Help with ICP results. Should I trust it?

[aaron186]

I’m dosing Triton Core 7 in my tank and using tropic Marin pro reef salt. My tank is 1 year old with a light coral load so far. I decided to try Reef Labs ICP because I live in Florida where they are located. From mailing to results was under a week which is impressive. But my results say I have quite a few non detectable elements. My last triton ICP was 3 months ago and was more or less normal with a couple slight deficiencies. I just purchased another triton to check it but that usually takes 2-3 weeks in my experience.

I attached my results below. For what it’s worth my Hannah test kit says my phosphates are 0.01 while this one said undetectable. I don’t think I can test anything else on the panel at home other than salinity which is correct at 35

Should I trust this test/act on it? If it is accurate what should I do to fix it?

Here’s the results:

https://app.reef-labs.com/share/cf8b712b-c759-4c3c-b4e9-29826f5f252d

 

[Mechano]

0.01 phosphate is dangerous in itself. Be careful it doesn’t bottom out. Feed more

If everything looks good in the tank, I would suggest doing a water change once a week for a month, then do another ICP then.

I would not be inclined to suggest dosing anything unless something is off in your system. But it would help if you posted a pic of your system and what corals you have and what do you dose regularly (eg, kalk, all-for-reef etc)

I would run on the side of caution dosing like crazy as ICP are not 100% accurate always. I say avoid the shock treatment, and replenish via water changes and recheck. That’s what I would do anyways.

 

[aaron186]

0.01 phosphate is dangerous in itself. Be careful it doesn’t bottom out. Feed more

If everything looks good in the tank, I would suggest doing a water change once a week for a month, then do another ICP then.

I would not be inclined to suggest dosing anything unless something is off in your system. But it would help if you posted a pic of your system and what corals you have and what do you dose regularly (eg, kalk, all-for-reef etc)

I would run on the side of caution dosing like crazy as ICP are not 100% accurate always. I say avoid the shock treatment, and replenish via water changes and recheck. That’s what I would do anyways.

I do a daily autowater change of 1.4 gal per day ~10% weekly. I’m dosing 25 ml of Triton core 7 two part daily that keeps me at alk 8.5 roughly. I’m running a chaeto fuge and filter roller as well. I feed heavily.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I’m dosing Triton Core 7 in my tank and using tropic Marin pro reef salt. My tank is 1 year old with a light coral load so far. I decided to try Reef Labs ICP because I live in Florida where they are located. From mailing to results was under a week which is impressive. But my results say I have quite a few non detectable elements. My last triton ICP was 3 months ago and was more or less normal with a couple slight deficiencies. I just purchased another triton to check it but that usually takes 2-3 weeks in my experience.

I attached my results below. For what it’s worth my Hannah test kit says my phosphates are 0.01 while this one said undetectable. I don’t think I can test anything else on the panel at home other than salinity which is correct at 35

Should I trust this test/act on it? If it is accurate what should I do to fix it?

Here’s the results:

https://app.reef-labs.com/share/cf8b712b-c759-4c3c-b4e9-29826f5f252d

If your Hanna Checker is reading phosphate at 0.01 it is probably too low.
I'd aim for 0.05 to 0.10 on the Hanna given the stated +/- 0.03ppm accuracy.

ICP always reads lower phosphate due to biological or chemical reactions in transit to the ICP lab.

I wouldn't worry about the rest of the results, but if you want you could dose a trace element mixture.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not recommend dosing that full list of trace elements since one (barium) has no known biological role in any known organism, or strontium, which I do not believe is useful for the organisms we keep.

That said, dosing some or all of these is an OK plan, I would just treat it as an experiment to see if anything improved, rather than a clear cut need based on this sort of testing.

It's too bad they do not say what not detected actually means for P, but P values by ICP can be unreliable due to organism growth during transit. But at 0.01 ppm phosphate, I'd raise it a bit.

 

[aaron186]

I do not recommend dosing that full list of trace elements since one (barium) has no known biological role in any known organism, or strontium, which I do not believe is useful for the organisms we keep.

That said, dosing some or all of these is an OK plan, I would just treat it as an experiment to see if anything improved, rather than a clear cut need based on this sort of testing.

It's too bad they do not say what not detected actually means for P, but P values by ICP can be unreliable due to organism growth during transit. But at 0.01 ppm phosphate, I'd raise it a bit.

Thanks Randy. Always appreciate your insight. I’ve been putting quite a bit of food into my tank. I’m using avast marine plank with their particulate food, reef jerky dosed 7x per day. It equates to 3.5 cubes of frozen going into a 100 gal tank with 12 fish. I think my filter roller, refugium, skimmer, and autowater change are a bit too effective. How would you recommend I increase my phos? Also FWIW my nitrates are at 3 on my Hanna yesterday

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Feeding more or dosing food grade sodium phosphate is my recommendation. Not sodium tripolyphosphate.