Lithium Waaay Too High, causes?

[SkyBlazer]

Hello everyone. On April 9th, I noticed my large SPS colonies suddenly dying within hours of each other and within a week, all of my SPS were dead with most LPS closed up good.

I am new to the hobby so with the help of my LFS we put carbon, and upon testing for ammonia nitrite, (everything being 0) we sent the water for an ICP Test. I got the results back yesterday and everything was normal except Manganese and Lithium. My Manganese came out at 1.79 ppm and Lithium was 1050 ppm. I am understanding that Manganese should be .25 and Lithium between 180 to 300. The problem now is we have no idea and my LFs has never seen Lithium this high. They’re asking if I have put batteries in the tank but I have no and I checked the sump as well as the tank very thoroughly. I want someone to please help me understand what could cause Lithium levels this high?

My tank is 120x30x36 roughly 540 Gal and I’m attaching my ICP results. If anything else looks off please let me know. I am at a loss because so many of my corals have died and without finding the cause I’m worried about adding more in the future. Thanks so much for your time and hope I can get some help.

 

[rtparty]

What salt and what are you dosing to the tank?

 

[SkyBlazer]

Asf reef evolution salt And only calc and alk. Tank is only 7 months old. It gets serviced by the LFS every 2 weeks. Last service was April 2nd but no water change was done.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do you do any maintenance on your tank? Your story kind of points to the LFS guy dropping a battery (or something) in the tank.......

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Let's back up.

That ICP says the lithium is 1050 ug/L (= ppb). It is 1 ppm, not 1050 ppm.

While higher than their target range, it does not seem high enough to be a major issue, IMO.

 

[SkyBlazer]

Do you not think this can be a cause for SPS dying? The 1050ug/L?

 

[SkyBlazer]

Do you do any maintenance on your tank? Your story kind of points to the LFS guy dropping a battery (or something) in the tank.......

I personally don’t, I’m trying to get mlre
Involved since I’m losing so much livestock but all water changes and even the top off RODI water comes from the same place. Would one battery be enough to do this?

 

[Privateye]

I've seen this with another brand of salt. I'm going to keep this vague for legal and privacy purposes:

Years ago a customer of mine reported high lithium, which was causing losses in their embryos (they raised a marine invertebrate). Their system water was repeatedly testing high, so they had me contact the manufacturer who recommended testing the source water. The ICP showed no detectable lithium.

They then tested a freshly-mixed batch of seawater (mixed with the problem salt) and the ICP also came back with high lithium.

They then tried switching to another brand of salt, which resulted in normal lithium levels and much higher embryo survival.

They provided these results to me, which I passed along to the manufacturer. I received a response from their legal representation basically stating "we test to the highest standards and there is no problem". In other words, they were unwilling to test the product and would not admit to any issues. While I had advocated for us to test the product in-house, and offer a conciliatory credit to the customer for his issues, I was informed we had to go with the manufacturer's word.

With our legal team's blessing, our quality manager responded directly to the customer. They were not happy about the outcome, and although we sold other brands of salt too, we lost a customer I'd had for several years. That bothered me a bit because he had gone the extra mile to prove his point, and in my mind he succeeded. He is a Ph.D professor with many publications in this field, so I'm inclined to believe his methods were pretty scientific.

Sorry for the long story, but if you want to investigate the salt, I would recommend following the same steps. Perform an ICP on a freshly-mixed batch of water, and on the source water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you not think this can be a cause for SPS dying? The 1050ug/L?

I think it unlikely, but do not know with certainty.

It would typically come from additives or salt mixes.

 

[MrPike]

I don’t believe lithium is the problem or the manganese. If it wasn’t for the high manganese I’d guess you were using reef crystals? Maybe reef crystals and dosing some Goni power? Either way, I’d personally be looking for some other reason for coral death at this point.

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong but if your paying someone to maintain the tank and they are providing all of the water then I think the problem is theirs and they should be trying to figure it out and the burden should not fall to you. Your paying for ICP to be performed to figure out what is wrong with their water.

 

[rtparty]

I believe there is a brand of calcium chloride out there with super elevated lithium. Do you know which calcium supplement you are using?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I believe there is a brand of calcium chloride out there with super elevated lithium. Do you know which calcium supplement you are using?

I think Earthborn brand has been fingered for that, but I do not independently know it to be true.