What to do with this ICP result...

[RuuToo]

Tank background - 125 that’s been up for almost 5 years. I do brs hybrid balling, trident controlled dosing and I test phosphate (Hanna phosphorus ulr) and nitrate (Hanna nitrate lr). I keep the tank at 9.5 dkh 435 calcium and mag stays at around 1380. I do a 2 gallon daily auto water change which I thought, along with the trace element dosing would keep up with just about everything else.

I did a fauna Marin Icp test and I’m not sure what to make of the results. The major stuff is fine, with slightly low iodine, which I can dose pretty easily...

The phosphate side makes no sense. I test using what most people would consider the “best” test available and it’s never been less than 0.03 (tested this evening at 0.06 which I’m fine with, coupled with around 3 nitrates). I’m going to choose to ignore this since I think I have this under control.

This is the part I’m not sure what to do with. There’s a bunch of trace elements that are registering as “undetectable” and I’m not sure whether to boost the balling trace element dosing (easiest), dose some of them individually (but which ones?) or just ignore it and stop messing with stuff . The tank is doing ok, but not spectacularly, and there are definitely growth and color issues with some corals I would like to see improvement with.

Any feedback would be appreciated

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Have you looked into the moonshiners method?
It’s all about dosing trace elements

some elements remain undetectable even when dosing for example manganese.

I just started
@danieyella has been doing it longer

got to the Reef moonshiners method webpage download and read the handbook (it’s free)

there is also a Facebook group run by the guy who figured it all out

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't see any strong actionable items, aside from raise phosphate to higher levels to avoid dinos and avoid starving corals. Feed more or dose phosphate.

A trace element mix might be worth a try to see if there is any benefit since some are "low", but how low (or high) is OK is really not well established.