potassium how to

[regalangelfish]

ok I've been reading about potassium in a reef tank and i have a pretty heavily stocked sps and lps tank. I see some signs that may be low potassium levels. First think I'm going to do is purchase a test kit which measured potassium levels.

Now I do use bio pellets and calcium reactor. Not sure if dosing potassium in the future is problematic with the use of these. i actually thought that the use of a calcium reactor also introduces other trace elements in the tank but i see that potassium in my tank may be depleated more rapidly.

I have the following questions:
1. Most important to me... can I dose potassium in an automated way? perhaps using dosing pump or other.

2. which potassium suppliment are folks using? Threive, brightwels, other?

3. Which potassium test kit would you recommend? I use mostly red sea but see that it takes 20 mins to test for potassium yikes! salifert is much quicker in this.

I'm all about simplicity and automation so please chime in on what/how I can do this???

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have not found that potassium depletes in my system, but if it does (determined by testing, which itself is not always especially accurate, IME), then it is relatively straightforward to dose and correct the deficiency.

I wouldn't automate it as it will take a very long time to determine the depletion rate (if, in fact, it is steady at all). But if you want to, I'd use something like a BRS 1.1 mL/min pump on a timer, or mix it into an ato.

I've not studied the available supplements, but Seachem Fluorish sounds OK.

 

[dkeller_nc]

The rate of potassium depletion in tank water is so low, as Randy notes, that I wouldn't think it would be worth fooling with a dosing pump. You could simply add a small dose with your weekly water changes.

 

[tmz]

I expected Potasssium to be low given long term organic carbon dosing (vodka and vinegar) and the associated export of bacteria taking it out with them. However, K tested around 390/410 ppm.

Tests were very difficult and some had a reputation for reading low . Tried the newer Red Sea kit; tedious but gave a readable result . The new Salifert kit is much easier and also easy to read..Accuracy is unknowable for either of those kits but the readings were close when I ran them side by side.

When I dosed potassium in the past I used a generic potassium chloride product from a health food supplier; i herb dot com.; very inexpensive that way.

I do not intend to automate K dosing. It stays relatively constant given feeding and water changes even with organic carbon dosing( vinegar, vodka, pellets, etc),IME.

 

[regalangelfish]

Thanks everyone for your input. Always nice to get advice from you Randy. I read several threads where you are not convinced that potassium is depleated in reef aqauria. Rhais was suggested to me by LFS that it might be worth checking into. Ill tell you what I told them... my observation is that one of my montis has receded and have had trouble keeping blue stags and tots and also simple digitata but other montis have done well so not sure what's going on??? Another observation is mg is always high and can't lower it. Always get 1500-1700 when tested. Not sure if its my kit but I'm gettig the same with salifert. I did put some coral gravel from my tank in the calcium reactor which I was told is a not good. Purchased new reactor media comin on monday so we shall see then. Do you still think its worth the cost of a test kit to see if potassium is depleated? Ido monthly water changes od 35 percent.Ok let me know what youthink guys. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you still think its worth the cost of a test kit to see if potassium is depleated?

I'd be slightly surprised if it is significantly depleted relative to the starting mix if you do 35% changes each month. That said, if you have the sorts of issues folks report with low K+, or just want to experiment, the Salifert it may be a good way to go, and it is easy to fix if low.

 

[regalangelfish]

I confess that I haven't always been good about water changes. My tank has been up for the better part of 5 years. I switched to predomentantly SPS and LPS and since doing so I have been doing monthly water changes siphoning my gravel ect. Tank is cleaner now than ever befor. I do have slightly low ph.

Here's a few params.
Ph 7.89-8.1
Po4 .18
No3 10- 15
Amonia nitrite undetectable last I checked
Salt 34
Mg 1600
Using bio pellets so no carbon or GFO for past few weeks.

 

[tmz]

Blue staghorns and torts can be tricky. The digita problem is confusing they are usually very tolerant of a wider range of conditions than most other sps,IME. . Any signs of monti nudibranch or other predators.

What is the alkainity and calcium.?

I don't think there is anything about potassium that effects blue staghorns and torts particulary or digitata.

FWIW, I have several blue stags and tortuossa including: several hoeksami , several california trotuosa , a blue formosa ,a blue youngei, a matrix and a large 7 year old oregon tort.They all like high light and strong flow. They are all prone to pests like acro eating flatworms and red bugs and sensitive to cahnges in water quality. They have been flourishing for about 5 years. A number of digitata varieties flourish as well.

Personally,I'd take a hard look at alk , nitrate and PO4 before I'd worry about K+ and wouldn't consider dosing it without testing for it . I think running granulated activated carbon along with organic carbon dosing is a good thing to do. GFO is also useful in some carbon dosing applications.

I've had my maagnesium up to 1600 ppm with no effect on the corals you noted.

 

[regalangelfish]

Blue staghorns and torts can be tricky. The digita problem is confusing they are usually very tolerant of a wider range of conditions than most other sps,IME. . Any signs of monti nudibranch or other predators.

What is the alkainity and calcium.?

I don't think there is anything about potassium that effects blue staghorns and torts particulary or digitata.

FWIW, I have several blue stags and tortuossa including: several hoeksami , several california trotuosa , a blue formosa ,a blue youngei, a matrix and a large 7 year old oregon tort.They all like high light and strong flow. They are all prone to pests like acro eating flatworms and red bugs and sensitive to cahnges in water quality. They have been flourishing for about 5 years. A number of digitata varieties flourish as well.

Personally,I'd take a hard look at alk , nitrate and PO4 before I'd worry about K+ and wouldn't consider dosing it without testing for it . I think running granulated activated carbon along with organic carbon dosing is a good thing to do. GFO is also useful in some carbon dosing applications.

I've had my maagnesium up to 1600 ppm with no effect on the corals you noted.

cal 440-450
alk 9 dkh
only reason I mentioned MG is that its always high since doing monthly water changes
salt is Instant Ocean regular not reef crystals

yeah I never had a problem with digi's on my last tank. This digi is actually still alive (was a purple blue polyp) and now the polyps are tan and lost the blue purple color. Blue seems to be hard for me in this tank for some reason. I was told that when potassium is low can affect blue colored SPS??? not sure if this is true but is the reason LFS suggested it.

Only pests that I know of that can effect montis is nudis and flatworm. I've had nudis befor so I know what to look for allong with egg pockets. This one is clean. I have 4 plating/cupping montis. 1. seasons greatings (doing great) 2. green cap (doing great) 3. green with blue ring (doing good). the one not doing good is an all red from australia. was doing well for first 2-3 weeks. then noticed the color went from a lighter red to a deep red but polyps were extended so i didn't worry too much and since my No3 was a tad high at 15 and was trying to reduce (still am) I didn't worry about it so much. 2-3 months barely any growth and thought... hmmnn ok this one's a slow grower, ok. So, I moved it based on someones suggestion that monis need alot of light. i always thought low light with these. so I placed it at the bottom but closer to the center of the tank about 9" to right of center of my kessil a360. 2-3 more months go by and no change still dark. then the past 2-3 weeks started to die off. but almost like it was getting sucked in from inside is only way I can describe it. first the ridges became faded and disapeared and then the deep vallies the same. only thing left is rim but looking closely today I still see some red deep in the skeleton. It wasnt RTN or STN as no tissue fell off/peeled off.

Is it possible this monti likes dirtier water??? No3 has been sloowwwwwwwly reducing with the use of bio pellets. and I mean slow. I have reduced No3 fast to about 20 then its been slowwwww going for a while. someone suggested that I remove my GFO as that was pulling Po4 to .07-.04 when No3 was 20. since taking GFO offline I have seen a slight increase to .18 but No3 went from 20 to 10-15. depending on the test kit I use to determine no3.

I agree I've been down the road years ago of dosing without testing and learned the hard way I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the K+ test kit but it might be worth the peace of mind the test it and see if I'm at least in the ball park towards the end of the month right befor a water change.

anyway thanks for all of your suggestions and trying to help. much appreciated.

 

[regalangelfish]

Note last reading of Po4 without GFO actually went down to .14

 

[regalangelfish]

Feeding is pretty exact these days with an automatic fish and coral dispenser I built.

so food is: on a 105 gal display 36" x 36" x 18" and 29 gal sump

2 ml Oyster feast per day
2ml phyto per day
4 ml mix of mr g's roe, cyclop ezze, brine w/ spiralina

once every week tank gets 2" x 4" green veggi (julian sprung)
once every other week I cut up one jumbo shrimp for all of my LPS, plates, favias, anemonies, and acans (target fed, little waste)

Bio pellets is 700 ml in recirculating reactor.
ARM media in cal reactor (few small pieces of coral rubble from tank)
miracle mud (one gallon) in refugium with chaeto and the red stuff forget the name
warner marine skimmer
NO filter socks most of the time.
Forgot ORP reads 425 which is really good for me and goes to 400 befor water change and 370 when feeding. so ozone hardly ever comes on.
(2) kessils are a new addition to tank (no other lighting at the moment)
2" sand bed in DT
Tank has two overflow walls to trays on the sides that lead to the sump below (like zero edge) so plenty of surface aggitation and gas exchange.
apex reef computer monitors ORP, PH in tank and Cal reactor, temp and salt cond. level.

Cant think of any other info. that I can mention but I'm sure I missed something.