Dosing Red Sea colors B

[bubbaque]

Randy,

My potassium is 360 and boron is 4.48 according to an ATI ICP test. I bought Red Sea coral colors B, which says potassium+. I see it has boron in it also. How worried should I be about dosing this to raise my potassium to 400 if my boron level is where it needs to be already?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I think it would depend how much boron is in the supplement. If it's balanced, that means for every 400 ppm of potassium the Coral Colors B adds, it would also add 4.4 ppm of boron. Operating on that assumption, if you increased your potassium by 40 ppm, ostensibly the boron would increase by only 0.44 ppm, which is likely not a problem. But I'm not sure if it's wise to assume that the additive contains the exact ratio of boron to potassium that seawater does. It should be the same or close, but Red Sea doesn't confirm that.

On the other hand, even if the supplement contains 10x as much boron as it should based on natural seawater's ratio of boron to potassium, increasing potassium by 40 ppm would only increase boron by 4 ppm. This is getting close to double the level in natural seawater, but it still might not be a problem. Randy's article on boron has a specific section on boron toxicity. It appears that about 6 times normal levels (24 ppm) appears to be harmful to at least some invertebrates, although there hasn't been rigorous scientific study on the topic, so we should be careful when interpreting these results.

I know you probably don't want to buy another additive, but have you considered a potassium-only additive since you know your boron is where it should be? Brightwell has a potassium additive that's only a few bucks on BRS.

 

[bubbaque]

I think it would depend how much boron is in the supplement. If it's balanced, that means for every 400 ppm of potassium the Coral Colors B adds, it would also add 4.4 ppm of boron. Operating on that assumption, if you increased your potassium by 40 ppm, ostensibly the boron would increase by only 0.44 ppm, which is likely not a problem. But I'm not sure if it's wise to assume that the additive contains the exact ratio of boron to potassium that seawater does. It should be the same or close, but Red Sea doesn't confirm that.

On the other hand, even if the supplement contains 10x as much boron as it should based on natural seawater's ratio of boron to potassium, increasing potassium by 40 ppm would only increase boron by 4 ppm. This is getting close to double the level in natural seawater, but it still might not be a problem. Randy's article on boron has a specific section on boron toxicity. It appears that about 6 times normal levels (24 ppm) appears to be harmful to at least some invertebrates, although there hasn't been rigorous scientific study on the topic, so we should be careful when interpreting these results.

I know you probably don't want to buy another additive, but have you considered a potassium-only additive since you know your boron is where it should be? Brightwell has a potassium additive that's only a few bucks on BRS.

Thanks you for the detailed reply! I reached out to Red Sea about the boron and they told me there is only a trace amount of boron and not to worry about.

 

[Big E]

Have you tested the K on your own before starting to dose?
If so, how were the results compared to ATI?

I used Brightwells as suggested above in the past and it worked well for me.

 

[bubbaque]

Have you tested the K on your own before starting to dose?
If so, how were the results compared to ATI?

I used Brightwells as suggested above in the past and it worked well for me.

I haven't tested it on my own. I have the test kit but even if my numbers came up different I'd think the way I did it was off instead of their test. Thoughts?

 

[Mal11224]

I used brightwell in the past and it works well. I did, however, measure potassium as well. Very tedious test but I think it's necessary. I think too much can alter coral colors. I think you should be fine with the Red Sea since you already have it.

 

[BCSreef]

I have been dosing it for over a year with IO salt in an SPS dominant tank. 5ml/day in 300 gallon system. My Triton tests every few months come back K just over 400 ppm and B at about 5 ppm. Both are close to Triton recommended ranges. So, it seems to have a "balanced" ratio in my system.

Hope that helps, Bob

 

[Big E]

I haven't tested it on my own. I have the test kit but even if my numbers came up different I'd think the way I did it was off instead of their test. Thoughts?

It's ok if they don't match exact, you still need to test to set a baseline to see how much you need to dose to get it back up to an acceptable level and to monitor over time. I use the Salifert kit and it's consistent with it's measurements.

You should check your fresh saltwater too. I you're doing water changes, the levels should stay stable unless your salt brand is low.