ICP test on Skimmerless and no Waterchanges reef aquarium

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

To fully appreciate the results we need to know a bit about the ICP method, especially how the sample is prepared and how the mg/l are calculated from the measurement.

The ICP method involves an argon plasma colliding with tiny droplets of the sample which obliterates the sample to ionized atoms. The abundance of these ionized atoms are then measured.

The results could include elements accumulated by algae, bacteria, virus, and fungi and are not dissolved in the water. And the dissolved organic material will have associated elements either complexed or bonded to it. Find out if the sample is filtered to remove microorganisms or whether they have done some work to show the upper limit of elements that could be concentrated in microorganisms. Also, what sort of pool of elements might we expect form just the dissolved organic material? Has Triton tried to isolate the organics and look for elements just in the typical 1-10 ppm of DOM found in our aquaria?

According to the folks that run this ICP, whole organisms such as phytoplankton do not make it into the plasma. It is not filtered but removed in some sort of cyclone. When I've tested my water with an ICP, I sometimes tested both filtered and unfiltered to try to understand the difference, but that is not done here.

The organics are not separated, but at least from the data I have seen from several folks, the total phosphorus and a separate measurement of inorganic phosphate are in pretty good agreement, so there is not a huge amount of total organic matter in many of these tests.

That said, I expect all or nearly all of the metals such as copper to be bound to organics, as it is in natural seawater.

I also have a working hypothesis that there is substantial organoiodine in some tanks that are not skimmed and not water changed (like this one), but that remains to be established.

 

[trueblackpercula]

this is amazing I will try and send a sample out as well.