Barium Question

[TanksJB]

My last three ATI tests reveal Barium in micrometers per liter I guess (Greek mu) as follows (I am not a chemist!): 17.6 (7/1); 88.8 (10/1), and 106 (12/1).
1) Should I be concerned about this increase? I have found conflicting answers.
2) Is GFO the cause or cure? I have heard both but these seem like guesses to me. I was not using any GFO when the first test was made. The tank was only 6 months old when the first test was made so it was not increasing as much then as it has since July (if it started out as zero when I first set up the tank around January 1).
Do you have any thoughts on this? I can't think of anything I have done differently since I set up the tank except for using GFO but I don't know what the numbers were on January 1 of this year. If GFO is supposed to remove it then it does not work I guess. I do not dose barium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not think folks need to be concerned about barium either way. It not biologically needed, and elevated values are not typically high enough to be toxic. It chemically acts a lot like calcium.