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

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

on a side note if stores and such are pushing stuff to help get the perfect water levels why are they still telling you that you need over 400ppm of Ca? the average NSW for the world is 380 to 400 so why are people trying to get 450 when it is actually hard on the corals.. oh and there is research that shows that also. (Simplified version is that the coral has to expend more energy to remove the Ca from equilibrium in its cells to deposit it as a skeleton for new growth)

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...

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

the problem I have with this K thing is generaly people who are hard core SPS are running massive amount of Ca reactor material, one of the most popular is Carb sea which is a ballanced media. so I could see on initial set up making sure everything is deicent then checking for K maybe every couple months.. and for the record for the last year my SPS take was running I did test for K twice.. it was a little over 400 each time. this is why I don't understand how it gets depleted on a sps tank running a Ca reactor. oh and I was running IO (the only salt I will use) and had zero phosphates and nitrates.

I don't really have an answer to this, but the fact of the matter is that people do end up in situations where their potassium levels are severely depleted. I suspect manifold causes including lack of, as you said, proper maintenance in the form or routines or equipment/media, feeding, salt mix, etc.

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

On a side note, I read my original post and it could be taken as I am against the use of K or anthing like that.. no I am not.. if you need it you need it, but befor you run out and waist a bunch of money make sure you need it. I was pushing the importance of Mg quite a while befor people actualy started to worry about it so yes there are things we take for granted and assume we have a proper level. go in with people on a K test kit and maybe spread out the testing and only add if it is realy needed.. I am dead against the blind dosing of tanks. as it can cause major problems. K is a highly reactive material which is why you can only get it bound to another one.. I have seen a overdose of a purer form of K wipe out an entire 300+ gal sps tank, so be carfull of what you buy and how you use it.

Touche. It WILL wipe out fish and corals readily if dosed blind, that's for sure!

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

another point is I am not against new methods or chemicals either.. well maybe zeo as I still think it is way to much work for what it is..

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....

[trilinearmipmap]

K balance in a reef tank:

Inputs: food, supplements if any, water added during water changes

Outputs: coral uptake of K, coralline uptake of K, skimmate, water removed during water changes, macroalgae (refugium) pruning

Who knows if K in a reef tank rises or falls over time.

If there is a reliable K assay then I would be interested to see what K levels are in a number of different reef tanks and whether K level decline or rise over long periods of time.

First you would need someone with some decent lab equipment to see how accurate the K test is.

If it is shown that K does tend to drop over time in most reef tanks, then I would consider measuring it and supplementing it.

[banditpowdercoat]

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....

So How's that Zeo workin our for ya?

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

So How's that Zeo workin our for ya?

Without Zeo, I would not be 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, my fish would not sleep at night. Without Zeo, my corals would long for the real ocean. Without Zeo... Without Zeo... I love Zeo....

/endworld

[banditpowdercoat]

Dang, ya mean my fish ain't sleepin???? Poor fella's

And ya, My tank's got no soul, but it has a bottom

[marie]

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....

I would like to get my knickers in a twist about this comment but it's too dang hot

[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