Mercury in my aquarium

Forscythe

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I recently sent out a water sample with a Triton ICP test kit. When I received the results, it says I have high levels of mercury in my system!!! I don't have any thermometers that contain mercury, so I know it's not caused by that.

My other equipment consists of:

-Reef Octopus Varios 6 return pump
-Titanium heater with remote thermostat
-Reef Octopus 130 Protein Skimmer
-Aquatop Media Reactor with GFO
-x2 wave makers (not sure what brand, bought off amazon)

Could any of these things containmercury that could leak into the system?
The only new pieces of equipment that I added after my previous ICP test was the reactor and a 3rd wave maker which I removed after receiving the test results.

Anybody have any ideas??
 

ZoWhat

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I would say probably from your public water

Off the internet:
Mercury is emitted by natural sources, such as volcanoes, geothermal springs, geologic deposits, and the ocean. Human-related sources primarily include coal combustion, waste incineration, industrial uses, and mining.

So how does mercury get into lakes and streams? The main source to most aquatic environments in the U.S. is from atmospheric deposition (rain, snow, dry particles). Some water bodies also receive mercury from direct discharge of industrial wastes, mining wastes, or naturally occurring mercury minerals.
 
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Sorry, I have no valuable input on this topic...
However! I read just the title of of your post and my mind just immediately played the Age of Aquarius and I had visions of planets in motion haha...
Mercury Retrograde GIF by GIPHY Studios Originals
 
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Forscythe

Forscythe

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I would say probably from your public water

Off the internet:
Mercury is emitted by natural sources, such as volcanoes, geothermal springs, geologic deposits, and the ocean. Human-related sources primarily include coal combustion, waste incineration, industrial uses, and mining.

So how does mercury get into lakes and streams? The main source to most aquatic environments in the U.S. is from atmospheric deposition (rain, snow, dry particles). Some water bodies also receive mercury from direct discharge of industrial wastes, mining wastes, or naturally occurring mercury minerals.

I would say probably from your public water

Off the internet:
Mercury is emitted by natural sources, such as volcanoes, geothermal springs, geologic deposits, and the ocean. Human-related sources primarily include coal combustion, waste incineration, industrial uses, and mining.

So how does mercury get into lakes and streams? The main source to most aquatic environments in the U.S. is from atmospheric deposition (rain, snow, dry particles). Some water bodies also receive mercury from direct discharge of industrial wastes, mining wastes, or naturally occurring mercury minerals.
Well that's a scary thought in general. Lol
If that's the case I'm glad to hear it's potentially something I didn't cause.
 
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Forscythe

Forscythe

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This is the first time I've heard of this problem.

It must be your source water.

use a heavy metal remover. I think triton have one they probably recommended.


Regards
Graham.
I looked at the solution part of my test results and it says contact my salt manufacturer. I use Red Sea black bucket. Is it possible the salt could be contaminted?
 
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Forscythe

Forscythe

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Sorry, I have no valuable input on this topic...
However! I read just the title of of your post and my mind just immediately played the Age of Aquarius and I had visions of planets in motion haha...
Mercury Retrograde GIF by GIPHY Studios Originals
Lol, I'm not familiar with that one
 
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gbroadbridge

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I looked at the solution part of my test results and it says contact my salt manufacturer. I use Red Sea black bucket. Is it possible the salt could be contaminted?
I'd be very surprised as Red Sea publish ICP tests for all batches of their salt mixes. I've not heard of a black bucket, I normally use their Blue buckets and in 5 years have not had a problem.

I think you need to look at the Triton AL99 product which removes heavy metals. Assuming of course the test sample was not contaminated.
 
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Forscythe

Forscythe

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I'd be very surprised as Red Sea publish ICP tests for all batches of their salt mixes. I've not heard of a black bucket, I normally use their Blue buckets and in 5 years have not had a problem.

I think you need to look at the Triton AL99 product which removes heavy metals. Assuming of course the test sample was not contaminated.
Ok, I will check out the AL99 product. Thanks
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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Ok, I will check out the AL99 product. Thanks

Bear in mind that no product only binds "bad" things.

Metal binders reduce the good and the bad. And in most cases, what is good vs bad is a matter of how much is present, not just the identity (mercury is an exception).

For example, too much copper is bad. Too little copper is bad. Some is just right. Same applies to many trace metals.
 
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nereefpat

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2.8 parts per billion is a pretty small number, but maybe it's too much, I don't know. There is a chart in this paper showing concentrations in seawater around the world: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5013138/

There are values anywhere from undetectable to a few thousand nanograms per liter. 1000 ng/L would equal 1 part per billion for our purposes. So 2.8 wouldn't be the highest, but also not the lowest. We'll see what Randy says.

If you're not having problems with your livestock, then that's something else to consider.
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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I do not know if that level of mercury is accurate, nor whether it is a problem for the species you keep.

The toxicity of mercury is very dependent on the chemical form (you do not know which forms you have), and the species involved.

Personally, unless you knew that you broke a fluorescent bulb or thermometer, or are suffering more unexplained issues than others typically do, I probably wouldn't do more than ask Triton to double check that its not a typo.


"The sensitivity of aquatic organisms to either inorganic or methylmercury varies considerably between species — more than the difference in sensitivity of a particular species to various mercury compounds (EPA 1985). Methylmercury is more acutely toxic to aquatic organisms than inorganic mercury, but the range among different species in sensitivity to either compound is quite large. For example, the concentration of inorganic mercury inducing acute toxicity was observed to range over almost three orders of magnitude from 0.1 µg/l to more than 200 µg/l when results from tests with different species were compared (Eisler 1987)."
 
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ZoWhat

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A part-per-million can be thought of as:

Fill a 32oz mayonnaise jar with sugar. With one of the grains of sugar dye it bright red throw it in the jar.

Now try to find the 1ppm red grain of sugar.

After 10mins of rolling the jar around, I finally found it, at this exhibit i was at showing this illustration. Pretty amazing

1ppbillion is finding the red sugar grain among 1,000 32oz jars. Mind blowing
 
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Forscythe

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2.8 parts per billion is a pretty small number, but maybe it's too much, I don't know. There is a chart in this paper showing concentrations in seawater around the world: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5013138/

There are values anywhere from undetectable to a few thousand nanograms per liter. 1000 ng/L would equal 1 part per billion for our purposes. So 2.8 wouldn't be the highest, but also not the lowest. We'll see what Randy says.

If you're not having problems with your livestock, then that's something else to consider.
My fish all doing ok, and my Duncan's are ok, but my frogspawns, cabbage, and leathers have been doing really bad. They have been in my system the longest and were always opening wonderfully. once I saw them starting to deteriorate is when I sent in the ICP. I've been doing more water changes lately to see if that helps and they seem to have stabilized.

I won't take any further action other than doing water changes at this time. I don't wanna risk causing any other issues by making dramatic changes.

I really appreciate yours and Randy's knowledge and will keep you guys posted with my progress.

Thank you both again
 
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