My ICP test results are in.

Diazcm · Nov 27, 2017

Good Morning everyone, so i received my triton ICP test results over the holiday weekend and it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be ( Thank goodness) so anyways the major issues of the results were low levels of unwanted heavy metals detected Aluminum, Lead, and Lithium. I have read previous threads that some GFO contain Aluminum in it, so i removed that saturday but the lead and lithium have me bummed out on how to remove I have a good idea on how they go in my tank ( used to buy seawater from the LFS and that could of been the source) I have been using red sea salt ( blue bucket ) for the last month in hopes on getting my tank healthy again LPS are looking great but my SPS are suffering. The other part of my test are low levels of iodine and boron but that's something easy that i can use red sea coral colors for.
Anyone have any ideas on how to remove the metals? more frequent water changes? a type of media?, etc.
Has anyone used the tips triton sends with the results? are they a good guideline?
Thank you all again for the help.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 27, 2017

The values are important. What are they?

I do not think GFO is a likely source of aluminum. The issue is that some other types of phosphate binders like Phosguard (aluminum oxide) are a source.

Lithium is not usually any concern. It is not very toxic, even if elevated (which it is for nearly every aquarium in the US). The salt mix may be the source, so water changes wouldn't be useful in that scenario.

Lead is more of a concern, and may come from metal parts in contact with the water or corroding above it. Metal binders like Cuprisorb or Metasorb may reduce elad, but may also reduce metals you want.

Finally, as a technical thing, aluminum and lithium are not "heavy" metals. Metals do not get any lighter than lithium, and aluminum is also not considered a heavy metal.

Diazcm · Nov 27, 2017

I’m using PhosBan as my phosphate remover and I’ve googled everywhere to find it what’s in the product I’m also trying to find out with the brightwell aquatics bio-blocks are made of but I’m coming up short.

The only metal that I can see that is making contact with the water would be my return pump’s pin in the impeller and some stainless steel screws on my vertex skimmer.

Anyway to find out if Red Sea has unwanted metals? I just finished buying a 175 gal bucket on Black Friday and hate to toss that away.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 27, 2017

The lead result shows as zero.

The lithium is no concern at all.

Aluminum is borderline a concern. It is likely from the Brightwell blocks.

If leather corals are seeming to be fine, I wouldn't worry about the aluminum, but I wouldn't add more of those blocks.

Diazcm · Nov 27, 2017

ok thank Randy. i thought i had lead since the test states i have some level of lead.
besides the aluminum i guess overall my system is doing well just wish i knew what is irrating my sps

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 27, 2017

Diazcm said:
ok thank Randy. i thought i had lead since the test states i have some level of lead.
besides the aluminum i guess overall my system is doing well just wish i knew what is irrating my sps

Not sure why they added text that said look for sources of lead when the number they gave was zero. lol

Diazcm · Nov 28, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Not sure why they added text that said look for sources of lead when the number they gave was zero. lol

lol. not sure either

cigarshark · Nov 28, 2017

The aluminum is likely coming from your salt. Having tested thousands of tanks I can tell you that the range of aluminum found in most tanks is 0.05 - 0.10 ppm. I have verified this by testing RODI and the results are 0.0 ppm and tested after salt makeup and the aluminum shows up at varying levels depending on the brand of salt.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 29, 2017

cigarshark said:
The aluminum is likely coming from your salt. Having tested thousands of tanks I can tell you that the range of aluminum found in most tanks is 0.05 - 0.10 ppm. I have verified this by testing RODI and the results are 0.0 ppm and tested after salt makeup and the aluminum shows up at varying levels depending on the brand of salt.

Have you ever tested a new salt mix for aluminum?

The studies that I have seen show very much less than you suggest:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1

5-69 ppb

A Chemical Analysis of Select Trace Elements in Synthetic Sea Salts and Natural Seawater
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...04/feature.htm

"Aluminum (Al) was detected in only two samples: NSW-M at a concentration of 20 ppb and one SSS, CSMMB with a level of 10 ppb (Fig. 1). Four samples were found to contain levels of zinc (Zn) above the detection limit. CWC had a zinc concentration of 21 ppb which was 4 to 7 times greater than the three SSS (TM, RS and CL) found to contain Zn (Table 3) (Fig. 1)."

Diazcm · Nov 29, 2017

at this point anything is possible, I have begun with removing the media blocks and GFO so far my nutrients have been steady ( time will tell)
I have started using red sea salt (blue bucket) about a month ago and i really havent come across anything yet of folks complaining about AL with red sea if there's articles out there about red sea salt having high levels of AL please send me a link. Thank you

cigarshark · Nov 30, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Have you ever tested a new salt mix for aluminum?

The studies that I have seen show very much less than you suggest:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1

5-69 ppb

A Chemical Analysis of Select Trace Elements in Synthetic Sea Salts and Natural Seawater
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...04/feature.htm

"Aluminum (Al) was detected in only two samples: NSW-M at a concentration of 20 ppb and one SSS, CSMMB with a level of 10 ppb (Fig. 1). Four samples were found to contain levels of zinc (Zn) above the detection limit. CWC had a zinc concentration of 21 ppb which was 4 to 7 times greater than the three SSS (TM, RS and CL) found to contain Zn (Table 3) (Fig. 1)."

I have tested about 10 different salts and I have looked at Al and the lowest I have found Al is 40 ppb. I have seen the variances within salt manufacturers, I have noticed signature levels of certain elements in salts. I actually read that article and I have kept a copy of it since 2005. I used it as a reference for trace elements a year ago when I got my ICP-OES and was learning about my machine. I can say that I see different levels than what they reported on some elements. Since mineral levels can change depending on the location of the mine and the depth I would attribute trace elements changing over a dozen years to be natural. The natural sea water levels I report are samples of water that come from the collection areas of fish and they have been collected by myself or one of my vendors that collected the water and I trust that it was not altered. I see Aluminum in every salt water sample I test, and it is not interference from another element. I have chosen an intense wavelength that does not have any other intense elements close by. Aluminum was of strong interest to a company creating a product and I looked in depth at the element and whether it was attached to something in the aquarium like ceramic media or if it was attached to one of the 5 primary salts in a salt blend.