Reef Water Sample from Maui Hawaii

[Colin Fowler]

Just got back from vacation in Hawaii. Did lots of snorkeling while there and thought it would be interesting and fun to take a water sample from the reef on Molokini crater, which is a short boat ride off of Maui. I took a glass bottled water bottle and rinsed it thoroughly, and then filled it with water at about 6 foot depth, inches above the reef.

FYI, I checked and while you can’t take coral, sand, and rocks, taking sea water from the reef was fine. Apparently there is no shortage water in the Pacific, at least not yet. ;-)

I am going to test for all the key components: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, salinity, phosphate, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. (I wish I had recorded the water temp when I was there, but I forgot.)

I’ll post the results shortly for anyone interested

 

[Larry L]

You could send a sample for ICP testing too...

 

[vector824]

Yeah! Following this!

 

[Joe's Coral Reef]

I believe when they first came up with icp and triton, the idea was to gather samples from around the world, then be able to match that with dosing and icp testing. What they discovered was all the levels are the same or very close. I believe what you’ll find is the standard sea levels parameters.

 

[Chuk]

We went diving there if was gorgeous. It'll be neat to see the numbers from there. Now if someone could only get spectrum and par down on the bottom where the corals are at we would be all set.

 

[Colin Fowler]

And the results are in!! Yep, they are pretty much spot on with the reference material I have for natural water, with the exception of Calcium, which was a little higher.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Not detectable in my kit / 0
Phosphate - more than 0, less than .25
Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.2
Calcium - 452
Alkalinity - 7.5 dkh
Magnesium- 1260

So about half a bottle of the water left. What should I do with it: save it, dump it in my tank, or something else?

 

[Reefltx]

Icp would be nice.

 

[Colin Fowler]

Do they charge for that or is it free for something like this?

 

[Dystinction]

DRINK IT!
You know, so you can remember that time you accidentally slurped some down your snorkel tube......ah, memories.

 

[Colin Fowler]

LOL, put it in a champagne glass and toast!

 

[taricha]

Detectable phosphate by a low sensitivity kit? Interesting.

 

[brandon429]

I have asked for this no less than thirty times across ten yrs on the web, amazing, making predictions is best part

When people posted about upcoming trips I’d heartily try and sell the option of them bringing all their reef test kits for my needed data. too much bulk

never dawned on me for them to just bring a sample back heh

Nitrate and po4 will be far and above my favs, would love to have a caymans sample and a Fiji one too

 

[Colin Fowler]

The ref material I have says natural phosphate is .12, so it seems to be in line.

 

[brandon429]

For the first time ever I can ask the grand question


How do plants grow in those conditions (zero nitrate) to feed tons of grazers, and produce more algae daily forever, and HI isn’t even cleanest among reefs

*how are corals thriving in zero nitrate condtns there, but bleach out in our tanks? (Posit/low suspended heterotrophic feed avail compared to nature)

Fiji / cleaner I bet (not sure, let’s see) and still grows same grazer feed




The way we were all trained for reef keeping does not allow for the paradigm of algae growth in clean, healthy, ideal waters, something always had to be bad or off. That’s not supported by the data above.

That algae grows -wherever- a reef grows, and not necessarily an imbalanced one only, has extrapolations for algae prevention in our home reef tanks to a massive degree.


Ash. Check out this thread I was happy to get some clean hobby kit readings off natural reefs, i wish other travelers would link and post here / build

 

[TNT32D]

Fascinating and cool. Do I need to chip in for ICP?

 

[brandon429]

agreed and nice first step up

Pp address mssg I’ll chip too the data is too hearty to pass up.

 

[brandon429]

save some final sample don’t throw out ideally

Bubble it and keep it topped off in a little jar or something to see if suspended organisms die over the course of a month and raise the nitrates and po4


That microcosm water might still have nitrate potential locked in as suspended proteins and planktors that are not broken down yet, age it a bit, maybe even heat it to kill and breakdown faster not sure/chemists? It would be neat to stress that living water (ocean water is just like live rock in many ways) to have it express nutrient potentials we aren’t currently seeing.

 

[Colin Fowler]

I have asked for this no less than thirty times across ten yrs on the web, amazing, making predictions is best part

When people posted about upcoming trips I’d heartily try and sell the option of them bringing all their reef test kits for my needed data. too much bulk

due to concrete thinking habit it never dawned on me for them to just bring a sample back heh might have got more yes’s

Nitrate and po4 will be far and above my favs, would love to have a caymans sample and a Fiji one too if you don’t mind

save some final sample don’t throw out ideally

Bubble it and keep it topped off in a little jar or something to see if suspended organisms die over the course of a month and raise the nitrates and po4


That microcosm water might still have nitrate potential locked in as suspended proteins and planktors that are not broken down yet, age it a bit, maybe even heat it to kill and breakdown faster not sure/chemists? It would be neat to stress that living water (ocean water is just like live rock in many ways) to have it express nutrient potentials we aren’t currently seeing.

Cool idea. I’ll do it.

 

[Colin Fowler]

agreed and nice first step up

Pp address mssg I’ll chip too the data is too hearty to pass up.

I’ll chip in. Fun. Let me contact ICP and see how much it might cost.

 

[User1]

You don't need to contact anyone - just login to BRS and buy the test. 50 bucks.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/icp-oes-testing-kit-triton-1.html

Sounds like this may have already been done though based on an earlier post. However, what I might suggest is one of the mods or someone organized try and find the data, make a new post, and try a crowd source to all the scuba divers. Ask them to collect a sample and test it. I'm a diver, I always log my dives. Pretty easy to take a sample, log location, provide dive information and conditions, etc. Database would grow over time linking locations to results. Could also factor in sunrise, sunset, and tidal...put those controllers to use.

I dive mostly in Northern California (Monterey) where the water is colder and we have different bio types obviously. Still would be interesting to compare. I'm seeing a Github project starting...