A Beginner’s Guide to ICP Testing

Fish Think Pink · Aug 11, 2023

A Beginner’s Guide to ICP Testing

MICHAEL PALETTA
6 DAYS AGO

As mentioned in my last article, water testing is one of the least fun aspects of the hobby. I have discussed water testing and ICP testing with a lot of other hobbyists and one of the interesting things I have learned from these talks, in addition to everyone hating doing testing is how much variance there can be on tests, and as Sanjay pointed out in his article even between ICP tests. There can even be a variance between ICP tests when the same water is sent to the same company.

Starting out

For someone just starting out who wants to use the best technology and optimize their tank right from the start what are they to do? In my opinion, when starting out, standard testing of the main parameters and getting them stable is the first priority and should take precedence over doing anything else. And this should not be accomplished when it has been done for weeks, but rather only after it has occurred for months, will next-level testing be as beneficial as it can be. Only after long-term stability has been accomplished should ICP testing be added to the testing regimen.
Stability for factors like alkalinity are more important than ICP values.

So what exactly is ICP testing and why should it be added to the testing regimen at some point, especially when someone is starting out? To explain it as simply as possible, ICP testing (Inductively Coupled Plasma) Spectroscopy is an analytical technique whereby a sample, in our case a dose of salt water, is fed into a high-temperature chamber where the liquid is super-heated which converts the liquid into ions which can be measured with a mass spectrometer.

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