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KNO3 crud
I recently mixed up some agro grade KNO3 in RO water at a approx. conc. of
100mg/ml. I put some in a small bottle for dosing and put the rest in the
fridge. After about a month, my dosing bottle ran out and when I went to
refill it I found that some kind of gunk had appeared at the bottom of my
stock bottle. It consists of small grey-green clumps, about 0.5mm on
average, and comes off the bottom if I swirl the bottle. If this is some
sort of bug, I don't know what it was eating....I suppose the agro grade
KNO3 might contain some impurities that could be metabolized but I'm still
a little surprised. I don't think it's a precipitate because it hasn't
gone back into solution at room temp (nothing visibly "grew" in the
dosing bottle, however).
Has anyone else had this appear in their KNO3? Anyone have any
guesses as to what it is? I've heard of PMDD growing stuff but PMDD is a
lot more "complete" in terms of the nutrients available. I could bleach
the bottle and mix up another batch, but I see no reason this won't just
happen again. My first inclination is to put the stock solution
through a coffee filter and use it anyway. I find it hard to believe that
something that grows in the dark at 40F in 100mg/ml NO3 could act as much
of a pathogen in a brightly lit, 75F tank, in 5mg/l NO3......
Any advice would be appreciated!
-Eric