# Lamotte Potassium test kit



## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

I am considering getting Potassium test kit by Lamotte and I am getting confused when the item details states for use with a colorimeter. What is that? Do I need it? Cant I just buy the reagent kit and use it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

What you need is the Potassium test kit, found at 
http://www.lamotte.com/pages/wawa/ind-kits/potasium.html
(If you correct the spelling for potassium, the link won't work)
The LaMotte web site is set up according to preconceived ideas they have about what test kits should be listed under various activities. For some unknown reason they do not list their potassium test kit under "Education and outdoor monitoring", nor do they list it under "Aquariums and fish farming" In fact, the only way to find it is to go to "Potable and waste water", where you find a link to all test kits "A-Z individual test kits". That is the only place where you can find that link! It is a very challenging web site. The best thing to do is to use the google search engine if you are looking for something.

LaMotte says the kit has enough reagents for 100 tests, but you should be able to get close to 200 tests. The presence of potassium is indicated by turbidity (a white cloud), and you get a rough idea of how much turbidity by lowering a black spot into the turbid solution until the spot can no longer be seen by looking through the suspension from the top, and then reading off the concentration at the location of the black spot, which you can see at the side of the tube. Actually, for your plants and fish, if you get the turbidity, you have enough potassium, and if the solution stays clear, or only has a slight amount of turbidity, then it is time to add more.

Potassium levels are important for your fish, too. Plants can pull down the potassium to the point where your fish can get sick and die.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

The colorimeter test kit uses the same reagents (sodium hydroxide and tetraphenylboron), but it's interesting to note that it can only accurately read levels up to 10 ppm, while the test kit with the black dot that uses the human eye can go to 50 ppm. 

Keep in mind you need some distilled or RO/DI water to dilute your sample.

If you're having trouble finding it, I got mine from clarksonlab.com.

Bookmark this link for all Lamotte test kits:

http://www.lamotte.com/pages/wawa/testlist.html

The Lamotte Potassium kit you want is part number 3138 KIW:

http://www.lamotte.com/pages/wawa/ind-kits/potasium.html


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

thanks for all the info. I was curious as to a good website to order this from?


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

I used to order directly from LaMotte. Makes things easy. Also, the colorimeter test kits are meant to be used only with their Colorimeter.


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