Did I pick the wrong ICP testing company?

rcpalmer1 · Nov 23, 2017

So been fighting with my tank for about a month. I am concidering going to the triton method. I have not decided what to do next. I decided to do a ICP test to see where my tank was. I used a company that was half what it cost for Triton. I got my results back. There is no recommendations. Four of the elements were negative. How do you get a negitice result? Sorry to load screen shots but I am on my phone and could not figure out how to upload the pdf. Can I get any feedback on the results and the result format.

madweazl · Nov 23, 2017

The negative values aren't a concern.

rkpetersen · Nov 23, 2017

ATI > Triton > ICP-A

Ryan T.L. · Nov 23, 2017

Is there an explanation for negative values??? I’d love to hear how to measure below zero

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 23, 2017

Make the comparison for NSw values cited.
How far a deviation is it?

None. Good. Some , fine , a lot concern.

There nothing wrong with your water imo.

agent462 · Nov 23, 2017

My opinion is yes

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/icp-analysis-comparison.326951/

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 23, 2017

Ryan T.L. said:
Is there an explanation for negative values??? I’d love to hear how to measure below zero

If the actual concentration is 2 ug/L for something, and the uncertainty of the measurement is +/-3 ug/L, sometimes the answer will show as less than 0. Obviously it isn't really below zero.

ATI Aquaristik · Nov 27, 2017

I really have to ask this question: Has no one noticed anything about the analyses of NSW (Fiji, Florida Hawai etc.) ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 27, 2017

ATI Aquaristik said:
I really have to ask this question: Has no one noticed anything about the analyses of NSW (Fiji, Florida Hawai etc.) ?

I've noticed several oddities.

1. They call beryllium a nutrient and cadmium a possible nutrient. They aren't. I'm skeptical on others (like boron impacting coral coloration) but they at least aren't provably wrong.

2. The natural seawater samples do not follow the expected ratios of the major ions in normal seawater. That is probably due to testing errors on them, but might also be due to electing locations for testing that are unusual (that is, near surface run off).

3. They show a lot of values for trace elements that are very likely just testing noise (which is actually useful to see how much noise there is). An example is chromium, which in NSW is more like 0.00026 ppm.

rcpalmer1 · Nov 27, 2017

ATI Aquaristik said:
I really have to ask this question: Has no one noticed anything about the analyses of NSW (Fiji, Florida Hawai etc.) ?

I would think you would know about water. What do you think about the quality of my water? The tank is 7 months old. Sand was white, never had an algae problem. Then a month ago tank became covered in cyano and gha. No3 and po4 has always been low. I have had water checked on 3 different Hanna checkers and po4 almost always reads 0.0. The highest no3 I have gotten is 10 but stays between 5 on undetectable. I had a fish disappear once and got a spike of 0.1. Then back to 0 in about 4 days. I don't know what to do to fix the problem because I can't figure out the problem.

JimWelsh · Nov 27, 2017

ATI Aquaristik said:
I really have to ask this question: Has no one noticed anything about the analyses of NSW (Fiji, Florida Hawai etc.) ?

Yes, I have. I've just held back my comments, which more or less repeat Randy's comment #2 above.

ATI Aquaristik · Nov 27, 2017

Thank goddness. I am not alone. We all know that the salinity of seawater varies in different areas of the ocean. And this is the reason why the absolute values of the mayor ions also varies slightly.
But the proportions of the major ions in seawater stays about the same everywhere. This is known as the principle of constant proportions (also called Forchhammer’s principle).
If you know that, it is clear that you can find for example 1155 mg/l Sulfur and 9563 mg/l Sodium at the same time. Not on this planet.

By the way. It is very easy to test ICP-Labs. Send them NSW with a known Salinitiy. Best ist 35 psu. NSW is very stable. From our experience, not only the major ions are constant. Also many trace elements such as iodine at 60µg/l, molybdenum at 12 µg/l or even vanadium at 1-1.5 µg/l. When an ICP laboratory hits both the expected mayor ions and these trace elements you know that they are doing a good job.

What do you think about the quality of my water?

Unfortunately, I cant tell you much from the informations I see. To get a better idea we need much more informations. Maybe you are missing some essentials trace elements like iodine, Zinc or Vanadium. Cyanos can be an indication that biology is impaired. The reasons for this could be limitations of nutrients or micronutrients (for example iodine). The presence of some micronutrients is important in order to close certain nutrient cycles. Otherwise, it is easy for cyanos to occupy an ecological niche. So, maybe it is a good Idea to do some waterchanges with a good salt or NSW and to hold all waterparameters as stable as possible. Cyanos come and go. So dont give up. Good luck.