Hanna Nitrate HR Reagent INTO Tank

[kurbanas]

At the end of the 2 min mixing step for the Hanna Nitrate HR test as I was cleaning the vial, I dropped the vial and by some clumsy miracle, the vial broke and the entire contents (and broken vial) ended up in my sump.

The reagent packet says Malonic acid, and I assume there is also some kind of dye to produce the color. I know a bit about water chem (I do water treatment research for a living) and my gut tells me that that small amount won't have a significant impact on the water chem... but I am more worried about the dye (and/or whatever else might be in the reagent packet). Display + sump is 100 gal, 3 fish, LPS + SPS corals, BTA.

So I put some carbon in the sump and thought about tossing in some Purigen, but I thought I would ask you all any thoughts on this dilemma. I do not have any SW prepared.

This happened about 15 min ago, so far pH hasn't budged and everything is proceeding as normal.

Am I under reacting? Am I doomed?

[Not sure if this is the right place for this]

 

[taricha]

My bet is that your next ICP test will show elevated zinc, probably not enough to kill stuff, but maybe undesirably high. The other things, I am guessing would not have an effect at the scale of dilution you are talking about.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

At the end of the 2 min mixing step for the Hanna Nitrate HR test as I was cleaning the vial, I dropped the vial and by some clumsy miracle, the vial broke and the entire contents (and broken vial) ended up in my sump.

The reagent packet says Malonic acid, and I assume there is also some kind of dye to produce the color. I know a bit about water chem (I do water treatment research for a living) and my gut tells me that that small amount won't have a significant impact on the water chem... but I am more worried about the dye (and/or whatever else might be in the reagent packet). Display + sump is 100 gal, 3 fish, LPS + SPS corals, BTA.

So I put some carbon in the sump and thought about tossing in some Purigen, but I thought I would ask you all any thoughts on this dilemma. I do not have any SW prepared.

This happened about 15 min ago, so far pH hasn't budged and everything is proceeding as normal.

Am I under reacting? Am I doomed?

[Not sure if this is the right place for this]

I think I found the MSDS for this product. It does contain zinc, which, dose dependent, is very toxic to invertebrates.

Jay

 

[Icryhard]

Do some water changes over the next couple of days and maybe use something to bind zinc. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/icp-test-high-zinc-38ug-l.781199/

 

[Pod_01]

My opinion, oops! Don’t do it on regular basis and I suspect you are good. Some of us dose zinc as a trace….

Below are ingredients in Tropic Marin A- elements:

I suspect you are safe with 100gal tank.
Good luck.

 

[kurbanas]

Thank you all and great idea to look up the SDS! Seems to be the right product. And specifically called out as "harmful to the aquatic environment" with both acute and chronic toxicity, and "Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects"

Check my math:

• Total mass of powder in packet = 100-250 mg (my scale is not great- empty packet was 0.5-0.6 g, unused is 0.6-0.7 g)
• SDS says the Zn powder is 0.5-1 %wt.
• So using only the high end of that range, I dumped between 1.0-2.5 mg pure Zn
• Talk is 90-100 gal = 340-380 L
• Resulting concentration range is ~2.5-7.5 ug/L = (1/380 - 2.5/340)

Seem reasonable?

In the linked thread, the poster was asking about Zn at 38 ug/L, so I am not overly worried about it (assuming my math is correct), but I will probably pick up some Cuprisorb or Metasorb today and do some water changes. And also not drop vials anymore.

 

[hunterallen40]

Thank you all and great idea to look up the SDS! Seems to be the right product. And specifically called out as "harmful to the aquatic environment" with both acute and chronic toxicity, and "Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects"

Check my math:

• Total mass of powder in packet = 100-250 mg (my scale is not great- empty packet was 0.5-0.6 g, unused is 0.6-0.7 g)
• SDS says the Zn powder is 0.5-1 %wt.
• So using only the high end of that range, I dumped between 1.0-2.5 mg pure Zn
• Talk is 90-100 gal = 340-380 L
• Resulting concentration range is ~2.5-7.5 ug/L = (1/380 - 2.5/340)

Seem reasonable?

In the linked thread, the poster was asking about Zn at 38 ug/L, so I am not overly worried about it (assuming my math is correct), but I will probably pick up some Cuprisorb or Metasorb today and do some water changes. And also not drop vials anymore.

Since the tank is 100 gallons total, that means the water volume is probably closer to 75-80 gallons, so the concentration would likely be closer to 3.3-8.8 ug / L.

I personally dose my system up to 5 ug/L when lower, and would not be worried about 8.8 ug/L.

I personally would be most worried about the die, but it is likely not significant enough to do much of anything in your system.

TL;DR don't worry about that level of zinc. You should be totally fine.

 

[Dan_P]

My bet is that your next ICP test will show elevated zinc, probably not enough to kill stuff, but maybe undesirably high. The other things, I am guessing would not have an effect at the scale of dilution you are talking about.

Zinc metal, the stuff in the kit, is likely to dissolve slowly. Maybe the zinc increase will be slight. I agree with the dilution notion. Barring a very potent invert toxin, there might be no issue dumping in the chemicals

Couldn’t we mix the reagent in plain water, centrifuge off the zinc and at least see how much there? I am guessing wildly we are talking about 10 mg. So, 10 mg / 380 L is (in my head) 1/38 of ppm or 25 ppb? Would that be a big deal?

 

[taricha]

I am guessing wildly we are talking about 10 mg. So, 10 mg / 380 L is (in my head) 1/38 of ppm or 25 ppb? Would that be a big deal?

yeah, I was going to ask you what an estimate of the amount of zinc would be.
25 ppb would be not ideal, but doubt anyone would notice livestock effects.