Potassium permanganate: do you dare?

W

wetmanNY

AC Members
Jul 25, 1999
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Native New Yorker
www.skepticalaquarist.com
KMnO4. So dangerous in enthusiastic hands. I've just finished burning two tanks with the freshly-mixed powder, made into a stock solution and used at 2 ppm, to beat minor cilioate ectoparasites.

The water (after the hydrogen peroxide counter-treatment) is crystal clear. The fish are energized by the extra oxygen: minute bubbles all over. Algae will be severely hampered.

I got my KMnO4 crystals from PondRx.com. A pound of it! Will I live to be a hundred and ten?

Does anyone else ever still do this old regimen in an aquarium any more? Or am I the last fool?
 
Hey wetman,
I'm no old-schooler, so, fill me it, what/how does it work? benifits in your eyes? Back in highschool, we used to mix that with a certain household ingredient to make smoke bombs, but apparently it has other uses!
 
For killing snails when you're getting new plants it has to be a strong dip-- too strong for a tank. I haven't used KMnO4 this way, but it's a trad use.

Dr Erik Johnson at www.koivet.com has the most complete set of directions and the why and wherefore of potassium permanganate. It's under "Medication and doses"

Bookmark that site, if you haven't already!
 
I would have liked to join your ranks nine months ago to sterilize a peice of driftwood, but gave up looking after a couple of months of fruitless searching. Where did you get yours?
 
Thank you, RTR. I've uploaded the material safety data sheet on potassium permanganate to www.skepticalaquarist.com .

Several repeat treatments with potassium permanganate, until 2 ppm takes four hours to completely oxidize, have eliminated minor skin parasites on my Pearl Gouramis. Without the irritation, they are now producing less skin slime, their darkened colors have cleared, and the water is crisp and clean.

But I followed Erik Johnson's directions extremely cautiously. I treated the powder with great care. I didn't overdose. I don't have children. ..

A reward for behaving like an adult is that you're entitled to work with adult materials. But when I hear how erythromycin is splashed about to counter every appearance of cyanobacteria now, well, I wonder whether KMnO4 should be mentioned at all in a public forum...
 
To answer your original question... Count me in although I don't use it often nowdays. Thirty years ago we used KMnO4 as often as salt or nitrofurans.
 
Never used it at home, probably never will, but it use to be used at the hatchery often. The water source is a stream so results were variable due to dissolved solids?, organics? (can't recall off the top of my head). Anyway, it's nice not to have to worry about O2 depletion, though the MSDS shows other worries.
 
Sears

It is also available at Sears hardware, in the water softener department, $5 for a small jar.

I haven't used it yet, but intend to use it to sterilize a used canister filter.

The folks on the Puregold goldfish site use it frequently.

The cautions are so serious, I am wary of opening the jar and will wait until the weather is nice to do it outside.
 
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