Removing lithium, nickel, and zinc

OceanL0ver · Sep 28, 2017

My triton water analysis came back with high amounts of lithium, nickel, and zinc. Can anyone recommend other than water changes to remove these?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 28, 2017

How high?

Lithium is not likely a concern, probably came from your salt mix, and can only be removed by water change.

For nickel and zinc, there are metal binders you can use (e.g., metasorb, polyfilter, etc.), but finding the source, if there is one apparent, is strongly advised. Something like a metal part in or above the water that is corroding.

OceanL0ver · Sep 28, 2017

OceanL0ver · Sep 28, 2017

Could these come from Red Sea colors additives do this?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 28, 2017

The lithium is no concern.

The zinc may be the bigger concern, but we don't really have good data (for several reasons) on how much is actually a problem.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 28, 2017

OceanL0ver said:
Could these come from Red Sea colors additives do this?

Unless you way overdosed, I doubt it.

OceanL0ver · Sep 28, 2017

Will cuprasorb do the trick or do I need metasorb or polyfilter

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 28, 2017

OceanL0ver said:
Will cuprasorb do the trick or do I need metasorb or polyfilter

I don't know how well it removes them, but it might.

Larry L · Sep 28, 2017

Triton Detox is also an option, in addition to the products Randy mentioned. I've used all of them successfully at one time or another, but don't really have a good feel for which might work better than others.

C.bldwn · Oct 18, 2017

Any good solutions for removing high zinc (5.18ug/l), nickle (.17ug/l) from RO water?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 19, 2017

C.bldwn said:
Any good solutions for removing high zinc (5.18ug/l), nickle (.17ug/l) from RO water?

Those are you actual values for RO/DI water or tank water? Who provided the data?

If RO/DI, was it 0 ppm TDS RO/DI water?

The nickel value is well below the limit of detection reported by Triton (0.6 to 0.9 ug/L) and may just be test error/noise.

C.bldwn · Oct 19, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Those are you actual values for RO/DI water or tank water? Who provided the data?

If RO/DI, was it 0 ppm TDS RO/DI water?

The nickel value is well below the limit of detection reported by Triton (0.6 to 0.9 ug/L) and may just be test error/noise.

Hey Randy, That is the test results from Marinlab for my RO water. I have attached a photo of the report for my RO as well as my Tank water. Looking at it again I see the Nickle seems to be within an acceptable level in the aquarium. I want to try and lower the zinc in the RO and try to find the source of SN(Tin), which I'm assuming is probably a contaminate of the balling salts or something.

Thanks,

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 19, 2017

Does the RO/DI water touch anything metallic? That could be the source of the zinc, if it is real.

That said, zinc is not a big problem in your tank and wouldn't worry too much about trying to reduce it, either in the tank of the RO/DI water.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 19, 2017

The tin may be a bigger concern.

C.bldwn · Oct 29, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The tin may be a bigger concern.

Hey Randy, I’m going to do a couple large water changes to reduce the tin and help bring everything back closer to an acceptable range. I just noticed the copy of the RO water didn’t post. Here it is, I noticed the phosphorus levels seem a little high, would that be creeping out of the RO filter?

Thanks,

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 29, 2017

C.bldwn said:
Hey Randy, I’m going to do a couple large water changes to reduce the tin and help bring everything back closer to an acceptable range. I just noticed the copy of the RO water didn’t post. Here it is, I noticed the phosphorus levels seem a little high, would that be creeping out of the RO filter?

Thanks,

That level of phosphate in RO/DI is not surprising, and is no concern. Compared to topping off for evaporation with this water, you add more than a thousand times as much every day in foods.