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Red Sea Coral Pro Salt with Red Sea Test Kit with 0 K+ and Fe+

R

reeferkid

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to reef and saltwater. My tank is been running for almost 5 months and been using red sea coral pro salt since the beginning. I recently bought the Red Sea Reef Color Pro Kit. My Iodine is normal at 0.06ppm. But my iron is zero and potassium I think is zero because I stopped after adding 3 times the reagent and the titration is not changing color. Next, I mixed a gallon of ro/di water with the salt and I'm getting the same reading.

My nitrite and ammonia are undetectable and phosphate is at 0.08ppm. My ro/di water tds is at zero. My alk is at 10. Calcium is around 600.
Salinity is 1.026. Not dosing anything other than acropower every other. Running a phosphate reactor with phosban. Using Coralife super skimmer 150. and chemipure elite with api phoszorb. Also running coralife uv sanitizer. Have about 70 pounds of live rock in 55 gallon tank with 10 gallon sump.

Thanks
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Welcome to the boards reeferkid. It sounds like you have a great start going there and if you're looking for help or advise, you will surely get it here.

The one parameter you gave that stuck out the most to me was the Calcium. 600 seems really high! A reef aquarium is recommended to be in the 380-450 range for Cal and it's typically around 420. I'm wondering if the acropower could be boosting that up higher than it should be? It shouldn't because it's amino acids but you said that's all you are dosing. Maybe you want to cut back on that until your Cal gets into the normal range.

What kind of fish/corals are you keeping in this tank?

Also, the three main things to test are your Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. Have you tested all of those and if so, what were the results? Your next important set of tests would be Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate (all of which you want to be close to zero). Although Iron, Iodine, and Potassium are trace elements that you want in your system, they are further down the chain of importance so I was surprised you mentioned those instead of the more important parameters.

Not trying to put you down or anything, but just trying to give some friendly advise.
 
saltkreep88

saltkreep88

reeferkid said:
I mean I will try it again. I do have a chemistry degree from Rutgers and 5 years of experience in a chemistry lab.
Click to expand...

I wrote my first response in haste because I should have been working haha. I believe red sea pro is derived directly from the rea sea so it very unlikely that the iron and potassium content is zero. A bad test kit on the other hand is very possible and happens often. Also, to add what George said about your calcium level, red sea pro is normally around 470 at 1.026. How do you measure your salinity? If you are not using a refractometer calibrated with the proper reference solution your salinity may be off screwing with all other levels (maybe even iron and potassium tests).
 
R

reeferkid

saltkreep88 said:
Also, to add what George said about your calcium level, red sea pro is normally around 470 at 1.026. How do you measure your salinity? If you are not using a refractometer calibrated with the proper reference solution your salinity may be off screwing with all other levels (maybe even iron and potassium tests).
Click to expand...

Thank You for your help. I am using a portable refractometer. It was calibrated about 2 weeks ago with my ro/di water. The pH is about 7.8 and the tank is about 82 degrees. I have a few zoas colonies, toadstool, a few montiporas and frogspawn and goniopora. Hermit crabs, starfish, long tenticles anemone, hand full of snails, 2 clowns and a small blue tang. I also do 10% water change every week.
 
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