Let’s face it, heavy metals are never a good thing and until recently we could only mitigate the ways that these unwanted elements made their way into our tanks. However, with the rise in ultra-precise aquarium water testing using ICP technology by Triton Lab, we can now test for unwanted metals down to the single-digit parts per billion.
Most reefers will be looking for trace levels of desirable elements, such as Zinc, Manganese and Cobalt, but some users of Triton testing will notice small bumps of unwanted barium, lead, mercury, and sometimes even copper! Of course if you have levels of any of these in the parts per million, your corals are probably already dead or dying but what should or what can you do in the case of trace levels of these heavy metals?
Activated carbon, GFO and resins can only remove these heavy metals down to the parts per billion. Short of having a massive phytoremediation setup with a substantial standing crop of macroalgae, you need to use a “adsorption amplifier” so that activated carbon and the like can actually remove these trace heavy metals.
Triton Detox is precisely this adsorption amplifier, consisting of extra pure humic acid, a large molecule that will actively take up and bind with free floating trace levels of heavy metals. After a few days of mixing in your tank water, you simply add activated carbon to remove the large humic acid molecules and you will have removed a good amount of the toxic heavy metals.
We are currently consulting on such a case scenario on an otherwise great looking reef tank which unfortunately is carrying a copper level around 9 ppb, to the specific detriment of this reefers’ Acropora corals. We’re going to put Detox to the test and follow up with ICP testing to see how well the product has worked to reduce or remove the trace level of copper in this aquarium and will report back. [Unique Corals]
