water softener pelets to raise potassium

[hk855]

Has anyone out there used the potassium chloride water softener to raise their potassium levels. I used NOW potassium chloride in the past and was useing a substantial ammount on my 40g, like a jar every 3 months. I'm running vodka/neo zeo and it gets used up at a decent rate. Now I have a 180g and would like to save $10-15 a month by useing the pelets. Just wanted to check if anyone else has used them, from the MSDS they look to be pure KCL and of course are food safe. Definitly won't be trying anything with some aditional advertised properties like rust remover etc.
The MSDS http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/msds/102065.pdf

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Does it say anything about the grade on the package, like FCC or food grade or anything like that?

I'd also caution that I do not have confidence in some potassium test kits, so dosing based on a kit may have pitfalls.

 

[hk855]

It doesn't say anything on the package but it's going into your drinking water so I would assume its food safe. This is my first choice because they provide an msds and say its 100% KCl
http://plumbing.hardwarestore.com/5...rystal-potassium-chloride-pellets-102065.aspx

This review says morton pellets are 99.7% KCl
http://www.epinions.com/content_143035436676

This stuf has no data information so I'd probably try one of the other two first
https://www.hardwareworld.com/Natures-Own--Potassium-Chloride-Crystals-pN7NTH6.aspx

Given we are addind a variety of industrial chemicals to our tanks like deiceing and pool salts for Ca and Mg and they are not as pure I would hope that this stuff is just as good as the NOW brand stuff. The only thing I'm really worried about is if it has a soap or something added to it. I thik I will try it out if I run across a brand I like and it doesn't have any additional benefits posted on the bag.

 

[billsreef]

Check for use of anti-caking agents in the water softener salt. Some use them, and those are generally bad for fish, as well as questionable for human use despite the allowed use for that purpose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, none of the percentages on an MSDS rule out impurities in the KCl, and a low percentage (like the 77% CaCl2 for Dowflake) does not say it is impure (since the remainder is mostly water).

That said, the material is probably OK, but not guaranteed to be OK, because some things would be OK to drink, but not OK to add to a reef aquarium (like 1 ppm copper in tap water).