Potassium

#1
Hello everyone! Recently I have noticed something that I cannot get a straight answer from LFS owners about so I am bringin it to the forums.

I recently realized that I had made a very bad rookie mistake. I hadn't calibrated my refractometer in a long time and I was making salt about 6 pts below what should be, thus making my tank about 1.019 Scary right! Well I fixed that problem immediately after realizing what was going on. During this time my magnesium would plummet during water changes and I found myself adding a gross amount of mag just to get up to 1350. Personally I like to keep my tank at 1400 but not higher than 1450. I also have been experimenting with adding very very small amounts of potassium to my tank after a water change. I have noticed that my cal and mag levels have steadily gone up and are very stable. I know that the salinity screw up may be playing a huge part in this, but can anyone educate me a little on how potassium could affect this as well? I have never had my levels be this stable and by that I mean I would have to test 2 or 3 times a week and dose accordingly and right now when I test, levels have not drastically dropped and I am testing less and less. Here are my stats!

160 Reef/Fish
Cal 440
Mag 1440
Kh 9
Ph 8.2-8.4 (give or take)
Sal - 1.025-1.026

BTW my corals are doing awesome. They did suffer when the salinity was low, but now that I fixed that problem 2 months ago, they are doing great. So I am not sure if it's the salinity or the potassium that's affecting everything positively. Thanks everyone and Happy Reefing!
 

KhensuRa

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
i really think it is getting your salinity level back in working order that has really made your tank happy again. Potassium as far I have read is great for SPS and your corals can benefit from the addition. But again it was your low salinity that was the cause to any issues you had.
 
#3
Thanks for replying KhensuRa.. I appreciate the insight.
 

Wicked Color

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
I would agree, I didnt see this thread or I would have chimed in, potassium (or lack there of) is almost never a problem, but it can help increase some coral growth.
Also if you used potassium chloride it would have increased the salinity as it is a salt, so you may be asking if it is this, or that, when actually the two coincide.
 
#5
Thanks Wicked Demon. I appreciate the insight.
 

MartinsReef

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
I guess one positive you can take with a salinity of 1.019 is that you wont have many parasites that would of survived at that level. Back in 1992 when I started in the hobbie we would keep our tanks at 1.019 to keep marine ich and other nasties away, but this was a tough level to keep sps they would almost never make it back then.
 
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