Potassium Test kit

[tcoyle]

Anyone have one that I can borrow to verify that my K in my tank is a little low? Having some greying of my orange monti and I think thats it.

 

[bknapp]

The club had one, they're rather difficult to use and the accuracy is questionable at best. Water changes with a quality salt should help avoid the potassium becoming low.

 

[tcoyle]

While I agree and do water changes with RS salt, after reading many articles on ULNS it appears that some systems us potassium faster then you can replace with water changes. Just want to verify if I have a problem or not. Dang kits are so expensive just to do one test to see.

 

[bknapp]

Yeah. You could consider a Triton or Aquarium Test and sending it in and getting a complete run down of all your parameters, which would be close to the cost of a potassium kit.

If we could drum up enough interest I could bring it to the rest of the BoD about purchasing a potassium kit.

 

[.AcroKiller.]

Last time I tested my potassium I was around 310 so I bump it up to 400 and this is also with water changes. So my tank used more potassium than water changes can handle.

 

[bknapp]

What's the level of potassium in Red Sea Salt (both using regular I'm assuming)? Is it on the lower end to begin with?

 

[tcoyle]

I will have to check… I am using 4 Cups RS and 1 Cup RSCP until I finish of the RSCP.

 

[.AcroKiller.]

Brandon I believe it was in the mid 300

 

[bknapp]

Brandon I believe it was in the mid 300

Well, using Red Sea salt will keep potassium levels low. NSW is around 380 (if I remember correctly.)

Here is a thread that might be of use:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-and-sps-corals.24622/

 

[.AcroKiller.]

380 to 410 is a good number to have and most times if you have a highly efficient skimmer your potassium will be lower.

 

[DannyB]

There is a potassium kit in the Red Sea Coral Colors Pro test kit. I don't know how much the other kits are you are talking about but this at least has iron and iodine with it.