Red sea colors test kits

[GoJimmy]

I want to start using the RS Colors program and I have the whole kit abcd, along with the colors program test kit. I purchased the test kit because I don't want to dose the colors based on calcium intake, I'd rather dose based on the level of each of the formulas. The test kit comes with a test for iron, iodine, and potassium. On my initial test, iodine was at optimum levels, 0.06ppm and so was potassium, 410ppm, but iron was undetectable. According to the colors program, iron needs to be at 0.15ppm. If I were dosing to calcium intake, I would be overdosing potassium and iodine and iron would still be deficient.
Should I just dose the iron to ideal levels? Also, how much of the colors D should I dose? There is no test kit for that. According to the instruction, bottle D is based on calcium intake but I don't know how to measure for that.

 

[Bugger]

Make sure those kits have not expired

 

[Rob Lion]

read what it says carefully....... when you dose iron (colour D) it will become undetectable within a few minutes as it bond with organics, as such you cant really test for it despite the kit.
only dose the colours C (fe) if your green corals are looking pale.
i found that i never had to dose iodine (colour A) as the weekly/bi weekly water changes added enough, if i had dosed if i matched the calcium uptake i would have overdosed the iodine and caused issues.
potassium (colour B) test is hard to do correctly, there are a few youtube vids that show how, a few extra steps to red seas instructions, but again, weekly w/c add enough.

all in all, it was fun to learn... but in really i found the red sea colours a waste of time and money, which is a shame as i use all their other products.

 

[GoJimmy]

That's exactly what I found with iodine and potassium. My green acros actually do look a little pale. They have started to color up since I have managed my no3 around 2ppm and po4 around 0.03ppm. My system was ultra low nutrient before. I still feel that they are not as green as they could be though

 

[Rob Lion]

i'm in exactly the same boat...... always run nitrates a 0.2ppm and phosphates at 0.015ppm rock steady, and trying to get more colour now, so i'm moving to 2ppm nitrates and 0.03 phosphates. My LPS and softies are loving the change

dropping dKh from 9.8 to 8.9 now too and slowly dropping NOPOX dosing.

 

[Bunnee911]

I dose iron to keep my chaeto happy. If it gets pale, you may need iron.

 

[shadow1013]

The Red Sea guys at RAP Orlando 2016 told us to dose based on CA at a 10/1 ratio. So if you dose 10ml of CA then you dose 1ml of Color A, B, C, and D.

 

[GoJimmy]

Now I just have to figure out how much calcium my system is using I guess.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I want to start using the RS Colors program and I have the whole kit abcd, along with the colors program test kit. I purchased the test kit because I don't want to dose the colors based on calcium intake, I'd rather dose based on the level of each of the formulas. The test kit comes with a test for iron, iodine, and potassium. On my initial test, iodine was at optimum levels, 0.06ppm and so was potassium, 410ppm, but iron was undetectable. According to the colors program, iron needs to be at 0.15ppm. If I were dosing to calcium intake, I would be overdosing potassium and iodine and iron would still be deficient.
Should I just dose the iron to ideal levels? Also, how much of the colors D should I dose? There is no test kit for that. According to the instruction, bottle D is based on calcium intake but I don't know how to measure for that.

IMO, natural and ideal iron levels (which may be far above natural levels, but still way, way below Red Sea recommendations) are far to low to detect with any kit. Not sure why Red Sea recommends so massively overdosing it.