Potassium Dosage Amount

[DeputyDog95]

I tink the question still hasn't been asked yet. If you're K is consistently low, and you dose to get it up again, how do you keep your K in range after that?

Mine is consistently 340 on ICP tests so I'm dosing 60ml daily for 8 days to get it up to 420, per the instructions.

I do water changes twice a month. However, it's a 120g net display, loaded with large sps colonies running an average pH of 8.3 (I use Kalkwasser at night and soda ash for alk).

Is it possible I have actual significant consumption of K at this point? I'm also having to dose Mg at a rate of 12ml per day to stay around 1350.

For reference, I'm dosing almost 450ml per day of BRS liquid two part to stay around 8.5dkh and using 370ml per gallon of 2 part of tropic marin trace elements to get most trace elements to barely detectable levels.

Thoughts?

 

[gbroadbridge]

I tink the question still hasn't been asked yet. If you're K is consistently low, and you dose to get it up again, how do you keep your K in range after that?

Mine is consistently 340 on ICP tests so I'm dosing 60ml daily for 8 days to get it up to 420, per the instructions.

I do water changes twice a month. However, it's a 120g net display, loaded with large sps colonies running an average pH of 8.3 (I use Kalkwasser at night and soda ash for alk).

Is it possible I have actual significant consumption of K at this point? I'm also having to dose Mg at a rate of 12ml per day to stay around 1350.

For reference, I'm dosing almost 450ml per day of BRS liquid two part to stay around 8.5dkh and using 370ml per gallon of 2 part of tropic marin trace elements to get most trace elements to barely detectable levels.

Thoughts?

I dose Potassium Chloride mixed into my 3 part.

Over time I determined that somehow my tank uses 3ppm K per week, so simply added it to the regular dosing and it now remains stable at 400ppm.

In the same period my tank consumes 21 dKh Alk

 

[DeputyDog95]

I dose Potassium Chloride mixed into my 3 part.

Over time I determined that somehow my tank uses 3ppm K per week, so simply added it to the regular dosing and it now remains stable at 400ppm.

In the same period my tank consumes 21 dKh Alk

Appreciate the feedback!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I tink the question still hasn't been asked yet. If you're K is consistently low, and you dose to get it up again, how do you keep your K in range after that?

Mine is consistently 340 on ICP tests so I'm dosing 60ml daily for 8 days to get it up to 420, per the instructions.

I do water changes twice a month. However, it's a 120g net display, loaded with large sps colonies running an average pH of 8.3 (I use Kalkwasser at night and soda ash for alk).

Is it possible I have actual significant consumption of K at this point? I'm also having to dose Mg at a rate of 12ml per day to stay around 1350.

For reference, I'm dosing almost 450ml per day of BRS liquid two part to stay around 8.5dkh and using 370ml per gallon of 2 part of tropic marin trace elements to get most trace elements to barely detectable levels.

Thoughts?

If there is ongoing demand, you'd need to keep dosing. That can only be determined by ongoing testing.

My tank had no net demand for potassium, and one should not assume that reefs are a net user of potassium, although they may be depending on the foods used.

FWIW, 420 ppm is above 35 ppt NSW levels. Natural seawater at 35 ppt contains 400 ppm potassium.

 

[DeputyDog95]

If there is ongoing demand, you'd need to keep dosing. That can only be determined by ongoing testing.

My tank had no net demand for potassium, and one should not assume that reefs are a net user of potassium, although they may be depending on the foods used.

FWIW, 420 ppm is above 35 ppt NSW levels. Natural seawater at 35 ppt contains 400 ppm potassium.

What are high K foods?

I add ocean nutrition pellets 5x a day and two cubes of frozen a day. Which btw, still doesn't keep my nutrients up so I have to dose nitrate and PO4 too (albeit small amounts).

I like to go a tick higher so if there is a dip, I don't go to deficient levels. Same for alk. I run 8.5 where NSW is 7, so that if consumption goes up I don't accidentally drop below NSW. Doesn't seem to be any harm in running most elements slightly higher than NSW. And since I started manipulating pH, it's turned into a part time job to keep up with growth/consumption. I've seen a 30ml increase in daily Alk consumption in just two days of dosing my "adjustment" K.

Colors are drab in some of the colors so I'm hoping this helps.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What are high K foods?

Two thoughts along those lines.

1. One can see high K foods for humans often listed. So are low K foods for folks with hyperkalemia (excessive potassium). Many fruits and vegetables top the high K list.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/foods-rich-in-potassium
https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/Quick Facts 01-10-7270.pdf
for our purposes, many seaweeds contain far more potassium than sodium and and contains 10.2 mg K per calorie :

https://www.nutrition-and-you.com/nori-seaweed.html
whereas a meaty food like salmon is much closer between sodium and potassium and contains 3.6 mg K per calorie:

https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/nutrition/salmon-fillet,126812/
cooked king crab and blue crab are even worse for K:

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174202/nutrients
https://nutrientoptimiser.com/nutritional-value-crustaceans-crab-blue-cooked-moist-heat/
2. I have a theory that rinsing frozen foods washes away K after freezing breaks some cells open since most K is held internal to cells. Not rinsing frozen foods may thus help add more K.

 

[DeputyDog95]

Two thoughts along those lines.

1. One can see high K foods for humans often listed. So are low K foods for folks with hyperkalemia (excessive potassium). Many fruits and vegetables top the high K list.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/foods-rich-in-potassium
https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/Quick Facts 01-10-7270.pdf
for our purposes, many seaweeds contain far more potassium than sodium and and contains 10.2 mg K per calorie :

https://www.nutrition-and-you.com/nori-seaweed.html
whereas a meaty food like salmon is much closer between sodium and potassium and contains 3.6 mg K per calorie:

https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/nutrition/salmon-fillet,126812/
cooked king crab and blue crab are even worse for K:

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174202/nutrients
https://nutrientoptimiser.com/nutritional-value-crustaceans-crab-blue-cooked-moist-heat/
2. I have a theory that rinsing frozen foods washes away K after freezing breaks some cells open since most K is held internal to cells. Not rinsing frozen foods may thus help add more K.

Good info. I never rinse the food. To the contrary, I defrost it in the tank between my fingers and let the warmed food flow right into a circulation pump to get blown around the tank. What I haven't done in a while is feed Nori.