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So... My Triton Tests Are In (1 Viewer)

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Paul Buie

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Well - I decided to give Triton a try. Not sure if it was worth the money, but I'll share what I learned from it. My tank is a really, really, heavy LPS tank with a clam the size of a large russet potato and a throw down Monti that Nick gave me, and a crazy neon orange ricordia that my guess is Dennis got from one of you.I tried a small carpet that died after i fed it a silverside 1 month later. I could tell that was a mistake after it spit it out and shrank the next day..... ...oh well. I have had several tanks, but none that are really strictly LPS, and never this much...

My Tank:

170 gal system, only about 20 behind the tank.
GFO Reactor (phosban)
Carbon Reactor (heavy use - lots of chemical warfare, and I mean lots. It is a requirement I have learned)
Bubble Magus rated for about 300 - 400 gal
1/4 HP JBJ chiller
(3) Hydra 26 HD LED's (on 10 hrs, off when Halides on), Hate em....other than the look they give
(2) 250 watt Hamiltons running on American HQI ballasts (on 4.5 hrs when LED's off) 20K radiums
Apex (not sure I like that, but it helps on vacation)

Routine - 35 gal water change bi-monthly, reef crystals. Vaccum sand. Kalk Paste for Aptasia my Copperband doesn't eat (big guys). Clean glass 2 times a week. Very small amount of hair actually grows under one of the LED's in my overflow....Clean out maybe a teaspoon. I'm running an old school Stockman overflow (don't laugh..... lol), and that is where it grows. No algae other than Coralline in tank. Scrape it off with credit card. Add water and I'm done.

Fish load - Too low. That is what I'm going to change. Small copperband, 2 perc hybrids (or whatever), 1 firefish, 3 pajamas (semi adult), 3 anthias (close to adult).

Results:

No heavys - RODI and make my own
Ca is around 460 after water change, 440 right before
Mg is around 1320 after water change, 1300 right before
All minors are fairly in line.
Macros are in line, other than these...

Li is high - from what I understand American salt mixes have high LI. From what I read, it doesn't matter. Hasn't mattered in my tank.

The two things that get's hammered down after a water change is Iodine and Silica. Iodine adds got popular in the day but I don't remember anyone ever reporting this helped. does anyone remember? Silica might be worth adding.

Phosphate: .009 ppm, .008 after. I have confirmed these levels with Hanna URL phosphorus (its like an 8 and 10). I've got to get these up a little. I'm going to try with fish poop.....

Comments appreciated!!!
 

webster1234

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I dose iodine. I think its hugely important, especially with leather corals. They soak it up like a crazy. Silica, not so much. Mostly helps with sponge growth. My silica was also low and I started dosing it. My sponges started growing like crazy. So much so that they started growing up between my zoas and crowding them out. If you have anything that eats sponges, then dose silica. If not, it serves no other purpose that I could find. Iodine and Strontium are biggies though.
 

PSXerholic

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What's No3?
You may want to bring up nutrients! What am I talking about, bring them up.
You know I have a good guide out there on that subject.

Iodide I would dose occasional, helps SPS not to get bleached so quick.....that's from my and others experience.
LI no biggie.

-Andre
 
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Paul Buie

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What's No3?
You may want to bring up nutrients! What am I talking about, bring them up.
You know I have a good guide out there on that subject.

Iodide I would dose occasional, helps SPS not to get bleached so quick.....that's from my and others experience.
LI no biggie.

-Andre

Andre- I'm feeding this thing heavy. I bought the bio digest supplement and was thinking about dosing it and adding more fish. I'm not even straining water out of my frozens.

i like things a little old school and am thinking about just loading this thing up with bio load and just carbon dose with vodka and vinegar. Not sure yet.
 

webster1234

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Can you post a picture of your tank and a copy of your test? What was the reason for doing a Triton test? Just to see where things were? or where you trying to diagnose a problem?

You also mentioned a lot of chemical warfare going on and that being the reason you run carbon 24/7. I'm not convinced running carbon all of the time is a good thing, especially if you ever get tangs. There's a lot of speculation that it is responsible for HLLE. But carbon sucks a lot of nutrients out of the water column. I have a heavy LPS tank and have virtually no chemical warfare and run no carbon. What are you seeing as the basis to identify your chemical warfare? Sometimes, what might be perceived as chemical warfare. might be in reality, a nutrient issue (or lack thereof) happening. I think Triton tests are great for identifying that.

As an example, I bought a nem from a guy that was running carbon 24/7 in his tank because he was afraid that his two different BTA's in the same tank were waging chemical warfare on each other. Neither nem looked great so he assumed if was because of the fighting. I suggested that he had a water quality issue that was making the nems look bad and not chemical warfare. To prove my point, I took one of his nems and put it right in the middle of my colony of RBTAs. It has been nestled in the middle of them for months now with no ill effects, and looks bubbled up like it's supposed to, not stringy like it was when I got it.

So for him, running the carbon was most likely causing more harm than good and he was running it for all of the wrong reasons. Carbon is great for things like removing medication or some other nasty from the water during an emergency. But I think it is over used a lot of times, just because we've always been told to run it.
 
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Paul Buie

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Can you post a picture of your tank and a copy of your test? What was the reason for doing a Triton test? Just to see where things were? or where you trying to diagnose a problem?

You also mentioned a lot of chemical warfare going on and that being the reason you run carbon 24/7. I'm not convinced running carbon all of the time is a good thing, especially if you ever get tangs. There's a lot of speculation that it is responsible for HLLE. But carbon sucks a lot of nutrients out of the water column. I have a heavy LPS tank and have virtually no chemical warfare and run no carbon. What are you seeing as the basis to identify your chemical warfare? Sometimes, what might be perceived as chemical warfare. might be in reality, a nutrient issue (or lack thereof) happening. I think Triton tests are great for identifying that.

As an example, I bought a nem from a guy that was running carbon 24/7 in his tank because he was afraid that his two different BTA's in the same tank were waging chemical warfare on each other. Neither nem looked great so he assumed if was because of the fighting. I suggested that he had a water quality issue that was making the nems look bad and not chemical warfare. To prove my point, I took one of his nems and put it right in the middle of my colony of RBTAs. It has been nestled in the middle of them for months now with no ill effects, and looks bubbled up like it's supposed to, not stringy like it was when I got it.

So for him, running the carbon was most likely causing more harm than good and he was running it for all of the wrong reasons. Carbon is great for things like removing medication or some other nasty from the water during an emergency. But I think it is over used a lot of times, just because we've always been told to run it.

great post. Thank you. I really did the triton tests to verify my tests. Micro and some macros are not all that critical, but all is fine on that point according to triton. There is Chem warfare though. I have very large aggressive euphillas that cause problems. Thanks!!!!
 

malira

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Paul do you have a tank thread? I would love to see pics.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
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