Need recommendation with ICP test results

WVReefJunkie

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Hi Randy, I have received my ICP test results and would like to email them over to you for you to take a look. There are some of these elements that I do not understand. Thanks
 
When I copy and paste, it says error cant download more than 40 images.
 
Symbol Value Calculated reference value Difference Result Actions
Base elements
Salinity (NaCl) 33.06 PSU 35.00 PSU -1.94 PSU  View
Carbonate hardness 8.60 °dKH 7.50 °dKH +1.10 °dKH  View
Major elements
Chloride 18950 mg/l 18700 mg/l +249.7 mg/l  View
Sodium 10250 mg/l 10389 mg/l -138.7 mg/l  View
Magnesium 1334 mg/l 1242 mg/l +92.20 mg/l  View
Sulfur 950.7 mg/l 868.9 mg/l +81.79 mg/l  View
Calcium 483.7 mg/l 397.6 mg/l +86.07 mg/l  View
Potassium 366.4 mg/l 385.3 mg/l -18.89 mg/l  View
Bromine 98.13 mg/l 63.28 mg/l +34.85 mg/l  View
Strontium 8.24 mg/l 7.56 mg/l +0.68 mg/l  View
Boron 5.15 mg/l 4.16 mg/l +0.99 mg/l  View
Fluorid 0.66 mg/l 1.23 mg/l -0.57 mg/l  View
Minor elements
Lithium 429.2 µg/l 160.6 µg/l +268.6 µg/l  View
Silicon 14.50 µg/l 94.45 µg/l -79.94 µg/l  View
Iodine 27.59 µg/l 61.39 µg/l -33.80 µg/l  View
Barium 23.29 µg/l 9.44 µg/l +13.85 µg/l  View
Molybdenum 5.09 µg/l 11.33 µg/l -6.25 µg/l  View
Nickel 1.65 µg/l 0.47 µg/l +1.18 µg/l  View
Manganese u. 0.94 µg/l -0.94 µg/l  View
Arsenic u. 1.42 µg/l -1.42 µg/l  View
Beryllium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Chrome u. 0.47 µg/l -0.47 µg/l  View
Cobalt u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Iron u. 0.47 µg/l -0.47 µg/l  View
Copper u. 0.47 µg/l -0.47 µg/l  View
Selenium u. 0.47 µg/l -0.47 µg/l  View
Silver u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Vanadium 0.46 µg/l 1.42 µg/l -0.95 µg/l  View
Zinc 3.34 µg/l 1.89 µg/l +1.45 µg/l  View
Tin u. 0.47 µg/l -0.47 µg/l  View
Nutrients
Nitrate 13.78 mg/l 2.00 mg/l +11.78 mg/l  View
Phosphorus 8.55 µg/l 7.56 µg/l +1.00 µg/l  View
Phosphate 0.03 mg/l 0.02 mg/l +0.01 mg/l  View
Pollutants
Aluminium 0.14 µg/l 0.09 µg/l +0.05 µg/l  View
Antimony u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Bismuth u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Lead u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Cadmium u. 0.19 µg/l -0.19 µg/l  View
Lanthanum u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l  View
Thallium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Titanium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l  View
Tungsten u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l  View
Mercury u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l  View
Showing 1 to 43 of 43 entries
Previo
 
It's tedious to read in this format, but...

Potassium at 366 mg/L is a bit low. It will come up to 388 mg/L by raising the salinity to 35 ppt, but I'd also dose some.

High lithium does not concern me. It is very common.

I don't think it likely to be useful, but you might experiment with iodine dosing.
 


This is my tank at the age of 5 months for reference ;-)

Since Randy did not post anything yet, I will give my 2 cents here.
Randy may have a different view or objections on my comments, so he hopefully can chime in too.
The link was broken but here it is:
https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/1600c988baefe0417d88
Not sure how your tank looks like and what type of Reef you maintain so I keep it general.

Alk I would run a bit lower at around 8, since your Po4 is a bit low.
Nitrates are on the higher end, which gives you a bit buffer to avoid burned tips from higher ALK. It's not dramatically high to cause issues!!!
I personally would just settle it a 8, with a lower CA level in the 420's for a better ALK/CA ratio.

Anyways,
Magnesium is nice where it is.
Calcium I would settle at 420-430 max.
490 is a bit high for my taste, better growth and color I experience below 440, especially since you are on the lower end of salinity.

Potassium need a lift to 400 at least. 410 gives you a bit of buffer.
I avoid falling below 390. You may already see pale Montis at that level and reduced growth.

Bromine is close to the high limit of about 100. I would stop dosing Bromine or supplements that contain Bromine.
Above 100 you will see loosing fluorescence especially in Digis and some red Acros.
They show white tips and maroon dark red coloration when this happens.
Ideally I keep elevated levels of Bromine above NSW at 85-90 mg/L.

Strontium is looking good. Stay there if you can.
Expect a drop of Sr when the corals start thriving again.
Maintain 6 or higher if you can.

Boron, indicates supplements of any kind.
It's good where it is, however I personally bump it to 6-7.
Above 8, I loose all Orange and everything turns red, but that is a taste thing that everybody should decide by himself.

Fluoride is a bit low, I would bring it back up above 1mg/L at least, better 1,2-1,5ppm. I personally bump it to 1,7/1,8 for better fluorescence.
However it causes a thinner skin on Acros so careful with light intensity when approaching levels above 1.5 from experience.

Lithium a bit high, but apparently no reports so far that this causes negative effects yet. Watch the trending on subsequent ICP's and avoid too much GFO and other media. Also check for rotten pumps and magnets etc. I had one guy who found his PH meter in the overflow chamber causing elevated Lithium, Tin and other metals ;-)

Iodine I would increase slightly into the 50/60microgram/L range by maintaining a daily dosage of Potassium Iodide. I personally do Seachem Reef iodide drops every day and watch ICP trending. For reference, I drop 8-9drops per day on a 350G system. Single dosages always caused Iodine spikes. So the continuous dosage is the better way since Iodide need to oxidize into Iodine which takes a few days and results in detectable Iodine depend on skimming and other filtration methods and are tank depending. Advise here is to take it slow.

Barium, is Ok, likely from water changes a bit higher than in NSW but OK.

Molybdenum is on the lower end, I would say you need to do a single correction up to 15microgram/L which will give you a bit of buffer.
Your Acros will thank you for that.

Some Nickel, potentially from supplements you do.
No action, some Nickel does apparently helps colors and fluorescence.
I run in the 2.5-5 range.

Manganese and Iron I personally do dose daily but in a fashion that it is not detectable on subsequent ICP's. These metals are helping fluorescence and many other biological processes in the tank.
Iron is tricky to find the sweet spot, Randy has great articles about that subject.
Simply speaking if you can detect it, it was too much likely ;-)

Chromium is a subject for it's own, not touching that here.

Other metals are not detectable. I recommend the usual reefer to keep up with water changes to replenish Cobalt, Copper, Chromium, Silver, Tin etc. so they won't show up and allow easier reefing.

Vanadium seems to be beneficial for colors and fluorescence, since you have it detectable, don't mess with it and worry too much. I run a similar level.

Zinc is good, not sure how you get it into the tank, but it's OK.

Aluminum is nicely low, great job.
No other pollutants detectable.

Your No3 and Po4 ratio is out of whack a bit.
You either use a lot of GFO or your nutrient control method is a bit too effective.

My personal recommendation and theory which is a lot of times being argued and discussed already is that you have a biological imbalance in your bacteria biology.
But the discussion would blow this thread, so don't let's start on that ;-)

Refresh your bacteria on a routinely basis and look out what can be done to increase naturally with no Po4 dosing your Phosphate levels. Dosing Po4 is a pain, I would first look for other ways to get it up, hence the reduction to be decreased.
This will help the good bacteria population to increase and tackle the Nitrates better.

Hope that helps a bit.

Looking forward to Randy's comments or objections.
-Andre
 
It's tedious to read in this format, but...

Potassium at 366 mg/L is a bit low. It will come up to 388 mg/L by raising the salinity to 35 ppt, but I'd also dose some.

High lithium does not concern me. It is very common.

I don't think it likely to be useful, but you might experiment with iodine dosing.
Lol, that's the short summary ;-)
 
Lol, that's the short summary ;-)
Thanks for the info, I was dosing nopox at the time of the water samples. I also do use gfo in a reactor, besides that I dont dose any other trace elements. I also use a Reef Octopus 6in dual calicium reactor. My tank is 289 gallons total water with a mixed coral display.
 
Thanks for the info, I was dosing nopox at the time of the water samples. I also do use gfo in a reactor, besides that I dont dose any other trace elements. I also use a Reef Octopus 6in dual calicium reactor. My tank is 289 gallons total water with a mixed coral display.
Very nice!
You said you was dosing Nopox, did you stop using that?

Just go with one way of Po4 reduction.
Likely with that tank size I would reduce the amount of GFO or go Nopox only, but try to avoid using too many methods at the same time.
Watch Po4 when you change things and take it slow.
 
Very nice!
You said you was dosing Nopox, did you stop using that?

Just go with one way of Po4 reduction.
Likely with that tank size I would reduce the amount of GFO or go Nopox only, but try to avoid using too many methods at the same time.
Watch Po4 when you change things and take it slow.
Yes, I stopped nopox. It stripped all of my phosphates, and I had some coral tissue loss.
 
Refresh your bacteria on a routinely basis and look out what can be done to increase naturally with no Po4 dosing your Phosphate levels. Dosing Po4 is a pain, I would first look for other ways to get it up, hence the reduction to be decreased.
This will help the good bacteria population to increase and tackle the Nitrates better.

So would you suggest in this instance, adding something like Dr Tims, or Colony, or another form of bacteria?

I was always concerned I could overdose bacteria, only for it to die off as not enough nutrients to control it, causing a bigger issue.
 
What do you think about the iodine levels?

My opinion is that iodine is not useful for most organisms we keep (I never noticed any effect and few organisms we keep are known to use it), but it is certainly well below NSW levels and dosing some to see if anything changes is a fine experiment for you. :)
 

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