# Storing potassium in the fridge.



## Mikael (Jan 7, 2007)

I noticed in one of the pinned threads that some recommend storing potassium in liquid form in the fridge in order to prevent mold from growing in the bottle. It is madness doing this if you have young children home. A tablespoon K2SO4 dissolved in 300ml of water would be enough to kill several two-year olds if ingested.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

K2SO4 is poisonous? You are talking about Potassium Sulfate right?

This is new. I've never heard that K2SO4 is dangerous...

Can you (or anyone else) provide some references for this? If true, it should be known. If not, then let's kill it now  .

And welcome to APC!


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## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

*Toxicity of our fertilizers??*

In Wikipedia, the main hazard of K2SO4 is consider as an irritant???.

Well, it will be very interesting to develop a thread with more on the toxicity, and what to do if ingest on all the chemical we used in planted tank, at the concentration we used.

Better be aware...

Anyway if you got any 2 years old around, I will make sure to have all that crap far from him...


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## Mikael (Jan 7, 2007)

An overdose of potassium is an important ingredient in lethal injections (used in the USA for capital punishment).

Thanks for the welcome by the way.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

A potassium solution injected into the bloodstream is very dangerous, since it causes interference with the electrical circuitry of the heart. A strong potassium solution is infused througout the heart to stop it for open-heart surgery.

Ingesting potassium is an entirely different matter. Hyperkalemia (high blood K) could result, but the onset would be much slower. It would be unlikely that a child would eat enough to cause real harm, since the solution would be extremely salty and not especially tasty. A large dose would also tend to induce vomitting, solving the problem in an effective, but not-so-elegant manner.

We often orally administer 20, 40, or sometimes even 80 Meq of potassium to patients who are hypokalemic. 20 Meq of KCl would be about 1.5 grams. This might not sound like a lot, but try eating 1.5 grams of regular table salt sometime. Yuck. BTW, KCl is a commonly used substitute for table salt for people who are sodium restricted.

From a medical perspective, K2SO4 is one of the least harmful "fertilizers" for children. KNO3 would be far more dangerous. Drinking water nitrate levels are carefully monitored to prevent toxicity in children. Probably the most dangerous though would be iron-containing compounds. Many, many people take iron supplements, usually to treat anemia. These pills are quite harmful to children if accidentally swallowed since their bodies aren't well equiped to deal with a sudden toxic level. It's much less of an issue in adults.

For this reason, eating or drinking a trace element or iron mix would be potentially harmful, but again, they don't taste very good so it's unlikely to be an issue. A few drops wouldn't hurt anyone and that's all a kid would be likely to get. Gluteraldehyde is another potential toxin and many people have rather severe allergic reactions to bloodworms. The list goes on and on....

Bottom line: Keep all of this stuff out of the reach of children, just as you would any other chemical. If you want to worry about child safety as it relates to this hobby there are several things that are more dangerous. Open-top tanks, aquariums on unstable furniture, sloppy electrical connections, and half-full 5-gallon buckets that are left lying around come to mind.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

POTASSIUM SULFATE just for those interested.

Personally I try not to store anything in the refrigerator that isn't meant for eating or drinking. I used to store tubifex and brine shrimp in my refrigerator, but I quit that long ago. I even dislike keeping medicines in the refrigerator.


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## 02FX4dude (Jan 4, 2007)

guaiac_boy said:


> For this reason, eating or drinking a trace element or iron mix would be potentially harmful, but again, they don't taste very good so it's unlikely to be an issue. A few drops wouldn't hurt anyone and that's all a kid would be likely to get. Gluteraldehyde is another potential toxin and many people have rather severe allergic reactions to bloodworms. The list goes on and on....


Gluteraldehyde? Isn't that whats in Seachem Flourish Excel?

Brian


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## morta_skuld (Sep 20, 2006)

before the kno3 is used as a preservative in meats. Once you put small amount of kno3 in meats it will turn red. that it look like its fresh. some havent used this stuff but still many are trying to do this.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

02FX4dude said:


> Gluteraldehyde? Isn't that whats in Seachem Flourish Excel?
> 
> Brian


Not quite. Seachem uses a compound called Polycycloglutaracetal in their Excel product. I assume this makes it a safer compound than Gluteraldehyde.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

Dilute phosphates will grow critters nicely if not asceptically filled, radiated or refrigerated (KH2PO4 or K2HPO4). If you have a solution of just phosphate, you might do well to refrigerate it or put it in a squeeze bottle w/ a filter mounted on the end to prevent innoculating it w/ something that will grow in it.


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