle-wheel skimmers.
10% WC a week and I don’t need to supplement K unless I use Zeolithes.

As noted before there are many supplements whit potassium on the label but the content does not really do much for your levels.
If you are really low like your test would indicate I would suggest changing large amounts of water. Small changes mean more water in total before you reach your goal..

However I am inclined to suspect something else than K, especially if you did not notice any other changes on the stylo before the STN event. My experience is that they retract polyps and look almost dry/damaged.

ULN combined whit higher alkalinity than in NSW is able to cause reactions like this, but as you have started to dose vodka I suppose that is not an issue?

Bad salt perhaps, or some kind of poisoning(metal in the tank, bug spray etc)

 

[allsps40]

IME potassium is over rated. I was having trouble getting purples and blues so I was lead to potassium by many reefers. Dosed it for a months and saw no change in my sps and increased my potassium to 2X NSW levels. Look to other things other than potassium for color issues. Mine was a combo of 11tds RO water and instability and my Ebay MH bulbs are not helping.

 

[MechEng99]

This was from a post from Randy Holmes-Farley: "Raising iodine from none to NSW levels (0.07 ppm) using potassium iodide raises potassium by 0.02 ppm, or 0.005% of the normal potassium level of about 400 ppm." So, as I mentioned before, using potassium iodide is useless to raise potassium. You may have overdosed iodide in trying to raise your potassium now. How much were you dosing??

I would do several large water changes, and that should restore most of your levels to around NSW (assuming your salt has adequate potassium). I always try to mix a few buckets/bags of salt together from different batches so that if there's ever a bad batch, the effects will be lessened by the other bags.

Allsps40 - I wouldn't knock potassium since you weren't dealing with a potassium issue. Dosing potassium won't fix lack of blues caused by other issues. I don't think the original poster is dealing with potassium issues either though, so it's a moot point.

 

[allsps40]

My point was that low potassium is rare in most reef tanks even if a salt mix is low on potassium, most reef salts have elevated levels already. Really the only cases you see a need for potassium dosing is in ULNS bacteria driven systems where the bacteria is consuming large amounts for potassium. I agree that iodine or lugols should not be used for increasing potassium as it will increase iodine and iodide as well. Oh I claim in no way to be an expert just an idiot that grows sticks.

 

[blakers82]

I know it hasn't been long, but does the OP have an update on their aquarium issues? I'm curious to know atleast what your new testing indicated and/or what route you took.

Thanks.

 

[losthere]

Drops in K are mostly due to the use of Zeo or a bad salt with low levels

I agree with this point I have had this problem a few times while using Marine Environment. Then switched to Tropic Marin Pro, and things rebounded, with nothing else done to the tank. After a few bad batches of Tropic Marin(one bucket completely solidified, and the second just partially, dont ask why I even used them) my corals started showing the same signs of loss of color, dryness, thinning, loss of PE, and then STN. I have recently switched to a TM,IO and Salinity for a 3 way mix and the results are awesome. I am really liking the 3 way salt mix, makes up for any deficiencies in salt mixes, just one more fail safe.

BTW when experincing these problems in the past I too started dosing K and got good results, but do not recommend dosing blindly like I was doing. I didnt kill anything but, adding things you cant or arent testing for is not a good recipe for success.

HTH. Good Luck.