[Yonk3y]

Alright well I'm a college student and I was wondering if you guys had any advice or help I could use to accomplish my thesis. 

Species such as Splake trout, crayfish and weeds will be captured all from the same lake.  A digestion will be performed so that I may analyze the samples with an ICP-MS and AA.  The goal of the research is to see if the species contain iron, copper and nickel.  The lake in particular is dead and rich in iron(Fe).  We believe this is the reason for which there almost no life form in the lake present.  Weeds are rare, there are many dead crayfish and the splake trout was planted.

The thing is that I don't have any experience with the instruments and I need to know some standards which will allow me to set the instruments correctly so it may work. 

I think I'm going to use an aqua regia digestion but I was informed that the ICP-MS wasn't compatible with that method so maybe I can just use it for the AA and do another for the ICP-MS.  Unless there's one which I can use for both...

Any information will be greatly appreciated!!