KCI Potassium Chloride As A Coral Dip

[Coronus]

Hi all,
I have been hearing about this recently and wanted to get some feed back. I have heard that this works great as a coral dip and kills AEFW, Red Bugs, MENS, ect.
Can anyone verify this thats using it? Maybe elaborate on dosage, where to get, experience, ect.
I hate using Bayer!
Thanks

 

[Sabellafella]

Hi all,
I have been hearing about this recently and wanted to get some feed back. I have heard that this works great as a coral dip and kills AEFW, Red Bugs, MENS, ect.
Can anyone verify this thats using it? Maybe elaborate on dosage, where to get, experience, ect.
I hate using Bayer!
Thanks

I've used brightwell dry potassium salts as a coral dip on numerous occasions. Need a scale and some math but ultimately you will need to raise bathing solution to 1500 ppm. I never dipped more then 5 minutes because it was extremely harsh. Had red bugs and brittle starfish at the time, they would die instantly.

 

[Sabellafella]

Personally I think it's the cheapest most effective dip out here in the hobby. But there is nothing like a 30 minute bathe in Bayer =). there was a point where I soaked a few pounds of live rock in 1,500 ppm potassium solution before going into my rubble/rock container. Also Not sure if potassium has any antiseptic or disinfectant properties like the other dips do.

 

[Coronus]

Interesting! A bag of this stuff on Amazon is 10 bucks. A friend says 1 Table Spoon per gallon of tank water to dip for 15-20 minutes.
Polyp lab has a dip made of Potassium Salts. They say 45grams per gallon for 5 minutes dip.
45 grams = 3.5 roughly table spoons so I am a little confused on the dosage.
I never dip using a gallon of water anyway. More like 2 cups of water.

 

[Sabellafella]

Interesting! A bag of this stuff on Amazon is 10 bucks. A friend says 1 Table Spoon per gallon of tank water to dip for 15-20 minutes.
Polyp lab has a dip made of Potassium Salts. They say 45grams per gallon for 5 minutes dip.
45 grams = 3.5 roughly table spoons so I am a little confused on the dosage.
I never dip using a gallon of water anyway. More like 2 cups of water.

I believe its potassium permanganate? Might just be the purity of the salt. Not sure, need the experts for that one =)

I'll have to look back at how I went about measuring the dose. I did make a concentrated solution so I can use mls per 2 cups.

 

[Coronus]

Thats a great idea instead of always remixing.
I am starting to get weird with Bayer dip as it is very toxic and I dont like handling it. Plus you cant see in the dip which is a disadvantage.

 

[sghera64]

I believe its potassium permanganate? Might just be the purity of the salt. Not sure, need the experts for that one =)

I'll have to look back at how I went about measuring the dose. I did make a concentrated solution so I can use mls per 2 cups.

KMnO4 makes more sense than KCl to me. I used to use permanganate as an ick treatment for my freshwater fish a long time ago. And it did work.

 

[Coronus]

Why does it make more sense?

 

[sghera64]

Why does it make more sense?

Because permanganate has some antiseptic properties. As I mentioned, it was popular to use as an ick treatment for freshwater fish - - and it worked.

 

[sghera64]

Because permanganate has some antiseptic properties. As I mentioned, it was popular to use as an ick treatment for freshwater fish - - and it worked.

I said it “worked”. According to Wikipedia, it “works”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_permanganate

 

[Dkeller_nc]

As the wikipedia article notes, the reason it works on biology (specifically, to kill it) is that it's a strong oxidizer. The reaction is specific to unsaturated bonds in organic compounds, which is a constituent of the lipid bilayer that makes up the cell wall of bacteria and other simple organisms. The MnO4(2-) in potassium permanganate gets reduced to manganese dioxide (MnO2 (s)), and the organic molecule gets oxidized, disrupting the cell wall, releasing the cell contents, and killing the organism.

Higher order animals have defense and/or repair mechanisms in place that allow it to resist the action of the permanganate, which is why it's useful as a wound antispetic.

 

[Coronus]

Well, I guess not many are using this as a dip. Maybe I should post in another forum. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well, I guess not many are using this as a dip. Maybe I should post in another forum. Thanks

Maybe it’s not a good choice. [emoji23]

Potassium permanganate and potassium chloride are as different from one another as table salt and bleach. They will kill organisms in totally different ways. There’s no chance that the potassium in potassium permanganate plays any role in killing of marine organisms as the potassium in a dip will be low compared to seawater.

 

[Coronus]

Polyp lab makes a dip called Reef Primer Made from potassium salt.
Is this potassium chloride? I’m really just looking for a cheaper solution to Buy potassium salt in bulk so I can use a a dip. Maybe I should’ve just said that originally, LOL

 

[Coralsea_co]

I think the polyp lab use potassium iodide !

 

[Ross Petersen]

Old thread here... Any others used potassium iodide (KI) as a dip for corals? Seems like this would only work as an osmotic shock to some pest-species... but I have no practical experience...

 

[Ross Petersen]

Bump...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've not heard it is useful, and do not know that it would be.

 

[Ross Petersen]

I've not heard it is useful, and do not know that it would be.

KCl is relatively popular in coral circles in my community at 3 g per liter dosage. And in this thread and others, is reported to be quite strong/dangerous for corals if overdosed - there seems to be some anecdotal evidence at least of potency. I can appreciate that K+ (potassium ion) levels about 4 times standard levels would disrupt ion gradients in cells... but I too have no evidence for this in the coral world... very curious though as this would make for a cheap and environmentally responsible dip...

 

[dragon99]

I've been using brightwell potassion p for a dip. It's a mix of potassium chloride and potassium sulfate. I mix in enough to get up around 1600ppm potassium. It kills aefw in my experience and from I've read works well with other pests.