ICP results - High Zn and Fe. Should I be concerned?

[becky46]

Hi all, I purchased an ICP test after battling dinos for a few months. My phosphates came back pretty high because I removed GFO and elevated the phosphates to help get rid of the dinos. However, I also see zinc and iron are elevated (in the red zone, if that means anything). Is this problematic? Fe is at 7 µg/l and Zn is at 21 µg/l.

It also suggests I dose boron and iodine. Is this recommended?

I am going to start putting GFO back in the tank to bring the phosphates down as the dinos are just about gone. Not sure if anything else looks too problematic - haven't been in the hobby for too long.

Attached are the results.

Thanks!

 

[GillMeister]

High iron doesn't sound like a good thing. I thought iron was a contributor to algae growth, among other things.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

High iron doesn't sound like a good thing. I thought iron was a contributor to algae growth, among other things.

Some is needed by all photosynthetic organisms. Its not apparent to me that algae needs more than other organisms, and some methods add quite a lot (Red Sea recommendation), either as a supplement or to control phosphate by precipitation iron phosphate (e.g., DSR method). I've not heard it claimed that these methods have algae issues.

 

[GillMeister]

Some is needed by all photosynthetic organisms. Its not apparent to me that algae needs more than other organisms, and some methods add quite a lot (Red Sea recommendation), either as a supplement or to control phosphate by precipitation iron phosphate (e.g., DSR method). I've not heard it claimed that these methods have algae issues.

You would know better than most. I thought I had read somewhere that dropping Fe in the ocean could be used to encourage algae or phytoplankton blooms. I might be remembering that wrong.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You would know better than most. I thought I had read somewhere that dropping Fe in the ocean could be used to encourage algae or phytoplankton blooms. I might be remembering that wrong.

It does.

But that's taking iron from way, way below undetectable by ICP (as lows as 0.006 µg/L) to still undetectable by ICP. Adding a lot more than that won't do much because it is no longer the limiting factor to growth. Something else then limits growth.