ICP Results

bdouglas119

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Background:
My tank has been cycled since September 2019. I have had a hard time keeping some corals alove and slow growth on others.

So far I have lost a few different Acro frags, a monti that started encrusting and then completely browned out and died when the phosphates increased, some favia frags, and a couple zoas frags and a large elegance coral. All the frags came from WWC and were dipped and acclimated. I have some corals that seem very happy such as a large hammer, GSP, several Zoas, an aussie lord, candy canes, a platgyra, leather and a blasto. Some of the Zoas are growing super fast, some slow (they are all on the same rock with space in between them. and the rest of the corals just dont seem to be growing much.

I currently have BRS 2 part running on a doser. I do 10-15% water changes weekly and test weekly with Red Sea and Hanna test kits. Recently my Phosphate levels got pretty high. They went from around 0.09 to 0.3. I was started using Brightwell Phosphate E to lower the levels however they didnt seem to drop very much. I dropped some GFO in there and got the levels down to .04. After this i ordered an ICP test. most of the levels were right were they needed to be.

I have 2 Hydra 26's running the BRS AB+ spectrum. And flow is provided by 2 Skimz SS9.0's My build thread here shows the rest of the equipment. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-first-build-75-gallon-mixed-reef.650198/

So to the ICP Results:

There is currently high levels of Lanthanum from the Brightwell Phosphate E that should go down with heavy water changes.

The Aluminum and Copper levels are in the yellow range leading me to think a powerhead or something is cracked.

There is also elevated Zinc and im not sure where thats coming from.

I can dose the Red Sea trace elements to replenish the Iodine.

Any other suggestions to speed up growth and keep moralities down?

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Randy Holmes-Farley

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I've had copper that high (higher) without issue, but yours may have been higher in the past and that caused the issue.

I don't think the aluminum is the issue. I doubt the zinc is an issue either.

I've rarely seen substantially elevated lanthanum like that. Not sure what the implications for corals are.
 

fcmatt

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I've had copper that high (higher) without issue, but yours may have been higher in the past and that caused the issue.

I don't think the aluminum is the issue. I doubt the zinc is an issue either.

I've rarely seen substantially elevated lanthanum like that. Not sure what the implications for corals are.

Isn't lanthanum used in phosphate removal stuff? Lanthanum chloride...
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Isn't lanthanum used in phosphate removal stuff?

Yes, I understand that why it is there. I just do not know what other effects it may be having, if any.

It is commonly used, but fairly unusual to see by ICP.
 

fcmatt

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Yes, I understand that why it is there. I just do not know what other effects it may be having, if any.

It is commonly used, but fairly unusual to see by ICP.

I missed where he said the brightwell caused the lanthanum issue.

But with that said I would stop dumping in chemicals.. and go back to tried and true basics. Like making sure rodi is 0. Good salt. Weekly water changes. Keep an eye on alk. Check hardware that uses magnets and the rest. Etc... stability always seems to be the key to growth.
 
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bdouglas119

bdouglas119

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Yes, I understand that why it is there. I just do not know what other effects it may be having, if any.

It is commonly used, but fairly unusual to see by ICP.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry the notification didnt show up that anyone commented on this. I have had troubles with corals dying before the Lanthanum(although its probably making things worse now). My plan to remove that is several large water changes and i plan to investigate the pumps to see if thats the source of the other high metals in the tank. my only assumption as to how copper is in the tank is from a powerhead or pump. My return pump is an Ecotech Vectra and skimmer pump is Sicce and both are pretty new so i dont expect to find any issues with them. The powerheads are Skimz SS9.0's which seem to be a pretty cheap powerhead so my guess is if there is an issue, its those. My house doesnt have any copper pipes and my RODI output is always 0TDS.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Are all devices on a GFCI, and is the tank grounded? A broken device with current flowing in the water can release a ton of copper compared the same device unelectrified.
 
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bdouglas119

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Are all devices on a GFCI, and is the tank grounded? A broken device with current flowing in the water can release a ton of copper compared the same device unelectrified.

No stray voltage. I have noticed these brown spots on my candy cane. It almost looks like algae starting to grow.
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