Potassium Consumption

[Formulator]

Is this normal? I never considered potassium in my dosing regimen, but it would appear I should. I currently use the reef moonshiners program and haven’t changed water in over a year. Moonshiners tool recommends brightwell “Potassion-P”. I believe a mix of KCl and K2SO4.

These are ICP-MS results from Oceamo Lab.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Might that be from regular water changes? The starting point is very high and the end point is not much different than many salt mixes.

FWIW, potassium does deplete in some tanks and not others. It did not deplete in mine. I think it depends on the K to N and P ratio in foods relative to the K to N and P levels in the tissues being formed from the nutrients in the foods. :)

 

[Formulator]

Might that be from regular water changes? The starting point is very high and the end point is not much different than many salt mixes.

FWIW, potassium does deplete in some tanks and not others. It did not deplete in mine. I think it depends on the K to N and P ratio in foods relative to the K to N and P levels in the tissues being formed from the nutrients in the foods. :)

I haven’t changed water in over a year. I dose all my trace per reef moonshiners program. My sps took off last year. Might it be genuine consumption from that?

My N and P have been very low and I struggle to keep them up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I haven’t changed water in over a year. I dose all my trace per reef moonshiners program. My sps took off last year. Might it be genuine consumption from that?

My N and P have been very low and I struggle to keep them up.

It might be consumption based on food inputs not meeting the consumption.

Why was potassium so high? I’ve not seen any salt mixes that high.

 

[Formulator]

It might be consumption based on food inputs not meeting the consumption.

Why was potassium so high? I’ve not seen any salt mixes that high.

I’m not really sure how it got high. I left my tank essentially unattended for 2.5 years prior to my overhaul and the start of this graph. I suspect there were many impurities getting through my exhausted RODI filters.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a theory that rinsing frozen foods washes out potassium due to broken cell membranes that causes releases of potassium that is primarily held inside of cells.

 

[Formulator]

I have a theory that rinsing frozen foods washes out potassium due to broken cell membranes that causes releases of potassium that is primarily held inside of cells.

That is interesting… I feed almost exclusively frozen mysis and spirulina brine. I don’t rinse, just drop cubes into a partially submerged feeder cup with holes in it so it thaws in the tank water.