heavy metals found in my triton test- again but corals looking good

codydemmel4

codydemmel4

Active member
Well I juts got my second triton test back.

I still have high amounts of:

Tin (Sn at 4.3)
Copper (Cu at 6.97)
Aluminum (Al 8.5)
Silicon (Si 273)
Lithium (Li 453)

I have no idea how I am getting these levels. I just changed my filters and I have 0 tds, checked all my pumps and dont have any rust. Where else can I look for this. To store my ATO water I use a 32g brute trashcan that i cleaned 2 weeks ago.

Calcium was 450 so thats good. Br was 77 I guess a little high, P04 was 0.01, Iodine was only 14, Potassium was 401.

I am dosing Flatworm stop everyday, coral booster everyother day and AF vitality everyday. I feed flakes 4 times a day (could that have something with the high heavy metals) I barely do water changes, maybe once every 2 months.

The corals have looked better then ever over the past couple weeks so I am hesitant to change anything but those high heavy metals have more worried as I do have some corals still struggling and sometimes look like that are about to stn from the tips (alk has been very stable at 7.7)

On the detection section of triton, almost every single metal that is slightly too high or too high says it could be from contaminated trace elements or contaminated salts. I am just using Instant Ocean and had to add muritac acid to bring down the alk from 12 to 7 when I do water changes. Could that have something to do with it and what salt mix do you recommend that mixes as close to 7 as possible so I do not have an alk spike?

I sent in the test about 2 hours after I did a 20 gallon water change which is making me think it has something to do with the muritic acid if that is possible or maybe just a bad batch of salt. Or possibly my levels were even higher and that water change made them lower, which is also concerning.
 
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codydemmel4 said:
I am dosing Flatworm stop everyday, coral booster everyother day and AF vitality everyday. I feed flakes 4 times a day (could that have something with the high heavy metals) I barely do water changes, maybe once every 2 months.
Click to expand...

Do you know what you are actually putting into the tanks with these additives? Have you done over 100 percent worth of water changes?
 
codydemmel4 said:
Well I juts got my second triton test back.

I still have high amounts of:

Tin (Sn at 4.3)
Copper (Cu at 6.97)
Aluminum (Al 8.5)
Silicon (Si 273)
Lithium (Li 453)

I have no idea how I am getting these levels. I just changed my filters and I have 0 tds, checked all my pumps and dont have any rust. Where else can I look for this. To store my ATO water I use a 32g brute trashcan that i cleaned 2 weeks ago.

Calcium was 450 so thats good. Br was 77 I guess a little high, P04 was 0.01, Iodine was only 14, Potassium was 401.

I am dosing Flatworm stop everyday, coral booster everyother day and AF vitality everyday. I feed flakes 4 times a day (could that have something with the high heavy metals) I barely do water changes, maybe once every 2 months.

The corals have looked better then ever over the past couple weeks so I am hesitant to change anything but those high heavy metals have more worried as I do have some corals still struggling and sometimes look like that are about to stn from the tips (alk has been very stable at 7.7)

On the detection section of triton, almost every single metal that is slightly too high or too high says it could be from contaminated trace elements or contaminated salts. I am just using Instant Ocean and had to add muritac acid to bring down the alk from 12 to 7 when I do water changes. Could that have something to do with it and what salt mix do you recommend that mixes as close to 7 as possible so I do not have an alk spike?

I sent in the test about 2 hours after I did a 20 gallon water change which is making me think it has something to do with the muritic acid if that is possible or maybe just a bad batch of salt. Or possibly my levels were even higher and that water change made them lower, which is also concerning.
Click to expand...



I use muratic with every water change and don't have any heavy metal build up on my triton tests fwiw.
 
Pife said:
Do you know what you are actually putting into the tanks with these additives? Have you done over 100 percent worth of water changes?
Click to expand...

No I do not know exactly what I am putting in but there are a lot of very successful tanks using all three of these additives. I started the FWS and coral booster when I thought I had flatworms but I know now I dont and never did so I kept using these to strength my corals till I ran out then I was most likely going to stop.
No I have not done over 100% water change since my last test because my tds was testing at 1 so I am waiting to get the new canisters for an added carbon block and DI to make sure I have as pure water as possible.

I also am thinking of switching salts, but not sure to which. Right now I really do not want to do anything fast since corals are looking their best in a long time. I will be adding a poly filter and doing smaller water changes once the canisters come in.
 
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Lots of euros like to add metals to their SPS tank to kill off some of the zoox and make the color contrast more noticeable. Zinc was all the rage a few years ago. Although nobody know what is in these supplements, this is not out of the range of possibility.

Lithium is of no concern. You cannot do anything about it anyway, so forget it. Dr RHF has some nice posts about it and the bottom line after all of the science and paragraphs is to just forget about it.

I use IO, muratic and dowflake for water changes and have no heavy metal issues at all. I would look another place than IO salt.

I would make the argument that your tank getting more mature is the reason that your corals have never looked better... not any of those supplements. I would be shocked if you quit and the corals changed much at all. Usually the gains from using stuff like that come from more stability or from a renewed interest in a tank that draws people to supplements... but it is the basic renewed interest or stability that does the work and not the supplements that people think. I have not checked with them, or read any of their tank posts in a while, but do Copps, Big Ed, etc. use any of this stuff? I doubt that they ever would. In five years when the new batch of stuff comes out, then this stuff will then be a punchline just like Marine Snow, Essential Elements, etc. Can you tell that I don't really think much of these type of things?

BTW - you need to change water more. 20-25% a month. Don't think about it, just do it - nothing is as cheap or more effective. In a few years when you understand more about phosphate swapping with water column, sand and live rock and how important it is to keep it down early, you will be glad that you did. Routine water changes in this range (or more) are the common denominator in the elite tanks that I have studied.
 
jda said:
Lots of euros like to add metals to their SPS tank to kill off some of the zoox and make the color contrast more noticeable. Zinc was all the rage a few years ago. Although nobody know what is in these supplements, this is not out of the range of possibility.

Lithium is of no concern. You cannot do anything about it anyway, so forget it. Dr RHF has some nice posts about it and the bottom line after all of the science and paragraphs is to just forget about it.

I use IO, muratic and dowflake for water changes and have no heavy metal issues at all. I would look another place than IO salt.

I would make the argument that your tank getting more mature is the reason that your corals have never looked better... not any of those supplements. I would be shocked if you quit and the corals changed much at all. Usually the gains from using stuff like that come from more stability or from a renewed interest in a tank that draws people to supplements... but it is the basic renewed interest or stability that does the work and not the supplements that people think. I have not checked with them, or read any of their tank posts in a while, but do Copps, Big Ed, etc. use any of this stuff? I doubt that they ever would. In five years when the new batch of stuff comes out, then this stuff will then be a punchline just like Marine Snow, Essential Elements, etc. Can you tell that I don't really think much of these type of things?

BTW - you need to change water more. 20-25% a month. Don't think about it, just do it - nothing is as cheap or more effective. In a few years when you understand more about phosphate swapping with water column, sand and live rock and how important it is to keep it down early, you will be glad that you did. Routine water changes in this range (or more) are the common denominator in the elite tanks that I have studied.
Click to expand...


Greatly appreciate your post. I am starting to think the same that I do not need the supplements, especially FWS and coral booster and it is that my tank is becoming a lot more mature and that is why the coral is encrusting and getting much better PE then before. but I am wary to just stop dosing when things are going right but those high levels make me worried. I am going to do more water changes but was scared to do that with TDS showing as I did not want to pollute the water even more. The canisters are suppose to be here tomorrow so I will do my first water change then, with Instant Ocean since that is all I have at the moment.

The one that does have me very interested in continuing to add is the AF Viatlity that Biggles suggested to replenish a lot of the vitamins that are used, etc and I have been dosing that since last week my corals have looked a lot better. I am debating on stopping the FWS and coral booster but not totally sold on that though as I have seen tanks just as nice as Copps and Big Ed using them with great success while only doing water change once every couple months. I know my tank is still on the new side at half a year old so I need to do more water changes.
 
If a company will list what is in their product, then I might use it. Vitamins are probably OK... but magic, unknown supplements in a bottle are totally different. Most vitamins that I have seen have IUs on the bottle and you know what you are adding.
 
BTW - I don't think that there are any vitamins in seawater that are in the AF Vitality.
 
With all your dosing are you dosing based on the recommended dose? I always take that as the starting point for a fully stocked tank with colonies and then adjust from observations, where as your tank is only frags.
 
Acromaniac said:
With all your dosing are you dosing based on the recommended dose? I always take that as the starting point for a fully stocked tank with colonies and then adjust from observations, where as your tank is only frags.
Click to expand...

No I am way under the recommended dose
 
Acromaniac said:
My bet is still on overdose of additives. Even dosing 10 times less than recommended would probably be considered an overdose.
Click to expand...


but how would that make the levels so high in my tank? It recommends a ml for every 27 gallons a night. That would be around 9 for me and I am dosing 5 a night, so under half.

We dont even know if these have copper etc in them, could be a possibility. I dont even know how I would go about that though. I have just noticed the best I have seen my corals in a long time so I dont exactly what to completely stop them
 
May not be necessary but in addition to more frequent WC you could run CupriSorb for some peace of mind. Triton results can also cause one to freak out sometimes un-necessarily Tank is young still so deep breath, water change.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
yup I decided after thinking about it that I am not going to change any of my dosing since everything looks great. Had great PE again this morning with lights out and all day yesterday. I am going to get some poly filters today and going to do a water change everyweek for a little bit.

I do need to find a copper test though that will help me realize where this is coming from. So I can test my tank, ro/di, fresh saltwater, etc multiple times till I find i tout. If someone could please recommend a good copper test that will recognize these levels that would be great.
 
jda said:
Lots of euros like to add metals to their SPS tank to kill off some of the zoox and make the color contrast more noticeable.

I would make the argument that your tank getting more mature is the reason that your corals have never looked better... not any of those supplements. I would be shocked if you quit and the corals changed much at all. I have not checked with them, or read any of their tank posts in a while, but do Copps, Big Ed, etc. use any of this stuff? I doubt that they ever would. In five years when the new batch of stuff comes out, then this stuff will then be a punchline just like Marine Snow, Essential Elements, etc. Can you tell that I don't really think much of these type of things?
QUOTE]

This.

If it were me I'd slowly back off the additives, just maintain your Alk/CA/Mg and let the tank continue to mature and let those frags grow. Even if the colors aren't bangin, let them grow and then add one additive at a time, if needed, so you can see how the additives tweak the colors.

Keep it simple
Click to expand...
 
naka said:
Any magnets in your tank?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

nope

outssider said:
why are you dosing this if you don't have flatworms ?
Click to expand...

because of the other benefits of it, stronger branches and enhanced growth. there are a ton of people using it without copper showing it, I know it is coming from another source but I am not sure where. I need to find a low range copper test that will show copper at this low level so i can do multiple tests
 
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