Red Sea Color Program ?

WVReefJunkie · Jan 25, 2017

I tested the elements with Red Sea Test kits.
Potassium-365
Iron 0.05
Iodine-0.06

Having problems calculating doses for Potassium and Iron for 250 gallons of water. Also I am in the middle of the week should I wait till the weekend to test these elements after a water change? Thanks, Reefers.

Diesel · Jan 25, 2017

You can wait till you do a water change but how much % we talking in a water change?
Red Sea's Reef Care program says to get good green / yellow coloration in corals, iron should be maintained at 0.15ppm. NSW iron is much lower... I read 0.0034.
http://www.seafriend...no/seawater.htm

I used to dose iron at around 5 ppb per week in SPS tanks.
I have a sneaking suspicion that it is a limiting nutrient that is important in keeping Acropora palmata in captivity (there are only a couple people in the world who have success keeping this coral more than a year or so).
0.15 ppm is so ridiculously incorrect it's not even funny.
Iron is measured in the parts per trillion range in surface seawater.
There is really no point in trying to test it with hobby test kits.
It is far too low in concentration to be detected without super fancy tools.

As @Randy Holmes-Farley states in the AA article, there really is no harm in adding moderate amounts of it to your tank and observing your animals. Some people have reported good results in paled out Montipora recovering with Fe and Mn additions.
FWIW you need to add it chelated to something.
I use the recipe of sodium citrate and ferrous sulfate that Randy recommends.
You can also buy it in a bottle from Julian at Two Little Fishies.

Rob Lion · Jan 25, 2017

to know how much to dose, you first need to know how much you are consuming..... so test on day one.... wait 4 days... test again... the drop is the amount consumed.... divide that by 4 days for daily consumption to work out daily dosing needs.....

dose it for a week, then test again.... do the same... divide the drop by 7, and ADD (or subtract) that from your 4 day test...

dosing will depend on your main coral types too ie. SPS / LPS / Softies.

softies = 380 K (potasium)
LPS = 390 K
SPS 400-410 K

mixed reef aim for 400 K

at 365 K , you would need to dose 250ml total to get up to 400 K ... personally I would do that in 50ml increments over 5 days to ensure you don't burn the SPS.

I would strongly sugest re testing before dosing that much too.