Interesting Triton ICP test

Joe Batt · Apr 17, 2018

I have just restarted my aquarium and did an initial ICP test of the cycled water prior to adding anything.

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57210/

I used RODI and Tropic Marin salt, yet seems to be indicating very high levels of Zinc Manganese and Iron. It asking for 6x15% water changes yet this was a fresh new tank ...I'm slightly bemused as to the solution

Norcalreef · Apr 17, 2018

I also use tropic Marin and had very high iron. Would have to look on the other. My tank is just under 4 months.

Norcalreef · Apr 17, 2018

I had 4 zinc and 2 manganese. Iron was 5.238

Joe Batt · Apr 18, 2018

Mine is giving Zinc of 17, Maganese of 37 and Iron of 14.

I have sent off a fresh ICP test today with a second aquarium sample and an RoDi sample. Be interesting to see the results. If its the RoDi then I will have to get fresh water from a local LFS (and might explain the death of my last tank). If its the aquarium and the RoDi is OK, then it has to rock leaching. In which case I will do a weekly water change for a month and see if there is any decrease.

I don't know of a chemical or filter that removes iron Zinc or Manganese. Good skimming removes Iron so that's a start I guess.

Shameless_Dood · Apr 18, 2018

See this response from Tim@Triton, maybe its helpful. If I interpret the answer correctly, seems like something somewhere is corroding if you are having several metals show. Someone else may have further insight with the specific metals you are seeing.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/heavy-metals.317095/#post-3913086

Joe Batt · Apr 19, 2018

The weird thing is though, that the water was freshly made for the tank since it was a total reset. I had emptied and stripped the tank bare, cleaned it with vinegar and rinsed it well. I had stripped all my pumps and equipment and equally cleaned them well with vinegar and they are all in good condition. I then added the sand and the new cycled rocks, filled the tank with the water, checked the ca, kh, and mg, then immediately sent off the sample.

Janci · Apr 19, 2018

Joe, I am happy I stumbled upon this thread.
I believe we are close to using the same water (Jumeirah Park) for rodi and found that my water station needs frequent filter replacement in order to produce decent rodi. I also added a second DI-resin filter to be sure the water comes out as pure as possible.
TDS measurements showed always zero, but still the metals are in the water.

Below was the zinc level in my rodi-water after waiting too long before replacing the filters of the water station.

With frequent replacement, I have that level close to zero again.

Joe Batt · Apr 19, 2018

Hi Janci

Yes JVT and Jumeirah Park probably have the same-ish supply. I sent a same of RODI to Triton yesterday so it will be interesting to see the results...will let you know.

Joe Batt · Apr 21, 2018

So my latest results are in.....

Original ICP
This is the original result from the freshly filled tank 15 days ago using Tropic Marin Pro
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57210/

Latest ICP
This is my RODI water 4 days ago
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57205/

This is the result of the Triton of my tank 4 days ago
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57126/

To start with my RODI looks fine, except it has high levels of mercury in it. Yet the mercury is zero in both tank tests. Where did the mercury all go??
The Iron has gone from 14ug/l UP to 22ug/l
I now have tin in the tank at 7.125ug/l that was 0 ug/l a week ago
The Zinc is now 66ug/l UP from 17 ug/l a week ago
The manganese is now 0 ug/l DOWN from 37 ug/l a week ago.

Both tests showed low levels of copper, I am guessing that this has leached from the rocks since they were used rocks that I cleaned, acid bathed and bleached. I was told they had not been used in copper treatments, but who knows. Good job I at least acid etched the and go rid of probably most of it.

In this time I have done nothing except top up the water via the ATO with water from the RODI.

So basically the only thing I can say is Iron and Zinc that are consistent....ish....

Stigigemla · May 18, 2019

It is possible that the tin comes from the glass. Float glass is floated out on a bed of melted tin so there might be some rests on the glass surface.
If that is the case the value will sink with time and water changes.

Reefahholic · May 19, 2019

Janci said:
TDS measurements showed always zero, but still the metals are in the water.

That’s crazy. I thought RODI units should filter out everything.? Maybe try to run 1 micron sediment filter and the best carbon blocks you can find. Not to mention a lot of DI stages.

Gezz...that sucks. I’d call the city!!!

Reefahholic · May 19, 2019

Joe Batt said:
So my latest results are in.....

Original ICP
This is the original result from the freshly filled tank 15 days ago using Tropic Marin Pro
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57210/

Latest ICP
This is my RODI water 4 days ago
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57205/

This is the result of the Triton of my tank 4 days ago
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/57126/

To start with my RODI looks fine, except it has high levels of mercury in it. Yet the mercury is zero in both tank tests. Where did the mercury all go??
The Iron has gone from 14ug/l UP to 22ug/l
I now have tin in the tank at 7.125ug/l that was 0 ug/l a week ago
The Zinc is now 66ug/l UP from 17 ug/l a week ago
The manganese is now 0 ug/l DOWN from 37 ug/l a week ago.

Both tests showed low levels of copper, I am guessing that this has leached from the rocks since they were used rocks that I cleaned, acid bathed and bleached. I was told they had not been used in copper treatments, but who knows. Good job I at least acid etched the and go rid of probably most of it.

In this time I have done nothing except top up the water via the ATO with water from the RODI.

So basically the only thing I can say is Iron and Zinc that are consistent....ish....

These numbers are insane. I wonder if Triton is cleaning the machine probably between testing.

Maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley can look at this and give his opinion.

Reefahholic · May 19, 2019

Stigigemla said:
It is possible that the tin comes from the glass. Float glass is floated out on a bed of melted tin so there might be some rests on the glass surface.
If that is the case the value will sink with time and water changes.

Man, all this has me wanting to do water changes now. Lol. Gezz!

MnFish1 · May 19, 2019

Do you have new PVC in your tank? That can be a source of Tin.
The Mercury in your RODI - seems to be a testimony to the lack of reliability of Triton testing RODI - but maybe you should talk to them?
The rest - its either 'testing error', 'leaching from rock' or 'leaching from something in your tank - that 'though cleaned' has exposed metal.

BTW - its common to 'clean metal' with vinegar (i.e. clean copper pipes, etc) - so its possible that the vinegar you used somehow has released something from a wire or piece of metal somewhere in your system. Bleach is a disinfectant (better) IMHO - I hope you find the results.

Curious - why did you send the test in the first place? the mercury level alone would make me question the reliability of all 3 tests..?

MnFish1 · May 19, 2019

PS. http://packedhead.net/2015/triton-lab-icp-oes-testing-of-a-certified-artificial-saltwater-standard/

https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/icp-tests.816317/

stacksoner · May 19, 2019

Reefahholic said:
These numbers are insane. I wonder if Triton is cleaning the machine probably between testing.

Maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley can look at this and give his opinion.

IMO it's more insane to call into question the integrity of the ICP lab as a possible explanation of the results.

Reefahholic · May 19, 2019

slewrock1 said:
IMO it's more insane to call into question the integrity of the ICP lab as a possible explanation of the results.

With those results, why wouldn’t we call everything into question at this point?

Anything is a possibility and it’s about the 3-4 time this week I’ve heard people talking about ICP machines being cleaned properly enough between testing.

Do you know how they clean ICP machines sir?

stacksoner · May 20, 2019

You

Reefahholic said:
With those results, why wouldn’t we call everything into question at this point?

Anything is a possibility and it’s about the 3-4 time this week I’ve heard people talking about ICP machines being cleaned properly enough between testing.

Do you know how they clean ICP machines sir?

You can search for high tin, zinc, iron level in this forum and find tons of people with the same issue.

I personally ran the Triton Detox in my system and it successfully removed all of the outlier metals that had been present in my previous tests.

Reefahholic · May 22, 2019

slewrock1 said:
You

You can search for high tin, zinc, iron level in this forum and find tons of people with the same issue.

I personally ran the Triton Detox in my system and it successfully removed all of the outlier metals that had been present in my previous tests.

Ok, there may be a lot of people with high levels of Tin or maybe Zinc, but to say that “tons” of reefers have an issue with “multiple metals” being sky high is not true.

That said...when this does occur, I’d be suspicious as to what’s going on and I’d certainly call into question anything and everything until I figure out what’s causing the issue.

MnFish1 · May 22, 2019

Reefahholic said:
Ok, there may be a lot of people with high levels of Tin or maybe Zinc, but to say that “tons” of reefers have an issue with “multiple metals” being sky high is not true.

That said...when this does occur, I’d be suspicious as to what’s going on and I’d certainly call into question anything and everything until I figure out what’s causing the issue.

What I wish the companies would provide (and maybe some do - but they dont show in the reports people post) - is the most common sources for xxx. Mercury for example in the OP's test - should not be something just hanging around.

Also - How do they decide when to change from green to yellow to red. Is red because its associated with 'symptoms' in a tank or is red because its 2 standard deviations above 'normal'?