So the Triton Test has become available today (Via Unique Corals) and I thought for 50 bucks, it's worth a try-out. I want to specify, I am not trying out the Triton Method, I am merely subjecting a water sample to their battery of tests. I am curious about a couple things, and honestly, since it puts my own tank under no risk and it's been a bit of a hot topic these past few months, I thought why not add to a pool of data/results.
I haven't started a tank thread about my own aquarium as I flat out refuse to take pictures of it without it's tank skin... which is taking longer than I hoped. I hope to officially have it completed by 10-17-14, so I'll wait on the pics until then. That, and I am also waiting on my ATO to be completed, so I can stop having my ghetto rubbermaid gerry-rigged contraption on the side of my aquarium. For now, here's some info about my tank currently:
This tank was officially started July 9th of 2014. It's an upgrade from a 40Br sumpless mixed reef. I've been in the hobby for ten years, and have always had the same sized aquarium, if you can believe it! The concept of this tank is that it's a Montipora Digitata-only tank, minus a Yellow Fiji Leather that I just can't let go of. Everything else in my old tank was sold/given away... I had no Digitatas in my prior tank. My new tank is all frags, minus the YFL (Yellow Fiji Leather) which is about the size of my hand stretched out. Some unique things about my tank, aside from the species specificity is that 1) I use marine gravel as the substrate of which I siphon clean weekly. 2) My only flow comes from two 1" Sea Swirls on a Dart Hybrid Reeflo Pump (About 2300 GPH). 3) My aquarium is a 100G Half-Cylinder, at a crazy 1" thick acrylic.
Tank Details: Started 07-09-14
- 100G Half Cylinder (48" Back with a Backpack overflow.. the overflow is not really view-able in the display)
- 40G Next Reef sump running about half filled.
- Lighting: Originally was 2 X 250w MH SE Radium using non-reflected Bell Pendants. I switched about two weeks ago (Due to low PAR readings) to a T5HO Tek Elite 6X39w fixture that I modded (Better fans). Bulbs from front to back are B+, P+, B+, B+, P+, B+. The PAR readings were perfect for my Digi needs.
- Water Movement: Reeflo Dart Hybrid (2300GPH, full blast) with two 1" Sea Swirls
- Filtration: Cone Skimmer (Made for a stocked 200G tank, created by a friend), MarinePure 4"x4"x8" block, and a sump 1" thick block sponge to help keep micro-bubbles away from the return pump.
- Additives: I currently dose the following via my Kamoer Dosing pump (Per Day): Alkalinity 26mL X 4 ----- Calcium 62mL X 4 ----- Vinegar 8mL X 4 ----- In addition, I dose 20 mL of Acropower per week.
- Maintenance:
Once a Week:
- 10G water change: Had been using ESV (Got annoyed with the routine), but switched to Reef Crystals about two weeks ago (Two water changes). I plan on sticking with it for a while given I just bought two 160G buckets during the PetsMart sale.
- Using an Eheim Gravel Vac Pro, I suck out the funk in the gravel.
- Empty and clean skimmer cup
- Clean tank walls with a freakin' Great White Magnet Cleaner (My tank is 1" of Acrylic!)
- Livestock:
Fish:
- Medium Sailfin Tang
- Medium Foxface
- Large Sixline Wrasse
- Lyretail Anthias (Male) (I plan on adding one or two females very soon)
- Small Springer Damsel
- Platinum Clownfish (Used to have a False Perc Mating Pair, friend is a breeder and gave me these after I freely gave him my clownfish pair)
- Tangerine Clownfish (Same as above)
Coral: All are frags (But I have a ton of them not just one of each), minus the Yellow Fiji Leather.
- German Blue Digitata (ORA)
- Superman Digitata
- Peach Digitata
- Orange Digitata
- Forrest Fire Digitata
- Green Digitata
- Pink Smoothie Digitata (Or you know... Pink Digitata)
- Purple Digitata (Not ORA's... I wasn't crazy for the brown polyps.. these are all purple)
- Large Yellow Fiji Leather
Other Inhabitants:
- 3" Blue Squamosa Clam
- 2.5" Gold Maxima
- 2 x Skunk Cleaner Shrimps
Clean Up Crew:
- About 30 assorted Hermit Crabs
Feeding: I feed my fish Formula one Flake in the morning, sometimes New Era Algae Flakes for lunch (Sparingly), and one cube of Mysis Shrimp (P.E.) for dinner. I do not directly feed my corals.
My current test kits (All are Salifert) reveal the following about about my tank (Performed 10-11-14)
Alkalinity - 8.15 dKh (This is about normal)
Calcium - 500 ppm (This is high, I normally have it at about 480)
Magnesium - 1440 ppm (A little higher than normal.. usually at about 1420)
Nitrates - 5 ppm (I like to have a little bit of Nitrates, especially when carbon-dosing)
If anyone watched the Triton Founder's speak at MACNA... one thing super caught my ear. He insinuated that Montipora Digitatas liked an increase Barium level, or that levels in which tanks has a pronounced population of Digis always tend to have Barium at around 0.. He didn't elaborate, but out of sheer curiosity, I am curious to see what it lists at in the test result. I am an evidence-based reefer (Thanks Randy!) and have been so for years, and only take chances outside of evidence when I feel the risk is minimal (Like my use of Acropower).
Anyway, I'll update y'all on what I get... this should be interesting. I hope to probe Randy's mind on some of the parameters as I recall there being some questions about the accuracy/sensitivity of the results.
I haven't started a tank thread about my own aquarium as I flat out refuse to take pictures of it without it's tank skin... which is taking longer than I hoped. I hope to officially have it completed by 10-17-14, so I'll wait on the pics until then. That, and I am also waiting on my ATO to be completed, so I can stop having my ghetto rubbermaid gerry-rigged contraption on the side of my aquarium. For now, here's some info about my tank currently:
This tank was officially started July 9th of 2014. It's an upgrade from a 40Br sumpless mixed reef. I've been in the hobby for ten years, and have always had the same sized aquarium, if you can believe it! The concept of this tank is that it's a Montipora Digitata-only tank, minus a Yellow Fiji Leather that I just can't let go of. Everything else in my old tank was sold/given away... I had no Digitatas in my prior tank. My new tank is all frags, minus the YFL (Yellow Fiji Leather) which is about the size of my hand stretched out. Some unique things about my tank, aside from the species specificity is that 1) I use marine gravel as the substrate of which I siphon clean weekly. 2) My only flow comes from two 1" Sea Swirls on a Dart Hybrid Reeflo Pump (About 2300 GPH). 3) My aquarium is a 100G Half-Cylinder, at a crazy 1" thick acrylic.
Tank Details: Started 07-09-14
- 100G Half Cylinder (48" Back with a Backpack overflow.. the overflow is not really view-able in the display)
- 40G Next Reef sump running about half filled.
- Lighting: Originally was 2 X 250w MH SE Radium using non-reflected Bell Pendants. I switched about two weeks ago (Due to low PAR readings) to a T5HO Tek Elite 6X39w fixture that I modded (Better fans). Bulbs from front to back are B+, P+, B+, B+, P+, B+. The PAR readings were perfect for my Digi needs.
- Water Movement: Reeflo Dart Hybrid (2300GPH, full blast) with two 1" Sea Swirls
- Filtration: Cone Skimmer (Made for a stocked 200G tank, created by a friend), MarinePure 4"x4"x8" block, and a sump 1" thick block sponge to help keep micro-bubbles away from the return pump.
- Additives: I currently dose the following via my Kamoer Dosing pump (Per Day): Alkalinity 26mL X 4 ----- Calcium 62mL X 4 ----- Vinegar 8mL X 4 ----- In addition, I dose 20 mL of Acropower per week.
- Maintenance:
Once a Week:
- 10G water change: Had been using ESV (Got annoyed with the routine), but switched to Reef Crystals about two weeks ago (Two water changes). I plan on sticking with it for a while given I just bought two 160G buckets during the PetsMart sale.
- Using an Eheim Gravel Vac Pro, I suck out the funk in the gravel.
- Empty and clean skimmer cup
- Clean tank walls with a freakin' Great White Magnet Cleaner (My tank is 1" of Acrylic!)
- Livestock:
Fish:
- Medium Sailfin Tang
- Medium Foxface
- Large Sixline Wrasse
- Lyretail Anthias (Male) (I plan on adding one or two females very soon)
- Small Springer Damsel
- Platinum Clownfish (Used to have a False Perc Mating Pair, friend is a breeder and gave me these after I freely gave him my clownfish pair)
- Tangerine Clownfish (Same as above)
Coral: All are frags (But I have a ton of them not just one of each), minus the Yellow Fiji Leather.
- German Blue Digitata (ORA)
- Superman Digitata
- Peach Digitata
- Orange Digitata
- Forrest Fire Digitata
- Green Digitata
- Pink Smoothie Digitata (Or you know... Pink Digitata)
- Purple Digitata (Not ORA's... I wasn't crazy for the brown polyps.. these are all purple)
- Large Yellow Fiji Leather
Other Inhabitants:
- 3" Blue Squamosa Clam
- 2.5" Gold Maxima
- 2 x Skunk Cleaner Shrimps
Clean Up Crew:
- About 30 assorted Hermit Crabs
Feeding: I feed my fish Formula one Flake in the morning, sometimes New Era Algae Flakes for lunch (Sparingly), and one cube of Mysis Shrimp (P.E.) for dinner. I do not directly feed my corals.
My current test kits (All are Salifert) reveal the following about about my tank (Performed 10-11-14)
Alkalinity - 8.15 dKh (This is about normal)
Calcium - 500 ppm (This is high, I normally have it at about 480)
Magnesium - 1440 ppm (A little higher than normal.. usually at about 1420)
Nitrates - 5 ppm (I like to have a little bit of Nitrates, especially when carbon-dosing)
If anyone watched the Triton Founder's speak at MACNA... one thing super caught my ear. He insinuated that Montipora Digitatas liked an increase Barium level, or that levels in which tanks has a pronounced population of Digis always tend to have Barium at around 0.. He didn't elaborate, but out of sheer curiosity, I am curious to see what it lists at in the test result. I am an evidence-based reefer (Thanks Randy!) and have been so for years, and only take chances outside of evidence when I feel the risk is minimal (Like my use of Acropower).
Anyway, I'll update y'all on what I get... this should be interesting. I hope to probe Randy's mind on some of the parameters as I recall there being some questions about the accuracy/sensitivity of the results.
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