My first ICP test - what needs to be fixed?

[PapaReefer]

I've been battling dinos for about a month now. Following approach by Jason Mack I stopped water changes, dosed silica to promote growth of diatoms. Also I am running carbon at the moment. As of now dinos are pretty much gone but I noticed that my corals are not doing too well... I have only few - torch, interstellar mushroom and hammer.
My hammer shrank to pretty much its skeleton and not opening anymore, torch (being much bigger in the beginning) now is 1/3 of its size..... Only mushroom is the same size but lost some its color and kinda pale....

So I did ICP test and just received results but not sure what to look for here - can anybody think of anything that might be causing this?

 

[takitaj]

One thing that jumps out is chlorine, wow. Are you using tap water? Should be using RoDi or distilled water (without any added back minerals). Water should be as pure as possible to mix salt as you don't want to add in any impurities & tap water can be nasty for the flora & fauna. Ideally chlorine should be as close to zero as possible. It's a disinfectant and kills stuff, by design.

A few things are a little low like calcium & magnesium, not sure how to convert sodium to SG or ppt. Phosphorus converts to 2.74 ppm phosphates? (ppb phosphorous X 3.066 / 1000 = ppm phosphate) If that right then that is pretty high.

Besides that I'm not sure what the rest should be, sorry. Iodine is out of range but not sure if it's low or high. You want some iodine but too much will definitely tic off corals. (don't ask how I know lol)

Hopefully at least a bump so someone with better skills will chime in for you.

 

[PapaReefer]

One thing that jumps out is chlorine, wow. Are you using tap water? Should be using RoDi or distilled water (without any added back minerals). Water should be as pure as possible to mix salt as you don't want to add in any impurities & tap water can be nasty for the flora & fauna. Ideally chlorine should be as close to zero as possible. It's a disinfectant and kills stuff, by design.

A few things are a little low like calcium & magnesium, not sure how to convert sodium to SG or ppt. Phosphorus converts to 2.74 ppm phosphates? (ppb phosphorous X 3.066 / 1000 = ppm phosphate) If that right then that is pretty high.

Besides that I'm not sure what the rest should be, sorry. Iodine is out of range but not sure if it's low or high. You want some iodine but too much will definitely tic off corals. (don't ask how I know lol)

Hopefully at least a bump so someone with better skills will chime in for you.

I am using RODI water and ICP test shows 0 chlorine in RODI water... Where can chlorine come from in the aquarium if in RODI water it is zero....?

 

[PapaReefer]

I am using RODI water. Here is ICP test for RODI water:

 

[anthonygf]

The Chlorine your are referring to should be Chloride I think. On my ICP test I have a Chloride result which is similar to Chlorine at 17920 mg/l. If it is then it is fine. Normal value is 18024 per ATI lab.

 

[anthonygf]

Iron and sodium are low. what are your po4 and no4 levels at? My sodium is at 10070ppm.

 

[anthonygf]

You have no zinc, it is labeled as major nutrient. I don't know if it is wise to dose trace elements or not. I tried with no results.

 

[anthonygf]

One thing that jumps out is chlorine, wow. Are you using tap water? Should be using RoDi or distilled water (without any added back minerals). Water should be as pure as possible to mix salt as you don't want to add in any impurities & tap water can be nasty for the flora & fauna. Ideally chlorine should be as close to zero as possible. It's a disinfectant and kills stuff, by design.

A few things are a little low like calcium & magnesium, not sure how to convert sodium to SG or ppt. Phosphorus converts to 2.74 ppm phosphates? (ppb phosphorous X 3.066 / 1000 = ppm phosphate) If that right then that is pretty high.

Besides that I'm not sure what the rest should be, sorry. Iodine is out of range but not sure if it's low or high. You want some iodine but too much will definitely tic off corals. (don't ask how I know lol)

Hopefully at least a bump so someone with better skills will chime in for you.

With my calculator I get 0.89604 ppm phosphates which is high. Rapidtables.com

 

[anthonygf]

I've been battling dinos for about a month now. Following approach by Jason Mack I stopped water changes, dosed silica to promote growth of diatoms. Also I am running carbon at the moment. As of now dinos are pretty much gone but I noticed that my corals are not doing too well... I have only few - torch, interstellar mushroom and hammer.
My hammer shrank to pretty much its skeleton and not opening anymore, torch (being much bigger in the beginning) now is 1/3 of its size..... Only mushroom is the same size but lost some its color and kinda pale....

So I did ICP test and just received results but not sure what to look for here - can anybody think of anything that might be causing this?

More water changes! We need more tank info if you want better help from more knowledgeable reefers.

 

[PapaReefer]

As I was saying we stopped water changes for a while to fight dinos. Today was first water change in 5 weeks.
Part fo the strategy was to get tank 'dirty' and promote growth of diatoms by dosing silicates....

As of now my Nitrates are close to 15 and P04 was 0.15 (with Hanna Meter)
Alkalinity is 8 and Calcium was around 400 as per my measurements (matching ICP)
Salinity is 1.024

Tank is 50 G in display + 10 G in the sump.

 

[dvgyfresh]

If Dino’s still present a little water change will spike their growth but it may be needed for the health of other corals I would still do one, you can dose nitrate

 

[anthonygf]

As I was saying we stopped water changes for a while to fight dinos. Today was first water change in 5 weeks.
Part fo the strategy was to get tank 'dirty' and promote growth of diatoms by dosing silicates....

As of now my Nitrates are close to 15 and P04 was 0.15 (with Hanna Meter)
Alkalinity is 8 and Calcium was around 400 as per my measurements (matching ICP)
Salinity is 1.024

Tank is 50 G in display + 10 G in the sump.

According to your ICP reading of 896.04ppb for po4 is 0.896ppm phos, something wrong with your reading on the Hanna meter.

 

[anthonygf]

By not doing water changes you are losing some major and minor elements starving your corals.

 

[anthonygf]

If Dino’s still present a little water change will spike their growth but it may be needed for the health of other corals I would still do one, you can dose nitrate

That is what I do, I will also dose for po4. I am constantly blowing off dinos still. But it is slowly going away.

 

[Uncle99]

896ppb phosphorus is off the Hanna chart by 4X.
It would convert to 2.74ppm phosphate, which is very high, way out of the normal band.

 

[anthonygf]

896ppb phosphorus is off the Hanna chart by 4X.
It would convert to 2.74ppm phosphate, which is very high, way out of the normal band.

Hi Uncle99. i am using the RapidTables.com conversion and 896ppb converts to 0.896ppm, why is this conversion different than the math you use?

 

[anthonygf]

One thing that jumps out is chlorine, wow. Are you using tap water? Should be using RoDi or distilled water (without any added back minerals). Water should be as pure as possible to mix salt as you don't want to add in any impurities & tap water can be nasty for the flora & fauna. Ideally chlorine should be as close to zero as possible. It's a disinfectant and kills stuff, by design.

A few things are a little low like calcium & magnesium, not sure how to convert sodium to SG or ppt. Phosphorus converts to 2.74 ppm phosphates? (ppb phosphorous X 3.066 / 1000 = ppm phosphate) If that right then that is pretty high.

Besides that I'm not sure what the rest should be, sorry. Iodine is out of range but not sure if it's low or high. You want some iodine but too much will definitely tic off corals. (don't ask how I know lol)

Hopefully at least a bump so someone with better skills will chime in for you.

Sorry takitaj, you are correct on your math, I don't know why the math equation is different than the conversion table. Makes it confusing.

 

[PapaReefer]

I am having lots of diatoms now and few dinos so decided I can not keep going without water change anymore...
Other than PO4 (which I hope will be helped by water change) - anything else is off?

 

[Uncle99]

Hi Uncle99. i am using the RapidTables.com conversion and 896ppb converts to 0.896ppm, why is this conversion different than the math you use?

I am converting PPB phosphorus to PPM phosphate.
896x3.066/1000=2.74 ish….

So for Phosphorus I run 15-30ppb which is around 0.05-.1ppm phosphate.

 

[anthonygf]

A few others that several water changes should take care of. I would do 5 gallons every 2 or 3 days for a week then go back to 10% weekly. Just keep blowing the dinos off your corals every day so they can breath.