My First ICP Test is DONE!!!

johnbr · Jun 7, 2018

Hi Reefers,

I couple months ago I went through a huge stress event on my tank where I had all my corals bleaching from day to night. Despite everything looking perfect (water parameters) I had no clue what was going on. Finally I decided to do an ICP Test and I've just got the results.

I'm new to this hobby but I'm trying really hard to learn as much as I can from you guys.

I ended getting 3 more frags after the event for 5 bucks each and so far all of them are looking healthy and happy.

So I'm going to share both RO/DI and Tank Sample so you guys can shoot your thoughts and inputs.

I hope our expert @Randy Holmes-Farley can also give me some light.

Here it is:

Cory · Jun 7, 2018

Id suggest aluminum being the culprit. Seems.to be the only thing high. Are you using white phosphate remover like seachems phosguard? Id stop using that and switch to an iron based remover. Like rowaphos.

johnbr · Jun 7, 2018

Cory said:
Id suggest aluminum being the culprit. Seems.to be the only thing high. Are you using white phosphate remover like seachems phosguard? Id stop using that and switch to an iron based remover. Like rowaphos.

No I'm not using anything. I've just bought the BRS Dual Reactor GFO and CARBON but haven't installed yet. What's odd to me is that copper in my RO/DI Water Sample.

BigJim · Jun 7, 2018

Do you have any issues with diatoms? The silicon in your RO/DI water indicates that your DI resin is not removing all of it. I have similar issues with my water and had occasional diatom outbreaks because of it. After my ICP test I began using a spectrapure silica buster di cartridge in my second DI canister and it resolved the issue. It also seems odd that there is copper in the RO/DI sample but not in the display sample. I would be interested to see Randy's take on that.

johnbr · Jun 7, 2018

BigJim said:
Do you have any issues with diatoms? The silicon in your RO/DI water indicates that your DI resin is not removing all of it. I have similar issues with my water and had occasional diatom outbreaks because of it. After my ICP test I began using a spectrapure silica buster di cartridge in my second DI canister and it resolved the issue. It also seems odd that there is copper in the RO/DI sample but not in the display sample. I would be interested to see Randy's take on that.

I just spent 50 minutes on the phone with the company that makes my RO/DI system and they blamed the Resin Manufacturer saying that some companies sell recycle Resin Cheaper. The unlikely to be true since I got my resin from I good company which I didn't even know was a Sponsor for this Forum - AquaticLife.com.

So now I'm confuse.

Cory · Jun 7, 2018

Are you using marinpure blocks?

BigJim · Jun 7, 2018

johnbr said:
I just spent 50 minutes on the phone with the company that makes my RO/DI system and they blamed the Resin Manufacturer saying that some companies sell recycle Resin Cheaper. The unlikely to be true since I got my resin from I good company which I didn't even know was a Sponsor for this Forum - AquaticLife.com.

So now I'm confuse.

The silica issue was explained to me this way. Most of us use a mixed DI resin that removes positively and negatively charged ions. The resin can become depleted at different rates. So, the resin that removed the silica was depleted before the other resin. Silica does not show up on a TDS meter, so I had no idea. Using a second DI filter with the silica buster cartridge solved that problem.

johnbr · Jun 7, 2018

Cory said:
Are you using marinpure blocks?

No I just have 2 media bricks from brightwell to create more bacteria surface.

BigJim said:
The silica issue was explained to me this way. Most of us use a mixed DI resin that removes positively and negatively charged ions. The resin can become depleted at different rates. So, the resin that removed the silica was depleted before the other resin. Silica does not show up on a TDS meter, so I had no idea. Using a second DI filter with the silica buster cartridge solved that problem.

So I forgot to mention about that. Just got off the phone with the guys from aquaticlife.com and the Silicon was measured in ug/L which in ppm is 0.04959. Ocean level are 4 ppm so I should be fine there but I keep my eye close to any changes.

Regarding the copper it seems that some users here asked the same thing to Randy and the reason is that, that copper ends up been consumed in the tank. Maybe Randy can explain better I don't know. But, I'm looking forward to see his inputs.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 7, 2018

I don’t see any particular problem, and maybe the coral issue wasn’t a chemical problem (if often is not, at least as best we can tell).

The 4 ppm in the ocean is not correct in a number of ways, but unless you have a diatom oroblem, it’s not a concern. Silica is among the hardest things for an ro/di to remove.

This has more on it:

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 7, 2018

Since the copper is not elevated in the tank, a trace is not a problem in the ro/di. It is added in many supplements and salt mixes as it is a needed trace element.

Just make sure to replace the di when the tds rises above 0 ppm tds.

johnbr · Jun 7, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I don’t see any particular problem, and maybe the coral issue wasn’t a chemical problem (if often is not, at least as best we can tell).

The 4 ppm in the ocean is not correct in a number of ways, but unless you have a diatom oroblem, it’s not a concern. Silica is among the hardest things for an ro/di to remove.

This has more on it:

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Since the copper is not elevated in the tank, a trace is not a problem in the ro/di. It is added in many supplements and salt mixes as it is a needed trace element.

Just make sure to replace the di when the tds rises above 0 ppm tds.

Hey Randy,

Thank you so much for stopping by. So based in the test I don't need to dose or strip anything? Regarding the silicon no, I don't have any diatoms whatsoever.

I was about to run GFO but got to scared and decided to use both canisters for carbon and buy an algae scrubber to remove PO4 and NO3.

Would you recommend anything?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 8, 2018

I wouldn't do anything, except if you had a known aluminum source, I'd remove it. Any white media can be a suspect. If you have none, then I wouldn't worry about it.

johnbr · Jun 8, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I wouldn't do anything, except if you had a known aluminum source, I'd remove it. Any white media can be a suspect. If you have none, then I wouldn't worry about it.

No white media Sir. Just running active carbon and soon an algae scrubber ans that's it. I saw I few diatoms this morning.