Help with ICP test...High Tin, Aluminum and Silicon?!?!

nbd13 · Dec 14, 2019

Hi everyone,

I have no idea where these metals are coming from!

Aluminum is off the charts! Tin is high as well! Lithium is also in the yellow range

Then what about silicons? How can these be so high?

My RODI water reads 0 TDS change the DI resin when it gets to 1.

I’ve checked all my MP40s and do not obviously see any cracks.

I’ve checked my pumps, Cor20’s, three total one for return, one for skimmer and one for UV and I don’t see any obvious cracks.

I don’t have any magnets in the tank, remove the feeding clip right after use.

I’m at a loss here! Please help.

What can I do to fix this? Will running cuprisorb or something help?

Any other sources for these?

Thanks

BusyB · Dec 14, 2019

You have a few elements that are definitely high. My first thought woukd be to check for anything obvious like what you've already looked at. I recently had a problem with high AL levels in my tanks. I looked into ceramic bio spheres / blocks leaching AL. There is no proof that they do leach, but i removed my spheres anyway and add fresh carbon with my biweekly water changes. I was able to get my tank back on track. It makes me wonder if these ceramic rock work leaches as well. Just my 2 cents, hope it helps

nbd13 · Dec 14, 2019

BusyB said:
You have a few elements that are definitely high. My first thought woukd be to check for anything obvious like what you've already looked at. I recently had a problem with high AL levels in my tanks. I looked into ceramic bio spheres / blocks leaching AL. There is no proof that they do leach, but i removed my spheres anyway and add fresh carbon with my biweekly water changes. I was able to get my tank back on track. It makes me wonder if these ceramic rock work leaches as well. Just my 2 cents, hope it helps

Thanks, I do have 4 Xport Dimpled bricks in the tank, these are new within the last month. Can’t believe they would leach that much aluminum?

I was thinking about running some rowaphos to help remove aluminum. This is what triton said to do within the ICP results....

Maybe also switch out my wet sides on MP40’s?

Not sure what else to do???

Would Aluminum, Tin and Lithium come from the MP wet sides?

Thanks

Auto-pilot · Dec 14, 2019

I don't think that they use aluminum when building in the manufacture of the mp40s. I could be wrong. If I were you I'd take a good look at the assembly and look for cracks and or leaks. I think they use iron but not aluminum and tin. Electrical windings are copper... I think its probably some rock or something thata leaching in your tank

roberthu526 · Dec 14, 2019

My bet is on the Xport instead of MP40's. Although I did use the Xport for over a year and didn't see high Aluminum on IXP tests. What pumps and heaters do you use?

nbd13 · Dec 14, 2019

roberthu526 said:
My bet is on the Xport instead of MP40's. Although I did use the Xport for over a year and didn't see high Aluminum on IXP tests. What pumps and heaters do you use?

Cor20’s three of them.

Heaters are Eheim Jagers 2 of them 300w

jda · Dec 14, 2019

Lithium is no big deal. Do not worry about this.

First two places to look for the others are source water and salt mix. Are you at 0 TDS? What salt mix do you use?

Polyfilter does remove aluminum.

roberthu526 · Dec 14, 2019

nbd13 said:
Cor20’s three of them.

Heaters are Eheim Jagers 2 of them 300w

I'd go with the blocks then. Can't think of anything else that could cause aluminum spike.

nbd13 · Dec 14, 2019

jda said:
Lithium is no big deal. Do not worry about this.

First two places to look for the others are source water and salt mix. Are you at 0 TDS? What salt mix do you use?

Polyfilter does remove aluminum.

Thanks. Yes TDS 0. Just changed out all membranes including RO membrane and added BRS Chloramine buster.

Salt is Red Sea blue bucket.

Do you mean like this for the poly filter:

Poly Filter Aquarium Filter

The POLY-FILTER is for filtering and purifying both fresh and salt water aquariums. It is a formulation of a special patented material bonded to a synthetic matrix. By means of a unique proprietary process, the POLY-FILTER is made impervious to salt and is also organic loving to certain...

www.marinedepot.com

jda · Dec 14, 2019

Yes, it will turn red when it absorbs aluminum.

Save back a bit of that polyfilter. Make some fresh saltwater. Run the polyfilter in the fresh saltwater. It should stay white - never heard of RS having aluminum issues, but if it turns a bit red, then it is the salt. If the salt is not the issue, then put those blocks in it a 5g bucket with that fresh saltwater with a powerhead and let it run for a week. Put that polyfilter in that mixture and see if it turn red. If so ,then you have your culprit. You will need to force water through the polyfilter somehow, like in a reactor, or something clever.

nbd13 · Dec 14, 2019

jda said:
Yes, it will turn red when it absorbs aluminum.

Save back a bit of that polyfilter. Make some fresh saltwater. Run the polyfilter in the fresh saltwater. It should stay white - never heard of RS having aluminum issues, but if it turns a bit red, then it is the salt. If the salt is not the issue, then put those blocks in it a 5g bucket with that fresh saltwater with a powerhead and let it run for a week. Put that polyfilter in that mixture and see if it turn red. If so ,then you have your culprit. You will need to force water through the polyfilter somehow, like in a reactor, or something clever.

Thanks. Ordering some now. Have a spare reactor I’m not using that I’ll run it in and see what happens. Will report back with results.

C. Eymann · Dec 15, 2019

What kind of rock did you scape with? are you sure no objects like a razor blade, etc etc have possibly been dropped in the tank?

nbd13 · Dec 15, 2019

C. Eymann said:
What kind of rock did you scape with? are you sure no objects like a razor blade, etc etc have possibly been dropped in the tank?

Yes nothing dropped into tank.

Liferock is what I used.

nbd13 · Dec 16, 2019

Well...cleaned one of my MP40’s are there is a small hairline crack on the wet side with rust color. I mean it’s maybe a centimeter long and little hairline in width.
Called echo tech great customer service. Sending it in and they said they should replace it for me.

So this maybe along with the Brightwell Xport blocks are the cause of some of this metal in my tank?!?

Have poly filter arriving tomorrow and will through it in a spare reactor and get it running to pull aluminum out ASAP!

Then will remove the Xport bricks and place them in fresh saltwater for 5-7 days in a bucket and run poly filter in that bucket to see if it changes color which would indicate its leaching aluminum and other metals.

Topreefer92 · Dec 16, 2019

The bricks are for sure part of the problem, fishofhex had the same issue as well as I did after I saw the ICP test results. I removed them and it went down.

Lapras · Dec 16, 2019

Topreefer92 said:
The bricks are for sure part of the problem, fishofhex had the same issue as well as I did after I saw the ICP test results. I removed them and it went down.

I had issues with high aluminum and tin. I found two things I removed, which fixed my issue:

1. Rusty magnet in a algae scrubber.
2. Removed large 8x8 Marine Pure ceramic block (ive ready some other threads on these and excess aluminum oddly enough)

nbd13 · Dec 16, 2019

Topreefer92 said:
The bricks are for sure part of the problem, fishofhex had the same issue as well as I did after I saw the ICP test results. I removed them and it went down.

Thanks. Did you replace the bricks with another type of bio brick? Would like the extra surface area for bacteria...

nbd13 · Dec 16, 2019

Lapras said:
I had issues with high aluminum and tin. I found two things I removed, which fixed my issue:

1. Rusty magnet in a algae scrubber.
2. Removed large 8x8 Marine Pure ceramic block (ive ready some other threads on these and excess aluminum oddly enough)

Thanks. Did you replace the bio block with another type or just leave it out?