ICP results and my SPS

[dragon99]

My acros are growing, but barely and colors are off on most (brown/pale). PE is almost non existent on most corals. I gave a frag of PC rainbow that is completely brown in my tank to a local reefer and 9 days later it was coloring up for him.

I normally do 16-18g WC's weekly with IO. I did a WC the day before the ATI test but no WC before the Triton 2 weeks later.

Http://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/247a3a9ca505e406a374

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/30299/

The tin seems concerning, especially since it went up. I've checked for rusting things but haven't found anything. Suppose I could replace the heater just in case. I plan to start some cuprisorb to see what that does.

Iodine seems really high considering I'm not dosing it. Should I do anything here?

Nitrates came in really high on ATI. When I test with red Sea I'm getting higher than 16, but let's than 32. I've been guessing 20-25. Salifert showed about 25. I add about 15-20ml per day vinegar with my limewater, but otherwise haven't attempted to lower it.

Phosphate has been near zero for awhile. I usually get 2-8ppb on Hanna ULR. No GFO in over a year. Started adding a little phytofeast each night to hopefully boost it a little.

Tank #'s
Reefer 350, 75-80g total water volume
SG 35ppt
Alk 7.5-8 KHDirector and salifert
CA 450 salifert
MG 1365 salifert
Tmp 78-79

Thanks for any advice.

Edit: forgot silicates, I think this is from my RoDi. I don't think it's a problem ( no diatom issues, have sponges). My RO tested by ATI
Silicon 783.4 µg/l before DI stages. I'm running mixed bed, silica buster HC, mixed bed, mixed bed. May look into single bed resins for first 2 stages.

 

[ihavecrabs]

My acros are growing, but barely and colors are off on most (brown/pale). PE is almost non existent on most corals. I gave a frag of PC rainbow that is completely brown in my tank to a local reefer and 9 days later it was coloring up for him.

I normally do 16-18g WC's weekly with IO. I did a WC the day before the ATI test but no WC before the Triton 2 weeks later.

Http://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/247a3a9ca505e406a374

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/30299/

The tin seems concerning, especially since it went up. I've checked for rusting things but haven't found anything. Suppose I could replace the heater just in case. I plan to start some cuprisorb to see what that does.

Iodine seems really high considering I'm not dosing it. Should I do anything here?

Nitrates came in really high on ATI. When I test with red Sea I'm getting higher than 16, but let's than 32. I've been guessing 20-25. Salifert showed about 25. I add about 15-20ml per day vinegar with my limewater, but otherwise haven't attempted to lower it.

Phosphate has been near zero for awhile. I usually get 2-8ppb on Hanna ULR. No GFO in over a year. Started adding a little phytofeast each night to hopefully boost it a little.

Tank #'s
Reefer 350, 75-80g total water volume
SG 35ppt
Alk 7.5-8 KHDirector and salifert
CA 450 salifert
MG 1365 salifert
Tmp 78-79

Thanks for any advice.

All looks good on the numbers. I'd probably try to get your NO3 and PO4 into better ratio. I'd shoot for 8ppb minimum. 2ppb is really too low as it is likely not enough to be readily available to the coral. If you choose to dose PO4 to raise it (slowly!), I imagine your NO3 will drop.

Once you get PO4 back closer to 7-10ppb and your nitrate levels out, if you are still higher than 20ppm, I would recommend addressing what is going in (food and additives).

 

[Velcro]

What are you using for flow? I see you are carbon dosing, but have very little phosphorous so you are likely phosphate limited. You might consider adding neophos on a doser and see if you get any more alk demand/coloration. What about lighting? have you measured PAR? Usually I think PAR is an over-valued number, but since you have high nitrates you might want to match that with high PAR if corals are dark.

 

[dragon99]

Flow is 2x mp40
Lighting 6x54 ATI, 10/8hrs. 4 B+, 2C+
Light is about 10" off the water, I've considered lowering it a bit but the pale acros have held me back.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I have the same light over a 60x30x20h tank.

Par shouldn't be your issue

My guess goes back to phosphate limited. Although I have 2x mp40 and 2x pp16 in mine.

Flow is 2x mp40
Lighting 6x54 ATI, 10/8hrs. 4 B+, 2C+
Light is about 10" off the water, I've considered lowering it a bit but the pale acros have held me back.

 

[Velcro]

I have the same light over a 60x30x20h tank.

Par shouldn't be your issue

My guess goes back to phosphate limited. Although I have 2x mp40 and 2x pp16 in mine.

Yea I have to agree. Definitely not a par issue if stuff is pale. Unless it's too much light.

 

[PSXerholic]

My 0.002

Triton Test comments:
Sn / Tin is very high, high enough to affect corals color and growth from what I did see, looking at about 100 ICP's and tank stories I did see recently. Seems associated to it!
SN can come from Glass if the tank is newer or salt too!?!
Water changes like hell to get it down.
Use a different salt to rule out an issue in the salt mix.

Al is elevated but not of concern in this case.

Ca too high out of ratio to ALK causing likely reduced growth and supports bleached corals sometimes. Anyways I would let it go down to 420/430 somewhere.

K elevated, not an issue but would get it back down over time to 410.

Boron minimum is met, no issue, in future I would target to 6-7

SR the same, it's good!

Sulfur a bit elevated, indicating maybe a salt issue or too much trace element dosing if you do that. Sulfates are used to make trace elements hence they come into the tank indirectly.

Li is off the charts. I guess salt issue or something is corroding. Thermostat, rotting batteries, probes, and magnets, but this is high enough to cause browning your SPS.
You may want to do one or two DETOX treatments. Detox is available online.

Mo is completely depleted, no good. 5-6 is okay, but this is too low.
Raise it as soon your water changes are all done to get Tin out after a retest.
Use ATI lab for that ;-)

Va, Zn, Mn I would dose and worry about later, its for enhancement, but likely not contributing to your issue.

Iodine overdosed, causing some bleached tips and if this level is there consistently then corals turn brown as well.
I would Iodine dose daily. I personally do about 2-3 drops out of a dropper bottle per 150G daily. I use the Seachem Potassium Iodide.
I overdosed it all the time when doing weekly doses even higher than your level in the test.
However, this is just part of your issue, not a full resolution.
Reduce Iodide as described, but don't stop. It would cause a drop in Iodine and stress out more than needed.

FE is not detectable, means your brown corals are not brown from Iron overdosing!!!

Si is not too bad honestly ;-)

Po4 too low, but at least detectable. Your issue is likely not due to the fact of low nutrients.


Additional comments from the ATI test:
Get Fluoride up to at least 1.5 to 1.7, however it's not dramatically low!
No3 is high, dosing Biodigest and carbs such as Zeostart to tackle a better nutrient ratio.
Po4 to be dosed to help the tank.
Iodine high too?!?!?
You may run far too much Iodine, hence additional browing is the result since Iodine does that!

Overall I would say get WC's done a lot and use a different salt.
You may want to mix Tropic Marin pro and Tropic Marin fish only salt, to keep trace element dosing low while doing WC's.
And get the Iodine under control.

 

[dragon99]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. I haven't followed up on this thread because it's been a busy month.

The following week I did (3) 20% water changes 3 days apart.
I added 100ml Cuprisorb and ~1cup of Red Sea carbon in a filter cup in the sump
I replaced my first 2 stages of DI with cation and anion single beds, leaving mixed bed for the last to stages.
I've been monitoring PO4 every few days, it dropped to 0ppb after the second WC, so I've had to dose a couple times. It's been 2-6ppb most of the month.
I bought some ATI Mo and dosed that (after the ICP sample below tho)

Corals all look fine except for one that STN'd this past weekend (@PSXerholic raspberry limeade nasuta actually). I had moved it a week or so prior, so maybe it didn't like the new placement.

Took a sample on 6/22 and Triton results finally came back in today!
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/50583/

Tin and (surprisingly) Al are zero. I haven't had a zero reading on Al since I added marine pure blocks.

 

[drawman]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. I haven't followed up on this thread because it's been a busy month.

The following week I did (3) 20% water changes 3 days apart.
I added 100ml Cuprisorb and ~1cup of Red Sea carbon in a filter cup in the sump
I replaced my first 2 stages of DI with cation and anion single beds, leaving mixed bed for the last to stages.
I've been monitoring PO4 every few days, it dropped to 0ppb after the second WC, so I've had to dose a couple times. It's been 2-6ppb most of the month.
I bought some ATI Mo and dosed that (after the ICP sample below tho)

Corals all look fine except for one that STN'd this past weekend (@PSXerholic raspberry limeade nasuta actually). I had moved it a week or so prior, so maybe it didn't like the new placement.

Took a sample on 6/22 and Triton results finally came back in today!
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/50583/

Tin and (surprisingly) Al are zero. I haven't had a zero reading on Al since I added marine pure blocks.

Nice glad to hear it! Did you figure out where the Sn was coming from?

 

[dragon99]

Nice glad to hear it! Did you figure out where the Sn was coming from?

Not really. I was using a stainless steel spoon for feeding of questionable origin and quality, so I replaced that with a plastic spoon. Otherwise I'm not sure. I inspected pumps/powerheads and don't see any problems. If it comes back I'll have to dig deeper.

 

[PSXerholic]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. I haven't followed up on this thread because it's been a busy month.

The following week I did (3) 20% water changes 3 days apart.
I added 100ml Cuprisorb and ~1cup of Red Sea carbon in a filter cup in the sump
I replaced my first 2 stages of DI with cation and anion single beds, leaving mixed bed for the last to stages.
I've been monitoring PO4 every few days, it dropped to 0ppb after the second WC, so I've had to dose a couple times. It's been 2-6ppb most of the month.
I bought some ATI Mo and dosed that (after the ICP sample below tho)

Corals all look fine except for one that STN'd this past weekend (@PSXerholic raspberry limeade nasuta actually). I had moved it a week or so prior, so maybe it didn't like the new placement.

Took a sample on 6/22 and Triton results finally came back in today!
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/50583/

Tin and (surprisingly) Al are zero. I haven't had a zero reading on Al since I added marine pure blocks.

Come by when you get a chance to grab another RP Blueberry Limeade Nasuta ;-)
We can talk then about the other elements a bit.

 

[dragon99]

ATI results came back clean for tin also. Al is starting to show back up though.
Starting to wonder why Iodine keeps staying so high.
Ca maybe little higher than I thought. Salifert and AF test kits read 420, Triton came back at 425, but ATI shows I'm at 448

https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/e4796524365f9b6516d6

Most everything is improving, except for my blue stag that started losing flesh on some of the tips yesterday. Otherwise, colors are improving, frags are encrusting, etc.

 

[PSXerholic]

Hmmmmmmmm……
Why is Iron so high?

Are you pouring in something daily?

 

[dragon99]

Hmmmmmmmm……
Why is Iron so high?

Are you pouring in something daily?

Yes, Red Sea Colors. I did a 3ml dose a day before taking the ICP. Surprised it registered that high though.

I need to pick my individual elements so that I can start dosing individually instead on relying on Red Sea's blend.

 

[PSXerholic]

Yes, Red Sea Colors. I did a 3ml dose a day before taking the ICP. Surprised it registered that high though.

I need to pick my individual elements so that I can start dosing individually instead on relying on Red Sea's blend.

There you go, welcome to the club ;-)

That is exactly what the issue is with these combined elements.
Hence the elevated iodine.