Freshwater potassium deficiency

[ReefOnTheBayou]

Hopefully I'm okay asking this question here. I know no one that's more qualified to do so.

Freshwater caridina and neo caridina shrimp tank. I'm having holes in my plants and im thinking it a lack of potassium. My question is more chemistry related not particularly shrimp.
I have to keep kh and gh consistent in these setups. Caridina 0-1kh 4-6gh and neocaridina 3kh 7gh. Im seeing this deficiency in both species tanks I have.

Question. Will or how much will this product (k20), increase kh and gh. I already tested that It indeed increasing kh and tds. The gh test I did was inconclusive as my test was not scientific by a long stretch.

So can it increase kh or gh and lastly will this increase slowly decrease on its own as plants absorb them or will it stay in the tank until waterchange. I guess is it will somewhat go down if it's something the plants require that should be its going to be uptaked. Maybe I can monitor this uptake.
Thanks regardless if your able to help or not. Much appreciated!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Neither listed ingredient should raise alkalinity or general hardness.

 

[zbrusko]

Hopefully I'm okay asking this question here. I know no one that's more qualified to do so.

Freshwater caridina and neo caridina shrimp tank. I'm having holes in my plants and im thinking it a lack of potassium. My question is more chemistry related not particularly shrimp.
I have to keep kh and gh consistent in these setups. Caridina 0-1kh 4-6gh and neocaridina 3kh 7gh. Im seeing this deficiency in both species tanks I have.

Question. Will or how much will this product (k20), increase kh and gh. I already tested that It indeed increasing kh and tds. The gh test I did was inconclusive as my test was not scientific by a long stretch.

So can it increase kh or gh and lastly will this increase slowly decrease on its own as plants absorb them or will it stay in the tank until waterchange. I guess is it will somewhat go down if it's something the plants require that should be its going to be uptaked. Maybe I can monitor this uptake.
Thanks regardless if your able to help or not. Much appreciated!

If you can use RO/DI water, you can remineralize with products specifically sold for shrimp. If not, the API tests for gh & kh work well. If you need to raise gh, Seachem Equilibrium works well. Peat & other natural methods can reduce kh to near 0 - though you may not like the tannins. Not sure how to lower gh without RO/DI or steam distilled water.

As for your K deficiency, I thought I had that as well. I bought a Salifert K test (hard to find these days), and found I was over dosing my Seachem K. Hard to diagnose K deficiency, in my opinion, without testing. I had holes in Java fern, but K not the issue.

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

Neither listed ingredient should raise alkalinity or general hardness.

Thanks for the reply.
What I did was added 100ml of rodi water to a small measure cup and added 1ml of potassium additive shown in picture. I tested 5 times increaseing 1ml at a time and didn't get a reading until I had 5ml of potassium in 60ml of rodi was what I ended up with. Tds 560, don't know if that tells us anything.

I understand this is quite undiluted and would be a big difference in 10gallon tank. My concern would be dosing the 2.5ml every other day would build up kh therefore exhausting my buffing substrate and also changing the water chemistry that these shrimp need.

Am I missing something here? I be the first to admit I don't know the in and outs of chemistry. If this valve goes down over time this would greatly lessen my concerns. Maybe I will leave this test solution over night and test again tomorrow but there is nothing to uptake it so maybe that's not a good idea.

Anything I'm missing here? Thanks for helping and stepping outside the lines of reefing which I'm still highly involved with. Just thought I'll try my hands at some freshwater stuff also.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the reply.
What I did was added 100ml of rodi water to a small measure cup and added 1ml of potassium additive shown in picture. I tested 5 times increaseing 1ml at a time and didn't get a reading until I had 5ml of potassium in 60ml of rodi was what I ended up with. Tds 560, don't know if that tells us anything.

I understand this is quite undiluted and would be a big difference in 10gallon tank. My concern would be dosing the 2.5ml every other day would build up kh therefore exhausting my buffing substrate and also changing the water chemistry that these shrimp need.

Am I missing something here? I be the first to admit I don't know the in and outs of chemistry. If this valve goes down over time this would greatly lessen my concerns. Maybe I will leave this test solution over night and test again tomorrow but there is nothing to uptake it so maybe that's not a good idea.

Anything I'm missing here? Thanks for helping and stepping outside the lines of reefing which I'm still highly involved with. Just thought I'll try my hands at some freshwater stuff also.

TDS just says something was added, and the response you see seems appropriate. The stated ingredients will certainly raise TDS.

I guarantee that if the listed ingredients (potassium, chloride, sulfate, and water) are all that this product contains, it cannot possibly be the cause of your apparent kH rise. None of those chemicals will boost or deplete alkalinity (KH).

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

If you can use RO/DI water, you can remineralize with products specifically sold for shrimp. If not, the API tests for gh & kh work well. If you need to raise gh, Seachem Equilibrium works well. Peat & other natural methods can reduce kh to near 0 - though you may not like the tannins. Not sure how to lower gh without RO/DI or steam distilled water.

As for your K deficiency, I thought I had that as well. I bought a Salifert K test (hard to find these days), and found I was over dosing my Seachem K. Hard to diagnose K deficiency, in my opinion, without testing. I had holes in Java fern, but K not the issue.

Hey thanks for the reply!
I'm already using saltyshrimp gh+ for my caridina tanks and using saltyshrimp gh kh+ for my neo tanks. I also have equilibrium but I use it for my soft water tanks as my tap is hard water which work well for my guppies and live bearers. I lover gh with water changes using 0tds water. While it's great for lowering the gh I found it's not soo great for plants, I'm guessing it's lowering other elements/micros/macros when changing a significant amount of water with rodi.

Hey and yes what's up with the k test??? I can't seem to find one in stock! I thought Amazon had everything. Lol
May I ask what was the holes in your fern caused by?

I have been dosing small amounts of potassium and I think it's helping but I also dose some water changes over this time with my remineralizer. I had dropped the gh with rodi and I think that's where I ran into issues.

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

TDS just says something was added, and the response you see seems appropriate. The stated ingredients will certainly raise TDS.

I guarantee that if the listed ingredients (potassium, chloride, sulfate, and water) are all that this product contains, it cannot possibly be the cause of your apparent kH rise. None of those chemicals will boost or deplete alkalinity (KH).

10-4 notes taking.

It must be just an reaction with the test in error. I may have failed to mention that I did get 2dhk (2 drops to turn yellow) after adding the 5ml of k20 to what was left of the 100ml Rodi. This was preformed twice to back up results.

I'm tossing it up to an reaction in error with test.

I feel more confident to use it. Thanks for your time kind sir! Much appreciated.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

10-4 notes taking.

It must be just an reaction with the test in error. I may have failed to mention that I did get 2dhk (2 drops to turn yellow) after adding the 5ml of k20 to what was left of the 100ml Rodi. This was preformed twice to back up results.

I'm tossing it up to an reaction in error with test.

I feel more confident to use it. Thanks for your time kind sir! Much appreciated.

Do not be misled by the legal requirements of documenting potassium in a fertuilizer. There is, in fact, no K2O in the product. It is just a unit of measure of potassium content.

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

Do not be misled by the legal requirements of documenting potassium in a fertuilizer. There is, in fact, no K2O in the product. It is just a unit of measure of potassium content.

Oh okay So its made up of KCI and k2s04. Product is not actually k20 only expressed as k20 because maybe its the industry standard to refer to it as k20.

I didn't know that and always thought that it was k20 potassium oxide (pure potash) made up of potassium and oxygen due to potassium only being reactive.

Great information here. I learn learning this, I sure wish I would have been interested in this during my school years.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Oh okay So its made up of KCI and k2s04. Product is not actually k20 only expressed as k20 because maybe its the industry standard to refer to it as k20.

I didn't know that and always thought that it was k20 potassium oxide (pure potash) made up of potassium and oxygen due to potassium only being reactive.

Great information here. I learn learning this, I sure wish I would have been interested in this during my school years.

Yes, that is correct. If it were k2O, it would raise pH and alkalinity a lot.

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

And that's what I was thinking at first that got me started down this rabbit hole.

Well, successful thread.

Thanks again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And that's what I was thinking at first that got me started down this rabbit hole.

Well, successful thread.

Thanks again.

You're welcome..

FWIW, K2O wouldn't literally exist in a water solution. Even if you add it, becomes potassium and hydroxide ions.