is Potassium required for reef???? Help??

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Without Zeo, you are not running a reef tank - only a soulless husk of a skeletal remnant of a glass box with water and sodium chloride in it. Without Zeo, your fish do not sleep at night. Without Zeo, your corals know only what it is to long for the real ocean. Without Zeo... Without Zeo... I love Zeo....

haha, that was good, I needed a good laugh today.. got to get the energy up to rip down my 3 freshwater tanks in prep for the move.. got to find a home for the fish and plants though...

Steve

[StirCrazy]

is there any links out there to how it is used and how much K is used by corals would be interesting to read.. only problem when I find most write ups they are pretty sad and old and based off one type of coral that no self respecting SPS guy would even keep

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Old dogs don't learn new tricks would be my guess. People use to think the ideal parameters were = nature plus. Remember seeing vets telling beginners to autopilot their CA reactors to hit kH 10+ and CA 450 ppm? I hardly think that this is a malicious sales ploy, but rather just a vestige of old advice that hasn't gone away. I'm still telling people every day to lower their kH values...


....

I agree not malicious but rather old dog thing, but in the same hand thoes old dogs are the ones pushing all the other chemicals touting NSW levels and striving to get them...

I will disagree with the KH though I actualy never had better color or growth as when I was sitting about 13 If I dropped below 11 my green digitata would go from a deep metalic green to a flat deep green.. so that is probably one thing this old dog will keep doing... want to have fun, tune a Ca reactor to maintain 13Dkh and 380Ca

Steve

[albert_dao]

Son of a... I had a WICKED reply with molar masses and everything here and the stupid browser screwed up. Anyway, here's a dumbed down version... God...

Originally Posted by sphelps

And exactly how does this product produce "vivid blue coloration"?

If you're looking for a scientific explanation, that's beyond my realm of knowledge. But here's what happens:

You add it to a ULN tank, your acros get super blue. /end

Originally Posted by sphelps

It is after all simply potassium iodide so obviously it adds both potassium and iodide so how can one say it won't help maintain both potassium and iodide levels?

When you look at a product like Potassium Iodide, you should be reading it as Iodide. Period. We're talking about an inorganic compound (K+I−) where the potassium is pretty much irrelevant.

Originally Posted by sphelps

You can't use it to raise levels but with regular water changes it must help maintain K levels, to say otherwise simply doesn't make sense. Also how can you overdose on iodide by following proper dosing directions? K is +1 and Iodide is -1 so close to equal amounts are added.

Iodide is found in NSW at concentrations of 0.06 mg/L
Potassium occurs at 0.4 g/L or 400 mg/L

The water changes (assume a salt that isn't chronically low in potassium) is what helps maintain your levels, not potassium iodide. If you droped even 1% potassium and tried to level it off with PIF, you're going to poision stuff.