ATI vs ICP disparity

[rbtmcardle]

Long time lurker and love the tech side of the hobby.

I collected all six samples at the same time. mailed on the same day.

Seems to be quite a disparity in the results.

Thoughts? Not so much suggestions but thoughts about explaining the disparity.

Tank is 10 months old.

 

[Quietman]

What are you trying to do? Destroy an entire testing industry?

Sometimes (most times) I think just sticking with cheap API or the sticks might be the most cost effective way to go and still get same ball park results.

I'm only slightly kidding...overstating for effect.

Nice looking tank btw.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What made you decide to do the test in the first place? Your tank looks great btw

 

[rbtmcardle]

Thanks for the compliment, I just like the technical side of things and was curious as to how one would stack up against the other.

@Quietman - too funny, much like Pet DNA testing…how would we know if it was accurate?

In any case I thought I would share the results. I have 1 more test from each so at some point in the next 6 months I’ll try it again.

 

[Quietman]

Pet DNA testing is a thing? Don't know why I'm surprised.

 

[aquavista99]

Receiving dramatically different results is troublesome. Mistakes happen but if you make adjustments to your reef based on inaccurate test results, could be very detrimental to your corals.

Nothing wrong with submitting separate water samples to different labs to ensure the results are comparable before making changes to your water chemistry imo.

 

[exnisstech]

Pet DNA testing is a thing? Don't know why I'm surprised.

If they are accurate they can be useful when adopting mixed breeds since some breeds are sensitive to certain medications and can also be prone to genetic health issues.

 

[Quietman]

I use ICP occasionally to check my trace elements. I have no illusions about any high degree of accuracy for the price I'm paying. If the numbers come back good, then I'm a good reef keeper. If they don't, I can blame the testing. That's worth 50 bucks.

 

[CHSUB]

Imo, results look reasonably close and would expect errors + or - the actual values. I also do ICP with FM. Just sent my 4th in the past year today. I compare to home testing and everything is within listed error margin. I generally like numbers around the acceptable ranges and if I dose trace elements do minimal amounts. This is one of the reasons I do WC. I also find it foolish to dose nutrients because of even less reliable hobby home testing vs eye test, feeding and common sense.

 

[rtparty]

When people wake up to just how overhyped ICP testing is...it will be a great day for the hobby. They are completely unreliable IME and I say that as someone with over 60 ICP tests done between my tanks and my Ultimate Salt Test. It was during this test I started to see how flawed they are and started comparing companies against each other.

I believe we are going to see this tested once again by people with a much "louder" voice than I have and that will be fun to see.