# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Using "No salt" as potassium supplement



## DUCK EEL (Apr 7, 2003)

Hey guys,

Ive been using Seachem potassium but I thought Id save some money by using "no salt" as potassium supplement as Ive read somewhere that you can use this as potassium supplement.

But the problem I have here is that I cant remember where I read it and I dont know how much to dose or to create the mixture.

Can someone help me out please.

Also when I go out to buy "no salt" which one should I be looking out for? eg are there some out there that contains certain substance that i should avoid? 

Thanks


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## DUCK EEL (Apr 7, 2003)

Hey guys,

Ive been using Seachem potassium but I thought Id save some money by using "no salt" as potassium supplement as Ive read somewhere that you can use this as potassium supplement.

But the problem I have here is that I cant remember where I read it and I dont know how much to dose or to create the mixture.

Can someone help me out please.

Also when I go out to buy "no salt" which one should I be looking out for? eg are there some out there that contains certain substance that i should avoid? 

Thanks


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## imported_Creature (Feb 6, 2003)

If it comes in the form of potassium chloride, you might want to rethink the no salt. How would you determine your needs?


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Read the ingredients. You want the product that is closest to 100% potassium chloride. There will probably be additives for moisture control and flavor adjustment but they should not be more than a few % of the total.

You may also be able to find relatively pure potassium chloride sold for recharging water softeners. Potassium chloride can also be had as a fertilizer, but the agricultural grade product is not very pure.

Once you have the product, you can dose it as potassium chloride using Chuck Gadd's dosing calculator.


Roger Miller


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## DUCK EEL (Apr 7, 2003)

Ah thanks

but what sort of store would sell potasssium chloride as water softener? hardware or gardening? or am i lost


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Check at hardware stores. Here it is sold by Home Depot. They sell it in bags that may be larger than you have in mind.


Roger Miller


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## DUCK EEL (Apr 7, 2003)

Thanks for your help, I will check out the hardware store on my next visit


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## NoDeltaH2O (May 13, 2005)

A "NoSalt" product I have found containes 19% Potassium and the ingredient list is:
potassium chloride
potassium bitartrate
adipic acid
fumaric acid
silicon dioxide
mineral oil

311 gram bottle for US$4 at 19% K seems feasible to me, but what about the acids, silicon and mineral oil? Bad for fish, shrimp, and/or plants?


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

You can get sodium-free salt substitutes (Morton's NoSalt, for instance) that are nearly pure potassium chloride. Potassium chloride is a little over 50% potassium. A product that contains only 19% potassium contains a lot of other ingredients.

I think the acids are used to adjust the flavor of the product. Silicon dioxide is used to control moisture. I think the mineral oil is for texture and flow. I'm not sure about the potassium bitartrate.

Anyway, I wouldn't use that product.


Roger Miller


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

DrDrake,

I was thinking about your 19% NoSalt. That percentage seemed very low, so I checked the label on mine. The product gives 610 mg of potassium in a 1.2 gram serving. That's 50.8% potassium. However, the percentage listed on the container is 17%. That percentage is not the percentage of potassium in the salt, it's the percentage of the potassium Daily Value provided by the serving.

You might check the label again to be sure about what you are reading.


Roger Miller


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## DUCK EEL (Apr 7, 2003)

I ended up using seachem potassium again, we only have on brand of no salt here and it contains ammonium and some stuff ive never heard off lol

cheers anyway guys


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## superjohnny (Jul 31, 2004)

> quote:Originally posted by Roger Miller:
> DrDrake,
> 
> I was thinking about your 19% NoSalt. That percentage seemed very low, so I checked the label on mine. The product gives 610 mg of potassium in a 1.2 gram serving. That's 50.8% potassium. However, the percentage listed on the container is 17%. That percentage is not the percentage of potassium in the salt, it's the percentage of the potassium Daily Value provided by the serving.
> ...


Roger do you stand by your earlier statement that you wouldn't use the NoSalt? I have this same product and was thinking of using it as a potassium additive, but I'll take another route if you think it's a bad idea.

I appreciate your advice, thanks.


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Superjohnny, that depends on the answer to my question. If the product is 19% potassium then I would not us it. If it is 5O%+ potassium then I would use it. The minor ingredients may cause some temporary cloudiness, but nothing worse than that.


Roger Miller


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## NoDeltaH2O (May 13, 2005)

Roger, you are emost likely right about me misreading the label on the original NoSalt I ran across. The Morton's Salt Substitute (your recommendation thanks) is what I went with as it is almost pure potassium chloride. I have heard (and read) that potassium should almost be dosed "like a trace element" as there is no real way of testing for it and plants only need "a little bit". In my tanks I have a combination of Amazon swords, anacharis, lotus nymphae, tenellus, microsword, apogneton & dispidalis (sp?). When I started dosing KCl, the apogneton and amazon and micro-swords seemed to appreciate it but the anacharis seemed to start growing in pale. Not yellow, but pale. The lotus nymphae also slowed its growth during regular KCl dosing which lasted for about 2 or 3 weeks. Could it be that the anacharis was getting too much KCl? Maybe the swords when in the presence of KCl were able to outcompete anacharis and lotus nymphae? Seconday effects are often hard to nail down, especially when explained as poorly as I have done here, but any ideas are appreciated.

My tank specs are:
20gallon long established 18 months
~4wpg ODNO bulbs 12hr/day
pH 6.8
KH 13.5
CO2 50ppm via DIY
nitrates <10ppm, >5ppm (have to add nitrate of Soda biweekly)
lots of water movement via powerhead that also delivers CO2 from DIY jugs
plain gravel and some local fine gravel/sand for the microswords
heavily planted (cannot see the gravel)
moderate fish load (>1/2 of which are algae eaters & amano shrimp)


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

> quote:Originally posted by DrDrake:
> I have heard (and read) that potassium should almost be dosed "like a trace element" as there is no real way of testing for it and plants only need "a little bit".


Those could be controversial statements.

Potassium is usually the second most abundant nutrient in plant matter. Nitrogen is normally the most abundant, but in some instances potassium can be found at higher concentrations than nitrogen. It is definitely not a trace element. Potassium is present in most natural fresh waters at concentrations of a few ppm, and that seems to be sufficient for floating plants. Rooted plants might be adapted to higher potassium concentrations in soils.

Regardless of *how* the potassium is provided, to match the composition of healthy plant tissue the potassium supply should be about the same as the nitrogen supply. When you use nitrate as the nitrogen measure the potassium supply should be about 1/4 of the nitrate supply. Keep in mind that fish foods are a rich source of plant-available nitrogen, but a poor source of potassium.

Matching a healthy plant composition is not the only standard for designing a nutrient source so it's possible to find multiple "right" answers in your reading. Plants are tolerant of high potassium levels, so people don't usually worry about over dosing.



> quote:Could it be that the anacharis was getting too much KCl?


As a direct effect that is unlikely. It could be a secondary effect, but to me it seems more likely that the symptoms were unrelated to the potassium dosing.

Roger Miller


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## aviel (Sep 12, 2004)

> quote: When you use nitrate as the nitrogen measure the potassium supply should be about 1/4 of the nitrate supply


Roger - I thought K:N ration in KNO3 is 39:62 that's about 2:3 no?

Also in the article you wrote for Robert u show that plants can take pretty high amount of potassium but you also state that what counts is the ratio between calcium/magnessium and potassium. That means that if I have soft water I should refrain from supplementing too much potassium. Could you provide a rule of thumb for the reasonable ratios between the three?

Thank you,

Aviel.


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

> quote:Originally posted by Aviel Livay:
> Roger - I thought K:N ration in KNO3 is 39:62 that's about 2:3 no?


No. The ratio of potassium to nitrATE in KNO3 is 39:62. The K:N ratio is 39:14, or about 2.8:1 If KNO3 is your only supply of K and N then it would oversupply potassium relative to nitrogen. KNO3 is not the only source in most aquariums. If you factor in the contributions from fish food (high N, low K) and tap water then the ratio will balance out differently. Some substrate materials can also provide potassium. Just how K and N balance will depend on your conditions.



> quote:Could you provide a rule of thumb for the reasonable ratios between the three?


Long-standing advice from hydroponics literature (see for instance the excellent article by Ames and Johnson that I used in my article for Robert) is that potassium and calcium should be about the same and that magnesium should not exceed calcium. Hydroponics solutions often use K:Ca:Mg ratios of 4:4:1 You wouldn't have a hard time finding people that break those guidelines without any trouble so don't take them as hard and fast rules.

Roger Miller


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