# does high potassium lead to problems?



## jjlin78 (Dec 12, 2009)

i have a water softener in my house which gives me 0dgh. i checked out seachems website on dosing equilibrium to increase gh, and i input it into the fertilator. i also dose kno3 and kh2po4. so after i put in the numbers to try and reach an ideal level it says that my potassium is x4 higher than ideal numbers. i started to see some magnesium and calcium deficiencies and i read somewhere that a high imbalance of potassium level can lead to calcium and magnesium deficiency. i'm assuming that this means high levels of potassium http://www.finostrom.com.gr/images/aqua/fertilizers/map.htm

is this true? if it is, is their a better alternative to use for increasing my gh w/o increasing my potassium as well. thanks.


----------



## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Yes it can cause problems. 
Check out this link: http://www.finostrom.com.gr/images/aqua/fertilizers/map.htm


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Potassium excess is very unlikely to cause problems like you are seeing. The problem you have is because of the water softener. It replaces Ca and Mg with sodium. Sodium blocks Ca and Mg receptors on the plant and you get deficiency symptoms from it. Use water from before it enters the water softener or you will most likely keep having problems with the plants.


----------



## MrSanders (Mar 5, 2006)

I agree with Zapins as well. I have read other post of people having water softeners along with unresolved issues. It wasnt until after they bypassed the softener that they were able to achieve good growth. If you have extremely hard water that you want to make softer for your tanks the only good alternative is to either use straight RO water, or cut your tap water with RO water to bring down the hardness.


----------



## jjlin78 (Dec 12, 2009)

so it really doesn't matter what you dose to increase the hardness from softened water b/c the salts in the water will block all or most calcium and magnesium uptake. my whole house is run off of a softener except for my outside pipes and i don't want to do a water change with water from the outside in winter. i tested non-softened water and found that to be 20 dgh. i'm thinking of adding an outlet on my water pipe right before it hits the softener. 20dgh seems to be really high. would that be ok to use or would i just run into a whole other set of problems.


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Well, 20 degrees GH is pretty high as water goes, but you will still be able to grow most plants just fine. My best and healthiest plant growth came when I my well water at my old house (18 degrees). Plants grow best when the ratio between calcium and magnesium is more heavily shifted towards the calcium side. A 4:1 ratio of Ca:Mg is ideal, but even a 3:1 or 6:1, etc... will be fine.


----------

