First ICP test came back... should I be worried?

[justin.k.nelson]

As the title states, I just got my first ICP test back from ICP testing.com. Overall, my parameters were close to some other reefs that they had as benchmarks but I was curious on a couple of items:

My tank is roughly 200 gallons of water but I forgot how much rock work I have in it. I use a Geo Reef calcium reactor and modified my BRS Dual reactor to have both chambers filled with 2 Fishes Reborn media. I also dose AF Fish and Coral Vitamins with my phtyo and reef roids. I do not use GFO, preferring to go naturally with macro algae in my fuge. I do use about 1 cup of carbon in a next reef reactor.

Based on the results, should I be concerned with the following:
Aluminim
Arsenic ( Not sure where this is coming from )
Chromium
Lithium

How do I get rid of these heavy metals? Can I use a poly filter or something related? I use Instant Ocean salt and do about 30 gallon water change every 5-6 weeks, depending on when my trumpet corals tell me to do one. They tend to look deflated and after a WC, they plump back up again.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

May I ask. Are you seeing any negative effect in the system ?

 

[justin.k.nelson]

Nothing that I can truly quantify. I did have some SPS frags randomly die on me but I think that was due to 2 big alk swings that I had trying to dial my CaRx in. Everything has been pretty stable for about a month now. I haven't really lost any fish except for a Bangaii Cardinal that I have had for about 5 years and was super big and fat. Doing a quick google search, this is roughly their max lifetime, so I never associated this with heavy metals in my tank.

My main issue is that I don't really see vertical growth, just a lot of encrusting growth. I want to attribute this to running too blue of a tank and I since have gone to a more white 15k look for my tank. Visually, but I think more than anything, mentally, I want to say I'm seeing some new nubs form. My biggest issue is vertical growth. I used to run (2) Jebao WP 45's and (2) MP 40's. I've since gone to just the 2 MP40's and cranked them up a bit more.

I'm just mainly curious about ICP testing and since I won a year worth of testing at this last MACNA, I wanted to utilize it and noticed on this first test the high levels of some heavy metals. I just submitted a second test to see if anything has gone done. I am running carbon now for a couple of days and curious what the results will bear when I get them next week.

 

[SDReefer]

All I see out of the margin of error is Lithium, which Instant Ocean is known to have high levels of Lithium. As long as you are not seeing any adverse effects in your tank, I would not worry.

 

[SDReefer]

Many of those metals could possibly come from your salt mix, live rock/sand, or even the air. As long as they're not high, you are good.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank you. Yes , I do belive poly pad and GFO will pull many heavy metals. Exactly what , I'm not 100%sure.

I don't belive the encrusting vs branching is water chemistry. We've been debating that recently. I don't belive it's lighting at all.

Mine branch not encrust. Almost exclusively. No real clue why. Myself , I kinda think it's too much flow ;Bookworm or a chemical signal

That's an issue for another thread though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Calcium is super high (if accurate). Are you adding it, besides the reactor?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Aluminum and arsenic and chromium all look to be at their limit of quantitation based on the comparators (where it also should be less), so I wouldn't worry about those since I don't think they are accurate measurements.

Lithium, if accurate, is among the highest I've seen. It may not be accurate or a problem, but it is very high.

 

[justin.k.nelson]

Calcium is super high (if accurate). Are you adding it, besides the reactor?

No sir, the only additives I can tell are from the Calcium Reactor or my Instant Ocean.

 

[justin.k.nelson]

Aluminum and arsenic and chromium all look to be at their limit of quantitation based on the comparators (where it also should be less), so I wouldn't worry about those since I don't think they are accurate measurements.

Lithium, if accurate, is among the highest I've seen. It may not be accurate or a problem, but it is very high.

Thank you again Randy for the look through. What do you suggest I do to reduce it? Should I incorporate a Poly Filter?

 

[justin.k.nelson]

I was doing a little research on the forums and found someone that had high levels of Li from dosing with Tech M back in the pre fluconozole days. I had bryopsis pretty bad about a year and a half ago and I wonder if there were trace levels of Li in the Tech M i used and possibly the Fluconozle I used to treat my tank. I have since stopped using either one but the levels could have slowly increased and with a water change every 5-6 weeks or so, I wasn't doing much to lower them.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/detox-to-remove-elevated-lithium-levels.225766/
Post 13

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't know of any way to remove aluminum except water changes. Salt mixes are also often a source.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No sir, the only additives I can tell are from the Calcium Reactor or my Instant Ocean.

Does normal calcium testing suggest a high value?

 

[justin.k.nelson]

Does normal calcium testing suggest a high value?

Not really. My Calcium stays fairly steady at around 445-465. At its highest, which was months ago, it was at 500.

 

[justin.k.nelson]

I don't know of any way to remove aluminum except water changes. Salt mixes are also often a source.

I might send in an ICP test on my SW reservoir to see the results

 

[Shigshwa]

I use this same service, and it reports my calcium as about 30ppm higher than what I test out on the Salifert kit. I'm not sure whether the kit is off, or if their machine is off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd be more inclined to believe the kit. It's not trivial to get to 740 ppm calcium without knowing why.

 

[rkpetersen]

First, where are the rest of your results? That looks like only the first page?

Second, I agree with RHF, the only two items here so far of concern are the calcium and lithium readings. That calcium if correct is really high, going to contribute to excess precipitation in your pump and elsewhere, don't know if it's actually harmful to livestock. As for the lithium, some salts, including IO Reef Crystals in my case, contain high levels of lithium but those are only up to around 600, your level if correct is 10x that at 6110. I don't see how that could be coming from the salt.

Personally, before getting too concerned, I'd confirm these results by sending off a sample to another lab like Triton or ATI (either will take about 2 weeks.)

PolyFilter will definitely not remove lithium.

 

[Lasse]

My main issue is that I don't really see vertical growth, just a lot of encrusting growth. I want to attribute this to running too blue of a tank and I since have gone to a more white 15k look for my tank.

Excuse me for a question not according to your orginal post

Which type of light do you use

Sincerely Lasse

 

[justin.k.nelson]

I'm using Rapid led onyx lights but I just starting using their new Corona lights on my right side