dosing potassium sulfate.

[cbk.o4]

so i got my potassium sulfate from gregwatson yesterday, and im wonderin how i should go about dosing.

never used dry ferts before. so any help is appreciated.

TIA

 

[rich311k]

Here is a link to a calculator to figure out dosage. Calculator

If you assume 50 gallons of water in a 55 gallon tank 3/4 of a teaspoon would give you about 10ppm. So 3/4 of a teaspoon twice a week would be about right. Then look at your plants and see how they are responding. The recomendation is 20ppm so 10ppm twice a week works out well.

 

[malkore]

chucks calculator is your friend
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_dosage_calc.htm

do NOT make a dosing solution for potassium...you use too much too often to make a solution 'easy to use'.

instead on the web page, for the amount of water to mix with, instead of the default 500mL, put in 1mL. This way when you dose 1mL of your 1mL solution the calculator tells you how much dry powder will raise your levels.

If you download his Windows based calculator, there's a button for dry dose vs. solution.

For the record, you'll want a teaspoon to raise Potassium by about 12-13ppm. If you do that right after a water change (say on a Saturday) and then dose another tsp on Tuesday or Wednesday, you'll be sitting pretty.

 

[cbk.o4]

well i have his windows calculator and if i change it to just add the amount directly to tank...i need to add about 4.39grams of K2SO4 to the tank (made it so that it was a dose for about 52 gallons 197 liters). the teaspoon way, it gives me around 13.68ppm per dose. which over a week would be about 27.36ppm. which is above the suggested but idk if it would hurt anything..

so how would i go about dosing directly into the tank, can i just take a cup of tank water and then add to that, and dissolve it in the cup then pour the cup back into the tank and rinse it out in tank water?? is that about how im going to have to do this? cuz i really dont want to just add it in the tank and have the fish eat it or something.

 

[rich311k]

Don't worry about overdosing. Potassium is the one nutrient where to much is not going to hurt. I fill up a plastic cup with tank water mix in the dry ferts and dump in the tank.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

well i have his windows calculator and if i change it to just add the amount directly to tank...i need to add about 4.39grams of K2SO4 to the tank (made it so that it was a dose for about 52 gallons 197 liters). the teaspoon way, it gives me around 13.68ppm per dose. which over a week would be about 27.36ppm. which is above the suggested but idk if it would hurt anything..

so how would i go about dosing directly into the tank, can i just take a cup of tank water and then add to that, and dissolve it in the cup then pour the cup back into the tank and rinse it out in tank water?? is that about how im going to have to do this? cuz i really dont want to just add it in the tank and have the fish eat it or something.

You can't hurt anything giving the little extra. Potassium won't cause algae, so there's no problem there. I actually dose about that much myself.

 

[cbk.o4]

cool, ill start dosing the dry ferts tomorrow after my weekly tank cleaning and PWC.

 

[fish_4_all]

I dose 1/8-1/4 teaspoon in my 10 gallons 3 times a week. Same technique, simply use a plastic cup, fill it will tank water and dissolve. I do the same with my Magnesium although my doesing is now down to about 1/16-1/8 tsp instead of 1/2tsp, GH was a little too high.

 

[malkore]

so how would i go about dosing directly into the tank, can i just take a cup of tank water and then add to that, and dissolve it in the cup then pour the cup back into the tank and rinse it out in tank water??

99% of the time, that's how i do it. I paid 99 cents for a new rubbermaid 8oz container with a screw on lid and pop top, it works GREAT.

That said, I do dose K and NO3 directly into the tank if I"m in a rush, and yes the fish eat it, and no they don't seem to be affected by it at all. but like you, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

plus some plants will be burned if KNO3 sits on their leaves...it dissolves slower than K2SO4.

don't dry dose KCl though...its hard to dissolve I have heard...many people will make a solution of that because it takes forever to dissolve well.

 

[travis74]

can the same method/amounts be used to dose potassium nitrate?

 

[rich311k]

can the same method/amounts be used to dose potassium nitrate?

You can use the same method by disolving in a cup of water. The amounts are different. You want to more careful with the nitrates. You probably want to shoot for 10-15 ppm.