Icp.oes Triton lab test.

[mbmikebray]

The result for K potassium suggests dosing 140ml over 3 days to lift from 368 to 400.
I purchased Red sea trace colors B potassium+and checked the calculator online which suggests dosing 0.9 ounces which is 26.6ml to lift to 400!
Can anyone confirm the correct dose please?
Tank 90g sump 30g - used 110g to calculate.

[mbmikebray]

Any suggestions from anyone?

[bertoni]

Sorry, I'll go through the math and see what I find. I am trying to find the concentration of the potassium supplement. Do they list it on the package?

[bertoni]

26.6 ml sounds very wrong. Which calculator did you use? Does the Triton test come with a recommendation for using that Red Sea product?

[mbmikebray]

Bertoni, thank you for your help.
Red sea doesn't list the consentration on the package. They say to dose 1ml potassium per 10ml of foundation calcium when dosed. It is listed as potassium chloride; borax on the package.
I used the ultimatereef.net supplement calculator. The Triton test doesn't reccomend/suggest any product, just the dosage- 2 days at 68.2ml 3rd day 3.41ml.

[bertoni]

Is this a dry product, or a solution? Do they list the percentage of potassium chloride and borax by weight anywhere?

[bertoni]

If we assume it's almost all potassium chloride, then we get about 52% potassium by weight, so to add 1 ppm, add 2 mg per L or about 7.6 mg per gallon. That'd be 0.8 grams to raise the level in your system by 1 ppm, or about 26 grams to raise it from 368 ppm to 400 ppm.

[mbmikebray]

This is a solution, no listing of percentages.
Am I right to say that 26 grams is equal to 26ml of the solution?

[bertoni]

No, 26 ml is for the dry weight of using plain potassium chloride. I don't know what the concentration of their solution is. The online manual said that the packaging would give the concentration. :( Sigh!

[mbmikebray]

Ok, I found the formula for Red Sea online. 1ml per 25g =1.75ppm therefore approximately 80 ml =32ppm to raise to 400 from 368 for 110g. I will dose 10 ml per day for 8 days to gradually increase the potassium.

[bertoni]

That sounds reasonable to me. :)

[mbmikebray]

After dosing the potassium for several days I noticed my magnesium has dropped back, can the potassium cause this to happen?
The triton lab test said mag was low so I lifted it prior to dosing the potassium.
Curoius after the triton test because I have always used salifert tests and been confident with the results however the triton test says low calcium and to raise from 406 to 440.
Low mag and to raise from 1261 to 1370. I raised both and the mag has dropped back to the previous 1260 already after 3 weeks! Not sure if the potassium caused this as I didnt test mag before dosing.
Can the salifert tests be so far off - I purchased a new salifert mag test as the old was nearly out of date and got the same result!
The tank has been set up for 2.5 years using Instant Ocean salt 95g with 30g sump. Very slow growth or no growth hense the triton test, also lights - reefbreeders led's were found to be set too low after renting par meter a few months ago. Very slow improvment since adjusting the par.

[bertoni]

Dosing potassium shouldn't lower magnesium. Test kits like the magnesium kit will tend to read lower over time as the reagent solutions lose water, but I am not sure what might be happening here. I would repeat the process of dosing with the new test kit to see what happens.