Potassium

[jackson6745]

Who is monitoring their potassium levels? I noticed that Salifert now makes a Potassium testkit. What level are you maintaing and what differences have you noticed in your SPS? What potassium supplement are you using?

 

[mbg75]

Potassium tests are not very accurate. Haven't tried saliferts though.
If you have a potassium deficiency best indicators would be your caps. They will gray out and stop growing.

 

[jackson6745]

Potassium tests are not very accurate. Haven't tried saliferts though.
If you have a potassium deficiency best indicators would be your caps. They will gray out and stop growing.

Thanks for the feedback. I never had a cap stop growing on me. I actually never even heard of a cap go grey? I know guys that are into carbon dosing get into their potassium levels. Assuming a tank already has great SPS color, I was curious what raising the K level will do to the colors???

 

[mbg75]

I had potassium issues when I used Red Sea coral pro. My green and purple caps had slow growth and a gray tinge in color.
Since I went back to ESV I no longer have issues.

 

[duke62]

I tested with salifert and red seas kits and the red sea came closest to levels in a new mixture of reef crystals. I check my potassium ever week to every other week

 

[jackson6745]

I had potassium issues when I used Red Sea coral pro. My green and purple caps had slow growth and a gray tinge in color.
Since I went back to ESV I no longer have issues.

What was your level when you had a problem? What was the K level of ESV salt?

 

[jackson6745]

I tested with salifert and red seas kits and the red sea came closest to levels in a new mixture of reef crystals. I check my potassium ever week to every other week

Do you ever dose K? If so which supplement? What K level do you have you tank running at?

 

[duke62]

I dose the zeo k-balance. i am keeping my K between 338 and 392. 392 being to top number. i will stop dosing for awhile to let it come back down

 

[CoralMeister]

Potassium is extremely important for SPS Reefs. I consider it another trace element. Potassium is responsible for the vivid coloration of SPS corals.

 

[jackson6745]

Potassium is extremely important for SPS Reefs. I consider it another trace element. Potassium is responsible for the vivid coloration of SPS corals.

Is this from personal experience or what you've read?

 

[Geraud]

Hey guys,

I am bumping this old thread to after reading Justin Credabel's articles on the subject.

Is anyone dosing, and if so, what results did you get?

Also... which test kit to use? It looks like only the Red Sea one is available nowadays... but I could be mistaken.

 

[jvu61]

I have both test kits the one I think is by seachem but is a pain to use but is a bette test according to my son who is a chem major.

 

[jackson6745]

I have the test kit from red sea. it takes like 30 mins to get the result. I used it 3 times now I don't care where my K level is My colors have been insane lately so I'm not too motivated

 

[Geraud]

Thank you for the information guys, did you ever try to dose at all, or were the values "in range" so that you did not have to worry about it? If so, with which salt?

 

[jackson6745]

With Coralife salt the few times I measured was in the 380ppm range. I think 400ppm is NSW level

 

[Geraud]

Good to know, thank you!

 

[ValorG]

Hmmm... I have noticed 2 monti cap frags greying out in areas and dying slowly. It's not regular rtn or stn and was curious what could be causing it. Just bought a test kit online to make sure. Thanks guys.

 

[jackson6745]

Hmmm... I have noticed 2 monti cap frags greying out in areas and dying slowly. It's not regular rtn or stn and was curious what could be causing it. Just bought a test kit online to make sure. Thanks guys.

Are you running biopellets?

 

[ducati335i]

okay, so stupid question.. I feed my tangs ripe bananas form time to time, will them add to pot levels in the tank?

 

[jackson6745]

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that a medium-sized fresh banana that's between 7 and 7 7/8 inches long contains approximately 422 milligrams of potassium"

Somehow this can be figured out mathematically Damned if I know how to though


FYI, I started feeding a little banana here and there. The fish love it! Maybe I'll do a K test later to see if my levels have risen. Seriously takes 30 mins on a red sea kit though. So annoying.