ICP Trace elements

miller75 · Feb 23, 2023

I have just got an ICP test back and all the following trace elements are showing as low

Element	Analysis Value	Desired Level
Barium	3.11 µg/l	15 - 100 µg/l
Chromium	Undetectable	0.1 - 1 µg/l
Cobalt	Undetectable	0.1 - 1 µg/l
Copper	Undetectable	0.2 - 5 µg/l
Iodine	23.15 µg/l	60 - 95 µg/l
Manganese	Undetectable	0.4 - 5 µg/l
Molybdenum	10.42 µg/l	12 - 20 µg/l
Nickel	1.08 µg/l	2 - 5 µg/l
Selenium	Undetectable	0.1 - 5 µg/l
Vanadium	Undetectable	0.5 - 5 µg/l
Zinc	1.22 µg/l	3 - 12 µg/l

Should I be worried about any of these or am i safe to continue with water changes to replenish them

SPS2020 · Feb 23, 2023

How old is your tank?

What corals are in your tank and how do things look?

miller75 · Feb 23, 2023

Its about 9 months old, only have a few corals, a hammer, a torch, a couple of zoas and a duncan. Everything is looking ok except the torch is sulking a bit

Edit: its a Red Sea Reefer 425XL

ScottB · Feb 23, 2023

miller75 said:
I have just got an ICP test back and all the following trace elements are showing as low

Element Analysis Value Desired Level
Barium 3.11 µg/l 15 - 100 µg/l
Chromium Undetectable 0.1 - 1 µg/l
Cobalt Undetectable 0.1 - 1 µg/l
Copper Undetectable 0.2 - 5 µg/l
Iodine 23.15 µg/l 60 - 95 µg/l
Manganese Undetectable 0.4 - 5 µg/l
Molybdenum 10.42 µg/l 12 - 20 µg/l
Nickel 1.08 µg/l 2 - 5 µg/l
Selenium Undetectable 0.1 - 5 µg/l
Vanadium Undetectable 0.5 - 5 µg/l
Zinc 1.22 µg/l 3 - 12 µg/l

Should I be worried about any of these or am i safe to continue with water changes to replenish them

Which ICP did you use? Trace elements are naturally present in super small quantities. Very close to zero. Also I am not sure I WANT several of those trace elements. Copper? No thanks.

To get back to your question, don't dose what you don't test for. Having too much of a given trace may prove worse than having undetectable levels. So if you are going to dose traces, you'll want to keep running ICPtests for a while at least to learn consumption patterns.

SPS2020 · Feb 23, 2023

I would continue routine water changes and monitor your main parameters: alk, ph, ca, mg. Try to keep things stable. Do another ICP in 6-9 months and see where your are.

SPS2020 · Feb 23, 2023

ScottB said:
Which ICP did you use? Trace elements are naturally present in super small quantities. Very close to zero. Also I am not sure I WANT several of those trace elements. Copper? No thanks.

To get back to your question, don't dose what you don't test for. Having too much of a given trace may prove worse than having undetectable levels. So if you are going to dose traces, you'll want to keep running ICPtests for a while at least to learn consumption patterns.

In sea water, I believe copper is essential, but in very low concentrations. The ICP test could be +\- a bit, so it would not be a concern (to me). There's probably a thread about it on here somewhere.

miller75 · Feb 23, 2023

SPS2020 said:
In sea water, I believe copper is essential, but in very low concentrations. The ICP test could be +\- a bit, so it would not be a concern (to me). There's probably a thread about it on here somewhere.

I think their "Desired Level" is based on natural sea water and they do warn you about some of the elements to only dose if your experienced, copper been one of them

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2023

miller75 said:
I have just got an ICP test back and all the following trace elements are showing as low

Element Analysis Value Desired Level
Barium 3.11 µg/l 15 - 100 µg/l
Chromium Undetectable 0.1 - 1 µg/l
Cobalt Undetectable 0.1 - 1 µg/l
Copper Undetectable 0.2 - 5 µg/l
Iodine 23.15 µg/l 60 - 95 µg/l
Manganese Undetectable 0.4 - 5 µg/l
Molybdenum 10.42 µg/l 12 - 20 µg/l
Nickel 1.08 µg/l 2 - 5 µg/l
Selenium Undetectable 0.1 - 5 µg/l
Vanadium Undetectable 0.5 - 5 µg/l
Zinc 1.22 µg/l 3 - 12 µg/l

Should I be worried about any of these or am i safe to continue with water changes to replenish them

IMO, there's no good understanding of what levels of some of these are actually needed, and some of them are not needed at all (such as barium, which has no known biological need in any organism).

I think a reasonable experiment is to test out dosing a good quality trace element mix, such as Tropic Marin A and K, and see if the tank apparently benefits or not after a few weeks.

Some, such as iron and manganese, are fairly likely to be useful in many aquaria.

miller75 · Feb 23, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
IMO, there's no good understanding of what levels of some of these are actually needed, and some of them are not needed at all (such as barium, which has no known biological need in any organism).

I think a reasonable experiment is to test out dosing a good quality trace element mix, such as Tropic Marin A and K, and see if the tank apparently benefits or not after a few weeks.

Some, such as iron and manganese, are fairly likely to be useful in many aquaria.

Thanks Randy, I have some manganese and are following their dosing recommendations. I will also grab some A&K and give it a go

fishRus · May 13, 2023

ScottB said:
Which ICP did you use? Trace elements are naturally present in super small quantities. Very close to zero. Also I am not sure I WANT several of those trace elements. Copper? No thanks.

To get back to your question, don't dose what you don't test for. Having too much of a given trace may prove worse than having undetectable levels. So if you are going to dose traces, you'll want to keep running ICPtests for a while at least to learn consumption patterns.

One of the trace elements in “all for reef“ is copper.