Triton Elements Dosing Dilemma

[djbetterly]

So here is my dilemma...currently I have four doser channels, 2 are used for two part (calcium & alk) the third is being used for vodka, and the fourth is open. Would everyone agree its safe to assume I won't be needing the vodka dosing anymore with the triton system? I'm only in my 3rd of week of dosing. If I stop the vodka dosing then I'll have four open channels and can dose each of the four parts individually.

Thanks guys!

 

[joefishUC]

So here is my dilemma...currently I have four doser channels, 2 are used for two part (calcium & alk) the third is being used for vodka, and the fourth is open. Would everyone agree its safe to assume I won't be needing the vodka dosing anymore with the triton system? I'm only in my 3rd of week of dosing. If I stop the vodka dosing then I'll have four open channels and can dose each of the four parts individually.

Thanks guys!

I think it depends on if you are going to run a refugium? I think I remember you saying you had a small section for algae but never had much success with it growing algae for you?

Since you are limited on space I would opt for the mixing of parts 3a and 3b. With the first three chambers being used for Triton you could either stick with the vodka on the last chamber or dose Amino Acids like Acropower. The corals will greatly thank you for dripping in acropower every hour on the hour

If you do not run an algae filter then you may start running high on nitrates which would make vodka dosing a thing to do. You could opt for manually dosing vodka when you feed the fish but I agree that dosing it via the doser has its advantages. Maybe consider adding a small add on single doser like those from BRS and simply dose right out of the Acropower bottle. This would allow you to keep the vodka in the last chamber.

Mix parts 3a and 3b like this-
When you are combining parts 3a and 3b, this solution will comprise of 8 liters of ro/di water and 2 liters of base elementz. Mix the 3a with 8 liters of ro first then after 10 min mix in the 3b. You will still dose all three channels the same. By combing the parts, you are not changing the ratio of elements to water, you are simply dissolving more elementz in roughly the same amount of water.

 

[djbetterly]

Thanks Joe, I made a decision last night after posting this. I went ahead and ordered a few types of macro algae last night.

I think the biggest problem I had with my Fuge was too much rock and not enough flow. I modified my Fuge area with a small piece of plexi, put some chaeto in there and now it tumbles without issue. I still have a sizable area with some rock that will work for the other algaes. I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. I don't mind having some nitrates so long as they don't spike.

 

[rockerboi09]

Acropower

The corals will greatly thank you for dripping in acropower every hour on the hour

When I finish converting my 150 gallon aquarium, I too will have an extra dosing pump open for use. I'm interested in the idea of dosing acropower, but am a little confused on how t do it. The instructions on the bottle say to add 5ml per 25 gallons of water to the tank once a week. So for me, does that mean that I would only dose 30 ml per week? If so, does that mean only about 4 ml per day? How should the dosing regimen for this go?

 

[Sangheili]

When I finish converting my 150 gallon aquarium, I too will have an extra dosing pump open for use. I'm interested in the idea of dosing acropower, but am a little confused on how t do it. The instructions on the bottle say to add 5ml per 25 gallons of water to the tank once a week. So for me, does that mean that I would only dose 30 ml per week? If so, does that mean only about 4 ml per day? How should the dosing regimen for this go?

Jury still out on Acropower's usefulness. So far in 2 wks only thing I have noticed is I now have to clean my glass 3x as often.

Yes, if your not dosing weekly you would split the dosage up. I am dosing 1/2 the recommended dosage.

Also, if you follow Triton closely youll probably find yourself wanting to use that additional channel for stuff like Iodine or Manganese.

 

[joefishUC]

Thanks Joe, I made a decision last night after posting this. I went ahead and ordered a few types of macro algae last night.

I think the biggest problem I had with my Fuge was too much rock and not enough flow. I modified my Fuge area with a small piece of plexi, put some chaeto in there and now it tumbles without issue. I still have a sizable area with some rock that will work for the other algaes. I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. I don't mind having some nitrates so long as they don't spike.

We dose it at about 3 times the recommended dose- You can't really overdose on it so I wouldn't worry too much about it. The corals really do benefit from amino acids and when we stop using it our colors to drab out a bit. Although Triton users typically do not dose amino acids we swear by it at Unique. We also don't run refugiums on our coral raceways so we don't have the benefit of algae supplying amino acids to the corals. I would dose 9 ml pr day spread out over the entire 24 hour period. If you need to dose things like Iodine or manganese you can either add these manually every day or two or consider getting another doser. The good thing is that the latter two bottles are really small so they should fit easily in your stand. I personally don't think people need to use a doser to manually add independent trace elements every day. (besides the base elementz). Just hitting the tank every 2 or 3 days with the needed ml's of a product should be fine. At some point we need to draw a line on what is a hobby vs what is a science lab.

 

[djbetterly]

So I killed the vodka, and now have all four channels running triton elements. I started with 30ml of each. How many days do I wait until I start increasing? And at what rate do I increase? I will be checking hardness daily as I know the aim is for 8dkh, currently I am at 7. I let it drop a bit prior to starting the elements.

 

[rockerboi09]

djbetterly, do you have an update on your tank? Did the refugium work for you or did you have to go back to dosing vodka?

 

[djbetterly]

So I ended up buying a new custom sump. The sump is super simple, but designed specifically for triton. The first chamber is roughly ten gallons and is devoted to the refugium. Overall I'm not sure how much I'm benefiting from anything at the moment to be honest. I had an issue where my nitrates were at zero, or my Elos kit said it was at zero. So I started to dose nitrates to maintain them around 3-5ppm. I kept a very close eye on the nitrates, but never factored in the idea that my test kit might be wrong. In the end, the Elos nitrate kit said I was around 4ppm, but when that kit ran out I replaced it with a Red Sea nitrate kit and found my nitrates were 60+ppm. So now I'm recovering from that with massive water changes. Hopefully once nitrates are back in check I'll be in a good place. It's been a tough road the past few weeks.

 

[Triton US]

So I ended up buying a new custom sump. The sump is super simple, but designed specifically for triton. The first chamber is roughly ten gallons and is devoted to the refugium. Overall I'm not sure how much I'm benefiting from anything at the moment to be honest. I had an issue where my nitrates were at zero, or my Elos kit said it was at zero. So I started to dose nitrates to maintain them around 3-5ppm. I kept a very close eye on the nitrates, but never factored in the idea that my test kit might be wrong. In the end, the Elos nitrate kit said I was around 4ppm, but when that kit ran out I replaced it with a Red Sea nitrate kit and found my nitrates were 60+ppm. So now I'm recovering from that with massive water changes. Hopefully once nitrates are back in check I'll be in a good place. It's been a tough road the past few weeks.

That sucks DJ. With some good algae in the filter and water changes you should have the levels dropping fairly quickly. Do you have a picture of the sump? Would like to see it.

 

[djbetterly]

I was able to get it down finally. The algae was growing so fast it was unreal. I'm back on track now. My sump is pretty basic, three chambers. Overflow goes straight into first chamber which is the fuge, then skimmer chamber then return chamber. I have a BML fuge LED over the fuge that I run offset my regular lights. Right now I have some live rock, chaeto and dragons breath in the fuge. The dragons breath is maintaining but doesn't seem to be growing. I'm guessing that's because the BML fixture I bought was designed for green algae, not red algaes. Now that the nitrates are below 5ppm I'm going to see how well the chaeto grows and make more decisions on my direction from there. Any thoughts on other macros?