diff --git a/ci/upstream.yml b/ci/upstream.yml
index 184c6710..2c2680bc 100644
--- a/ci/upstream.yml
+++ b/ci/upstream.yml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ dependencies:
   - fsspec
   - pip
   - pip:
-    - zarr==3.0.0b1  # beta release of zarr-python v3
+    - icechunk # Installs zarr v3 as dependency
     - git+https://github.com/pydata/xarray@zarr-v3  # zarr-v3 compatibility branch
     - git+https://github.com/zarr-developers/numcodecs@zarr3-codecs  # zarr-v3 compatibility branch
     # - git+https://github.com/fsspec/kerchunk@main  # kerchunk is currently incompatible with zarr-python v3 (https://github.com/fsspec/kerchunk/pull/516)
diff --git a/virtualizarr/readers/zarr_v3.py b/virtualizarr/readers/zarr_v3.py
index 6da81581..a1f4ab7d 100644
--- a/virtualizarr/readers/zarr_v3.py
+++ b/virtualizarr/readers/zarr_v3.py
@@ -150,5 +150,7 @@ def _configurable_to_num_codec_config(configurable: dict) -> dict:
     """
     configurable_copy = configurable.copy()
     codec_id = configurable_copy.pop("name")
+    if codec_id.startswith("numcodecs."):
+        codec_id = codec_id[len("numcodecs.") :]
     configuration = configurable_copy.pop("configuration")
     return numcodecs.get_codec({"id": codec_id, **configuration}).get_config()
diff --git a/virtualizarr/tests/test_writers/test_icechunk.py b/virtualizarr/tests/test_writers/test_icechunk.py
index 0c3491e6..b2de2c52 100644
--- a/virtualizarr/tests/test_writers/test_icechunk.py
+++ b/virtualizarr/tests/test_writers/test_icechunk.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def icechunk_filestore(tmpdir) -> "IcechunkStore":
 
     # TODO if icechunk exposed a synchronous version of .open then we wouldn't need to use asyncio.run here
     # TODO is this the correct mode to use?
-    store = asyncio.run(IcechunkStore.open(storage=storage, mode="r+"))
+    store = asyncio.run(IcechunkStore.open(storage=storage, mode="a"))
 
     # TODO instead yield store then store.close() ??
     return store
diff --git a/virtualizarr/writers/zarr.py b/virtualizarr/writers/zarr.py
index b3dc8f1a..e1cea132 100644
--- a/virtualizarr/writers/zarr.py
+++ b/virtualizarr/writers/zarr.py
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ def to_zarr_json(var: Variable, array_dir: Path) -> None:
 def zarr_v3_array_metadata(zarray: ZArray, dim_names: list[str], attrs: dict) -> dict:
     """Construct a v3-compliant metadata dict from v2 zarray + information stored on the xarray variable."""
     # TODO it would be nice if we could use the zarr-python metadata.ArrayMetadata classes to do this conversion for us
+    try:
+        from zarr.core.metadata.v3 import ArrayV3Metadata
+    except ImportError:
+        raise ImportError("zarr-python v3+ must be installed to use this function")
 
     metadata = zarray.dict()
 
@@ -95,7 +99,7 @@ def zarr_v3_array_metadata(zarray: ZArray, dim_names: list[str], attrs: dict) ->
         "name": "default",
         "configuration": {"separator": "/"},
     }
-    metadata["codecs"] = zarray._v3_codec_pipeline()
+    metadata["codecs"] = tuple(c.to_dict() for c in zarray._v3_codec_pipeline())
     metadata.pop("filters")
     metadata.pop("compressor")
     metadata.pop("order")
diff --git a/virtualizarr/zarr.py b/virtualizarr/zarr.py
index 3f71bbcf..a222a788 100644
--- a/virtualizarr/zarr.py
+++ b/virtualizarr/zarr.py
@@ -221,6 +221,9 @@ def _num_codec_config_to_configurable(num_codec: dict) -> dict:
     """
     Convert a numcodecs codec into a zarr v3 configurable.
     """
+    if num_codec["id"].startswith("numcodecs."):
+        return num_codec
+
     num_codec_copy = num_codec.copy()
     name = "numcodecs." + num_codec_copy.pop("id")
     return {"name": name, "configuration": num_codec_copy}