VERY high strontium levels.

[Fuzms]

My Triton ICP came back today claiming 2011 mg/l Strontium. First, should I believe this? Second, how are my corals alive if >15ppm is considered toxic to some things? Third, ways to reduce?


Anecdotally I have noticed my corals look much healthier with VERY high Ca levels (think 1000ppm). Could this be related?

Element Analysis Setpoint Deviation
Hg 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Se 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Cd 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Sn 41 µg/l 0,1 µg/l 40.90
Sb 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
As 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Al 69 µg/l 2 µg/l 67.00
Pb 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Ti 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Cu 4.845 µg/l 0.1 µg/l 4.75
La 0 µg/l 0.1 µg/l -0.10
Sc 0 µg/l 0.1 µg/l -0.10
W 0 µg/l 0.1 µg/l -0.10
Na 10327 mg/l 10700 mg/l -373.00
Ca 1249 mg/l 440 mg/l 809.00
Mg 1374 mg/l 1370 mg/l 4.00
K 334 mg/l 400 mg/l -66.00
Br 90 mg/l 62 mg/l 28.00
B 4.006 mg/l 4,5 mg/l -0.49
Sr 2011 mg/l 8 mg/l 2003.00
S 905 mg/l 900 mg/l 5.00
Li 1691 µg/l 200 µg/l 1491.00
Ni 0 µg/l 5 µg/l -5.00
Mo 14 µg/l 12 µg/l 2.00
V 0 µg/l 1,2 µg/l -1.20
Zn 7.296 µg/l 4 µg/l 3.30
Mn 0 µg/l 2 µg/l -2.00
I 18 µg/l 60 µg/l -42.00
Cr 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Co 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Fe 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Ba 25 µg/l 10 µg/l 15.00
Be 0 µg/l 0,1 µg/l -0.10
Si 147 µg/l 100 µg/l 47.00
P 12 µg/l 6 µg/l 6.00
PO4 0.03672 mg/l 0.01836 mg/l 0.019

[Ostentum]

How is it possible to have your Calcium that high with Mg at 1374. Chemically it should precipitate out if your Alk is within the proper parameters. Same with Strontium, not sure how thats possible.

[Fuzms]

Good question, I'll test my Alk when I get home.

[bertoni]

I don't think that the calcium number is correct. That's rather high. It'll be interesting to see the alkalinity number.

[Fuzms]

The Ca seemed high to me as well. My Redsea kit tested the Ca at 790ppm and the Alk at 9.0 dKH.

[bertoni]

790 ppm of calcium already is very high. I don't particularly believe 1249 ppm. I'd ignore the result, but you could try another test kit, maybe at a local fish store or the like.

[Fuzms]

As I said, my corals seem to prefer VERY high Ca. I have tested it with my own kit (790), petco (~800), 2x LFS (both high 700's). So, I think I trust that Ca is right around 800ppm.

I don't know why my corals seem to like this. My first question is are these tests testing for total Ca, but that someway about half my Ca is bound up in a way unusable by my corals?

A bigger concern for me is how and why Sr is so high? Li is also high. I was wondering if one of these effecting Ca availability and would explain why my corals like Ca so high. And then, of course, how to bring Sr and Li back in line and maintain them that way.


Side note, I use IO reef crystals.

[bertoni]

I am not sure what might be the issue, but I can't think of anything that would bind the calcium so that it could be read by the test but not used by corals. Strontium is chemically very similar to calcium. If it's actually that high, which I doubt, it would be measured by the calcium kit, most likely, as it's very hard to test for just one of the two. Lithium that high, if real, most likely would be from a bad batch of salt. I might try a new batch of salt, and see what changes that makes.

[stancfii]

Did you ever have any resolution to this issue? I switched to Reef Crystals in Spring of 2018 and have been chasing an STN issue that I can only seem to trace back to this time frame when I first made the switch. I’m wondering if there may be an excess of some trace element or metal in the salt that is causing this problem.