ATI Analysis and Cobalt

Huskymaniac · Sep 12, 2018

About a month ago had an issue where some of my corals looked off. I was dosing Seachem Flourish and Seachem Nitrogen to add some nutrients. I sent my water out to ATI to do an analysis and the only thing that looks off a bit is the Cobalt. My other metals are ok so not sure if this is a metal issue or where it is coming from. Any ideas on what to do? ATI didnt recommend anything in regards to the Cobalt so not sure if this is something that shows up in tests.

Huskymaniac · Sep 14, 2018

Just bumping this back up

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 15, 2018

That is a lot of cobalt, but I have no idea if it is a tox issue or not (the tox of trace elements depends very strongly on the form,a nd ICP cannot give form information).

Elevated cobalt buy itself is quite uncommonly seen (at least reported here).

Are you dosing any vitamins (cobalt is part of B-12) or trace element supplements?

Huskymaniac · Sep 15, 2018

I am dosing red sea trace elements but a very small amount and only a couple times a week. I do use reef energy but dont think there is Cobalt in there. I am at a loss on how to even remove it. Is it just water changes?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 15, 2018

Huskymaniac said:
I am dosing red sea trace elements but a very small amount and only a couple times a week. I do use reef energy but dont think there is Cobalt in there. I am at a loss on how to even remove it. Is it just water changes?

The Reef Energy B may have it, but unless you were overdosing by a big margin, I wouldn't expect it is the issue.

Unless the tank appears to be suffering, I'd ignore it.

Water changes will help, but if the source is ongoing, it may come right back.

Without knowing the form, it's hard to say if materials like metasorb, polyfilter, or cuprisorb would work, but they might.

Huskymaniac · Sep 19, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The Reef Energy B may have it, but unless you were overdosing by a big margin, I wouldn't expect it is the issue.

Unless the tank appears to be suffering, I'd ignore it.

Water changes will help, but if the source is ongoing, it may come right back.

Without knowing the form, it's hard to say if materials like metasorb, polyfilter, or cuprisorb would work, but they might.

Just thinking back I was dosing seachen flourish nitrogen and phosphorus to boost my nutrient levels. Some of my corals looked off so I stopped dosing. Is it possible that the cobalt came from there or some type of cross reactivity with iron? I did remove any stainless steel clamps in my stand as a precaution even though there were no metals.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2018

Huskymaniac said:
Just thinking back I was dosing seachen flourish nitrogen and phosphorus to boost my nutrient levels. Some of my corals looked off so I stopped dosing. Is it possible that the cobalt came from there or some type of cross reactivity with iron? I did remove any stainless steel clamps in my stand as a precaution even though there were no metals.

I really do not know what impurities may be in their products, but wouldn't guess so since elevated cobalt not routinely reported.