Triton tests showing high "Lithium", "Potassium" and "Silicon"

[GePerezReef]

Hello:

My Triton ICP test (test link) is showing incredibly high amounts of Lithium, Potassium and Silicon (worth noting that I also did an "ICP-Analysis" test before this one within a week apart and without any water changes in between and that also showed high Lithium and Potassium)

Triton:

ICP-Analysis:



Based on the research I've done so far, these are some ideas I have that I'd love to hear people's input on:

Lithium:
A few threads about this subject seem to suggest that this element might be commonly found in some salt mixes, Calcium and Alkalinity additives (example).
I am using "Red Sea coral Pro Salt" and I am dosing Seachem's "Reef Carbonate" and "Reef complete" ( for completeness, the only other thing I dose is "Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro" but I do not see this on the list of its ingredients).

According to the Triton help, this might also be due to the use of ceramics and I do have "Two Quart Box - 1 1/2” Spheres Ceramic Biomedia from MarinePure" in my sump. Could that be it?

Potassium
I believe this might be elevated due to the use of "Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro" as I stated above but I haven't come across other culprits (most threads I've found are about this being low). Is there something else I should be looking for?

Silicon:
The Triton help also indicates this might come from "Ceramics" and this makes me even more suspicious of the "Two Quart Box - 1 1/2” Spheres Ceramic Biomedia from MarinePure".

In addition to that, the "Silica in Reef aquariums" post from @Randy Holmes-Farley talks about how Quartz dissolution can lead to silica in the water. I do have a piece of Quartz I brought from Mexico in the aquarium and I am wondering if that could also be the source of Silicon.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ignore the Si as all it can do is promote diatoms, but I don't see how potassium gets that high without massive dosing.

Were you wildly overdosing the chaetogro?

Do you do water changes?

Lithium is not very toxic and I'm not sure it is an issue, but that level is not from a normal salt mix unless it was a manufacturing error. What salt mix do you use?

 

[GePerezReef]

Thanks @Randy Holmes-Farley.
My last water change was about a month ago (I only do water changes when the other parameters I measure get out of balance but with regular dosing this does not happen often).

I'm using "Red Sea coral Pro Salt".

I do not dose "Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro" regularly, I do about 3 caps full on water changes (the instructions suggest 1 capful per 20 US gallons and I have 139 gallons total water volume so I thought this would be well below the limit).

 

[Reefahholic]

That potassium level is through the roof. There’s no way that it’s not being supplemented in some product you’re dosing. I’d get a second quality ICP to verify that value.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree that the potassium is worth following up on.

 

[GePerezReef]

Thank you. I will be doing another ICP test shortly. In the meantime, I keep reading and trying to find the culprit. Is it possible that the potassium was released into the water column by improper removal of xenia? (I had a ton of xenia that I tried to remove by hand and unfortunately when pulling it, it just got crushed into very tiny pieces that floated away. I did not do a water change after that and it was the week prior to the ICP test).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you. I will be doing another ICP test shortly. In the meantime, I keep reading and trying to find the culprit. Is it possible that the potassium was released into the water column by improper removal of xenia? (I had a ton of xenia that I tried to remove by hand and unfortunately when pulling it, it just got crushed into very tiny pieces that floated away. I did not do a water change after that and it was the week prior to the ICP test).

Unlikely that you could boost potassium appreciably by "bleeding" xenia, IMO.

 

[Christoph]

Potassium @ 1300 ppm would likely not be survived by anything besides the hardiest organisms.
How does your tank look like?

Best regards, Christoph

 

[Reefahholic]

Potassium @ 1300 ppm would likely not be survived by anything besides the hardiest organisms.
How does your tank look like?

Best regards, Christoph

For sure most SPS would be having major issues.

 

[GePerezReef]

SPS are definitely having a hard time, that's what prompted me to take the ICP test.
I took the quartz and the ceramic media out yesterday and then I performed a 10% water change.
Here is how the tank looks right now.

On the upper right corner you can see the SPS where I started to notice this issue (that was over 3 weeks ago. At this point it still has some tissue but I'm afraid it will be lost)

Other corals seem to be doing fine

Here is how the whole tank looks right now.

Thanks
--
Jerry