ICP Test resluts new tank help

[Rookums Reef]

Just got my first test results back and I need to know what it means big picture and long term.
I've never started with dry rock before. I had 120lbs of Marco and some marine pure balls in a 100g poly tank for 6 weeks, used microbacter 7 and some shrimp to feed bacteria. No fish yet, i was waiting on these reults. I use reef crystals and had done testing weekly. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I would like to fix the issues and make changes where and when possible.
I see I'm critically low on things and high on a few others. It's my first icp and this is whay above my knowledge base. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[T-J]

Man, that has to be the worst ICP test report I've ever seen. No helpful information on it. Just some reference to Florida ocean water with measurements in PPM, and your test results measured in PPB. Why would they do that?

If you have a result of .676 PPB and they say it should be 0 PPM, I'd call that close enough to zero, and wouldn't stress it.

If you do another ICP, I suggest ATI out of Germany.

 

[Rookums Reef]

Man, that has to be the worst ICP test report I've ever seen. No helpful information on it. Just some reference to Florida ocean water with measurements in PPM, and your test results measured in PPB. Why would they do that?

If you have a result of .676 PPB and they say it should be 0 PPM, I'd call that close enough to zero, and wouldn't stress it.

If you do another ICP, I suggest ATI out of Germany.

I'm going through it, element by element and this is definitely not good, but to what degree, as I know zilch! I had some issues with my rodi when I set it back up. It was an older brs model and I had to do some tweaking but I thought I got it handled, maybe I didn't?

 

[Hans-Werner]

0 ppm of bromine for Florida ocean water is just not possible, it should be 64 pp. Iodine and bromine are incredibly high, potassium is extremely low. This has nothing to do with reverse osmosis.

 

[taricha]

Ooof. that's a doozy.
I'm torn. That ICP vendor reports some eye-popping numbers sometimes, but there's a bunch of things in this report that are more wrong than errors I'd expect even from them.
~900ppm Bromine?
Cl- 30+% too low, but Ca, Mg, Na not badly off (maybe 10% low)?
K and S ~35% too low?
2000 ppb Iodine?

of those, only Iodine is usually tricky for ICP vendors.

I don't know how your values can be this bad in a new tank using a popular salt mix at correct salinity.
I'd mix up my own salinity standard Randy article. Calibrate my hydrometer with it, and check my water.

let us know if your salinity is actually ~30% low.
once that's fixed (if it was wrong) I'd get a 2nd opinion from another ICP vendor.

 

[Dan_P]

Just got my first test results back and I need to know what it means big picture and long term.
I've never started with dry rock before. I had 120lbs of Marco and some marine pure balls in a 100g poly tank for 6 weeks, used microbacter 7 and some shrimp to feed bacteria. No fish yet, i was waiting on these reults. I use reef crystals and had done testing weekly. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I would like to fix the issues and make changes where and when possible.
I see I'm critically low on things and high on a few others. It's my first icp and this is whay above my knowledge base. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

Call customer support (they are very responsive) and ask if your sample might have been mixed up with that of another customer. Also ask whether they might have had problems the day of the testing or were overdue for a calibration.

it is interesting that some of the elements are exactly what you would expect and some levels look like that of an industrial waste stream.

Don’t panic.

By the way, hypothetically, how would your aquarium water accidentally become contaminated?

 

[Rookums Reef]

Call customer support (they are very responsive) and ask if your sample might have been mixed up with that of another customer. Also ask whether they might have had problems the day of the testing or were overdue for a calibration.

it is interesting that some of the elements are exactly what you would expect and some levels look like that of an industrial waste stream.

Don’t panic.

By the way, hypothetically, how would your aquarium water accidentally become contaminated?

Hypothetically, I've got no clue? Not that it isn't possible but this water went into a poly tank for 6/7 weeks after being made and that's 2" away. I then pumped it into the tank a week ago. I'm stumped!

 

[Rookums Reef]

Call customer support (they are very responsive) and ask if your sample might have been mixed up with that of another customer. Also ask whether they might have had problems the day of the testing or were overdue for a calibration.

it is interesting that some of the elements are exactly what you would expect and some levels look like that of an industrial waste stream.

Don’t panic.

By the way, hypothetically, how would your aquarium water accidentally become contaminated?

Is there a way, hypothetically speaking, that my rodi us the culprit?

 

[taricha]

Is there a way, hypothetically speaking, that my rodi is the culprit?

Nope. Your RODI won't have ~900ppm Bromine, nor could RODI explain major ions (Cl, K, S) being 30+% too low.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I hope this is not how they have implemented their new ICP-MS machine. lol

Serious problems in the test.

chloride, bromine, maybe boron, iodine,

1155.25 ppm S in Florida water? Come on. Way too high.

 

[Rookums Reef]

I hope this is not how they have implemented their new ICP-MS machine. lol

Serious problems in the test.

chloride, bromine, maybe boron, iodine,

1155.25 ppm S in Florida water? Come on. Way too high.

I reached out to the icp-analysis.com support this morning, asking if there could be an issue. I know there could be because they botched my first test on a tank I had in 2019. There's not much I can do at this moment, I hope it's not any indication of my reefing abilities so far! I might be in way over my head! lol

 

[Rookums Reef]

Call customer support (they are very responsive) and ask if your sample might have been mixed up with that of another customer. Also ask whether they might have had problems the day of the testing or were overdue for a calibration.

it is interesting that some of the elements are exactly what you would expect and some levels look like that of an industrial waste stream.

Don’t panic.

By the way, hypothetically, how would your aquarium water accidentally become contaminated?

I sent an email and got a call, things were discussed. My choice of salt, age of refractometer etc. Sending a whole workup when my new kits arrive tomorrow.
I think it's my rodi. Been a pain since I started this process

 

[Dan_P]

I sent an email and got a call, things were discussed. My choice of salt, age of refractometer etc. Sending a whole workup when my new kits arrive tomorrow.
I think it's my rodi. Been a pain since I started this process

Sounds like you have some solid leads. I am looking forwards to hearing the results of your investigation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I sent an email and got a call, things were discussed. My choice of salt, age of refractometer etc. Sending a whole workup when my new kits arrive tomorrow.
I think it's my rodi. Been a pain since I started this process

I'm skeptical that the fault lies with you, especially about the bromide. Low salinity might explain many of the huge issues, but not that one.

Let's just look at some highlights

1. Bromide, normally about 63 ppm, at 893 ppm.
Did you dose bromide? I mean crazy large amounts of material?

2. Chloride at 13,300 ppm. That's crazy low. Normally over 19,000 ppm. Could ONLY be the case if salinity is super, super low. Maybe 24 ppt.

3. Sulfur at 765 ppm. Low, compared to normal seawater at about 900. Low salinity (30 ppt) would do it, but there's not enough chloride to be 30 ppt.

4. Sodium at 8410 ppm. Low compared to NSW at about 10,700. Could be low salinity, at about 28 ppt.

5. Magnesium is a bit low at 1210 ppm vs 1280 ppm. Could be low salinity. (33 ppt).

6. Potassum very low at 272 ppm (vs 400 ppm). Salinity of 24 ppt.

 

[Rookums Reef]

I'm skeptical that the fault lies with you, especially about the bromide. Low salinity might explain many of the huge issues, but not that one.

Let's just look at some highlights

1. Bromide, normally about 63 ppm, at 893 ppm.
Did you dose bromide? I mean crazy large amounts of material?

2. Chloride at 13,300 ppm. That's crazy low. Normally over 19,000 ppm. Could ONLY be the case if salinity is super, super low. Maybe 24 ppt.

3. Sulfur at 765 ppm. Low, compared to normal seawater at about 900. Low salinity (30 ppt) would do it, but there's not enough chloride to be 30 ppt.

4. Sodium at 8410 ppm. Low compared to NSW at about 10,700. Could be low salinity, at about 28 ppt.

5. Magnesium is a bit low at 1210 ppm vs 1280 ppm. Could be low salinity. (33 ppt).

6. Potassum very low at 272 ppm (vs 400 ppm). Salinity of 24 ppt.

I don't dose anything. This water was made 12/13/2021. I've topped off and added nothing but music and bacto 7. May not be the brightest move but I bought more tests, same company and sending them in on Monday. I'm doing tap water, rodi and my 2 tanks, one is a new qt. That's about all I can do. I was told that my reef crystals is part of the problem. I'm actually about to do a 25% water change on my 120 and put some fish in it this weekend. Fingers crossed!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't dose anything. This water was made 12/13/2021. I've topped off and added nothing but music and bacto 7. May not be the brightest move but I bought more tests, same company and sending them in on Monday. I'm doing tap water, rodi and my 2 tanks, one is a new qt. That's about all I can do. I was told that my reef crystals is part of the problem. I'm actually about to do a 25% water change on my 120 and put some fish in it this weekend. Fingers crossed!

What salt mix?

Can't be your RO/DI, and I'd think if a salt mix was crazy like that, others would notice too.

 

[taricha]

That's about all I can do. I was told that my reef crystals is part of the problem.

Reef Crystals is a super common salt. Not likely going to be the source of the absurdly high Bromide. Nor is a salt mix the reason for low salinity.

Actually the most informative thing you could do would be to mix up a salinity standard.
see Randy's article... http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php
Make a standard according to the article, mark it on your swing arm hydrometer (or whatever you use) and then measure your system water.

My guess is that you are like 25% low in salinity, Reef Crystals mixes a little higher in Ca and Mg, so those don't look as bad as the others. This would explain most of the elements, give or take 10% (but not Bromine).

 

[Rookums Reef]

What salt mix?

Can't be your RO/DI, and I'd think if a salt mix was crazy like that, others would notice too.

Reef Crystals is what I use.

 

[Rookums Reef]

Reef Crystals is a super common salt. Not likely going to be the source of the absurdly high Bromide. Nor is a salt mix the reason for low salinity.

Actually the most informative thing you could do would be to mix up a salinity standard.
see Randy's article... http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rhf/index.php
Make a standard according to the article, mark it on your swing arm hydrometer (or whatever you use) and then measure your system water.

My guess is that you are like 25% low in salinity, Reef Crystals mixes a little higher in Ca and Mg, so those don't look as bad as the others. This would explain most of the elements, give or take 10% (but not Bromine).

Ill get my hands on a 2L bottle and make a standard, thanks for the link and the help!

 

[Rookums Reef]

I ended up purchasing a new refractometer, my previous one is a few years old and I want to eliminate any doubts. I calibrated them both today, old and new, but they aren't as accurate as the Hannah digital refractometer. But not so far off I'd have sg that low, imo. I also received a new booster pump so I'm making another batch of rodi water and will send samples of all my water out for another round of testing on monday.