Japtastic
Active Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2018
- Messages
- 260
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- Location
- London, UK
- What state or country do you live in
- United Kingdom
I have been fighting high zinc levels for the last few months and didn't even consider the salt that I had changed to (Instant Ocean) over that period might be to be to blame. I'm more concerned about the Zinc at this time as Aluminium has come down although there is a ? over where this high level came from. All other ICP pollutants are at undetectable levels.
I have checked everything with a fine tooth comb. All equipment is just under a year old.
2x Jebao 15000 lp/h return pumps. Inspected and no signs of any corrosion.
1x Reef Octopus Skimmer Varios 8. Inspected and no signs of any corrosion.
2x Schego Heaters. No sign of any corrosion even under the caps.
2x MP40's All fully taken apart and look perfect.
Thoroughly searched the tank and sump for any rusting hinges / screws / brackets etc. The only metal I found was a jubilee clip well above the water with zero corrosion but removed it anyway. This clearly wasn't the issue as the next test came back with higher zinc levels again. I have no screen top.
ICP results:
Aluminium:
10/10/18 = 11.5 ug/l
11/12/18 = 122 ug/l !!
30/1/19 = 55 ug/l !
Zinc:
10/10/18 = 9.32 ug/l
11/12/18 = 52.29 ug/l !!
30% Water change + Added Cuprisorb
30/1/19 = 70.89 ug/l !!!
Continued Cuprisorb + added external canister filter @ 1400 lp/h full of Polyfilter media that I have been keeping an eye on and renewing.
During this time I have been adding SPS, which strangely have been doing fine and all 10 frags show signs of growth and decent polyp extension. The LPS and Zoas are a different story. They have been around 50% of the size they normally were before these issues and have been closing fully up randomly during the day.
I was about to do another 30% water change in the next few days before another ICP in a couple weeks but this takes a bit of planning and time when you are making nearly 100 gallons. RODI machine on for around 12-14 hours and a big container in the living room which the wife loves
I was searching about similar problems that others have had and there has been a suggestion that certain salt can have elevated levels of pollutants and I came across these tests. This was posted on April 2017 and so may not be relevant to the current production methods or batches but...
https://reefhub.pl/test-of-marine-salts/
Guess which salt has one of the highest if not the highest Aluminum and Zinc? Yes, Instant Ocean.
Zn = 126.66 ug/l !!!
Al = 9.81 ug/l
Clearly, I'm going to get different salt before a water change but Instant Ocean seems to be fairly popular and so you'd expect everyone to have the same problems?
Thoughts?
I have checked everything with a fine tooth comb. All equipment is just under a year old.
2x Jebao 15000 lp/h return pumps. Inspected and no signs of any corrosion.
1x Reef Octopus Skimmer Varios 8. Inspected and no signs of any corrosion.
2x Schego Heaters. No sign of any corrosion even under the caps.
2x MP40's All fully taken apart and look perfect.
Thoroughly searched the tank and sump for any rusting hinges / screws / brackets etc. The only metal I found was a jubilee clip well above the water with zero corrosion but removed it anyway. This clearly wasn't the issue as the next test came back with higher zinc levels again. I have no screen top.
ICP results:
Aluminium:
10/10/18 = 11.5 ug/l
11/12/18 = 122 ug/l !!
30/1/19 = 55 ug/l !
Zinc:
10/10/18 = 9.32 ug/l
11/12/18 = 52.29 ug/l !!
30% Water change + Added Cuprisorb
30/1/19 = 70.89 ug/l !!!
Continued Cuprisorb + added external canister filter @ 1400 lp/h full of Polyfilter media that I have been keeping an eye on and renewing.
During this time I have been adding SPS, which strangely have been doing fine and all 10 frags show signs of growth and decent polyp extension. The LPS and Zoas are a different story. They have been around 50% of the size they normally were before these issues and have been closing fully up randomly during the day.
I was about to do another 30% water change in the next few days before another ICP in a couple weeks but this takes a bit of planning and time when you are making nearly 100 gallons. RODI machine on for around 12-14 hours and a big container in the living room which the wife loves
I was searching about similar problems that others have had and there has been a suggestion that certain salt can have elevated levels of pollutants and I came across these tests. This was posted on April 2017 and so may not be relevant to the current production methods or batches but...
https://reefhub.pl/test-of-marine-salts/
Guess which salt has one of the highest if not the highest Aluminum and Zinc? Yes, Instant Ocean.
Zn = 126.66 ug/l !!!
Al = 9.81 ug/l
Clearly, I'm going to get different salt before a water change but Instant Ocean seems to be fairly popular and so you'd expect everyone to have the same problems?
Thoughts?
