ICP result - High tellurium

[AcroLover]

Hi guys,
I have just got my first ICP test results and would really appreciate it if some of you experienced reefers would be so kind as to help me with the results!

I have 20G tank which is 2 years old, everything has been going pretty well up until about 2 months ago when my zoas and LPS stopped opening. I thought it best to get a ICP test.

My Tellurium is 33 ug/L, which seems to be incredibly high.
I can't figure out where this "Tellurium" came from, and it appears to be toxic.
And Barium is 61 ug/L

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What company is this?

To state that barium plays an important role in coral growth is ridiculous, IMO. Barium has no known biological role in any living organism on the planet earth, and it gives me low confidence in anything this company says. It is also not very toxic and I'd ignore it.

I've not ever seen anyone report high levels of TE, which makes me suspicious that it may not be accurate. It is an expensive metal, and has some uses in solar cells and a few other applications. Due to its rarity, there's not a lot of studies if toxicity since it rarely is elevated in nature.

I would not do anything without a repeat result from a different ICP company (make sure they test it as some may not). If it is truly elevated, then a metal binding polymer such as metasorb, cuprisorb, or a polyfilter may be able to help remove it.

 

[The_Paradox]

Cut and pasted from the Fauna Marine website is my guess :

Barium - Fauna Marin

www.faunamarin.de

That or the flawed/misinterpreted Gulf of Mexico study that’s been going around.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It's disappointing that they make that claim, IMO.

IMO, to claim something novel that is not known to science in general requires some justification.

From the Royal Society of Chemistry:

"Barium has no known biological role, although barium sulfate has been found in one particular type of algae."

 

[AcroLover]

What company is this?

https://reeffactory.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd ask them to double check that it's not a clerical error, or if they have seen others with high Te since it is so unusual.

 

[Ahmed230]

 

[Ahmed230]

Hi;
Same here from same company

 

[Jmp998]

It seems they are repeatedly reporting an unexpected and unusually high value for Tellurium. This indicates a pretty severe lack of any meaningful QC. Any reputable lab should have noticed repeated outliers for this analyte, or if this is only recent samples then a shift in their mean, etc. Unless they can provide a good explanation for this analyte being an exception (i.e. reason why other results would be valid when this one isn't), I would consider the results of little value.