Ok so I have a bit more time to write the next post now.
First ICP test:
This took a little longer than I would have expected, however it was sent the week before Christmas so I'm guessing that was what the delay was. The first time you get the results it takes a few moments to figure out what you're looking at (especially if it's in German) but you quickly figure it out.
You essentially have a few tabs, one for the results of each variable they test (data tab), one for telling you anything that's wrong (help tab), one for telling you what you need to dose (measurement tab) and one tab to show you the trends over time (visual tab).
The results I got back were really interesting, I'd not seen this level of detail before. I had a few things that needed sorting. Below is an example of what you would see:
We have detected a small amount of barium in your aquarium, this can be dangerous for stone corals in higher amounts.
To help you find the source of the error, we have listed the most common sources of barium (sorted in descending order by frequency):
1. Iron-based phosphate adsorber (except RowaPhos or PhosBan)
2. Contaminated salts
3. Contaminated trace elements, especially strontium
4. fish dry food
Observe the value in follow-up analyzes.
We recommend that you use TRITON AL99 phosphate adsorber
It also told me I had too much
Strontium (strange as I never dosed it)
Zinc
Molybdenum
Cobalt
And the real worry....COPPER
This came as a massive shock to me, having never tested at this detail it made me wonder what I had been missing. On the plus side, nothing was high enough that I'm suffering any consequences but it made me realise that without doing this test, if the levels did increase and I had casualties, I would have been scratching my head and holding my wallet!
This also led me to search for the sources, and believe it or not, in my sump I found some rusting hidden away in a back corner from the metal frame holding up a light. I would have never realised otherwise.
So much for no more water changes!
The measurements tabs showed me what I was lacking.
Potassium - which was no big surprise, my tank chomps through potassium faster than anything else. So much so that the dosage required was 100ml day 1 and 78ml day 2!
Manganese
Boron
Iodine
Vanadium
Manganese
Nickel
With the exception of potassium and iodine, these are things I would never think about dosing until now. Especially not Nickel which can be dangerous!
The results come in the following format which tells you what the effect could be:
Mn : We have demonstrated a lack of manganese.
Manganese dosing can have the following advantages for your aquarium:
- can be useful for keeping LPS corals, eg Goniopora react very positively to manganese dosing
- can promote a better polyp
image.
To keep this value, please note our maintenance dosage. To calculate the maintenance dose, please proceed as follows:
4th test: dosing maintenance dose Xml
5th test: old maintenance dose Xml (from the 1st test) + new maintenance dose (from the 2nd test) dosing Xml.
6th test:: dose the old maintenance dose Xml (from the 1st test) + the old maintenance dose Xml (from the 2nd test) + the new maintenance dose Xml (from the 3rd test). After this, the dosage should no longer be increased, even if the analysis shows a value of 0.
Mn : We recommend dosing for a total of 2 days. 5ml should be dosed on the 1st day and 5ml on the 2nd day.
Mn : We recommend a daily maintenance dose of 0.83ml. If this dose is very low, you can also dose it weekly, for example (7x added).
So, after my water change I added the dosages as instructed and I will send another test a week later to see my uptake over that period before doing another water change. This should help me understand more about the chemistry of my reef over time.
First Observations:
Ok, so there obviously arent going to be any huge impacts in such a small period of time however I am seeing some changes worth noting.
1. Polyp extension on my sps is notably better (I will try and add some photos if I can get a good example on my phone). I have a very large acro colony that was a rescue from someone else's tank and for weeks its sat there barely showing any polyps and now I can see them without squinting and pressing my face against the glass
2. My goniopora (which in all fairness has always looked pretty good and I have had over a year now) looks bigger. Its definitely extended more but no difference in coloration.
3. My long term lack of potassium has always had an effect on the colour (color for the US folk) of some of my green acros. I've seen them go a bit pale but healthy none the less. I'm beginning to see that green return to my smaller frags. Hopefully this will continue!!
4. As a mainly sps dominant tank I am really trying to cater to their needs but I do have some nice LPS too. The effects dont seem as positive here. A couple of them look a little deflated and not as glorious as they once did but I'm not sure of this is them adjusting or it is other factors. My wall frog spawn does keep suffering a fountain of sand from my pistol shrimp and goby etc. So o have moved the unhappy lps' to some more suitable areas to see if that was the problem.
I will keep this up to date as I get more test results and more observations. Hope this is useful
