Coral Snow and Triton Method

Poppsie · Feb 1, 2021

Hi all, new to the Reef to Reef Experience and also only 12 months in to keeping marine aquaria, my question to the group is:
I am running the triton method base elements with chaeto but without any gfo or active carbon...I would like to start dosing Coral Snow in replacement of carbon, will this do harm or mess with the elements being added already via method as it says on korallen site it adds iodide, natural calcium etc... fyi my icp came back with low iodine which I am dosing as Prescribed by Triton Labs....thanks in advance chaps.

DxMarinefish · Feb 2, 2021

Hi, I have successfully migrated from the Zeovit to Triton.

I still use coral Snow but I have mixed it in my homemade frozen food and see only a continuation of the benefits i experienced when on Zeovit.
I also use Coral Snow on a weekly basis because of the explosion of sponges i experienced when i was on Zeovit. My sponges have continued to grow and spread.

Just a note to say that I run Triton Core7 with two powerful ATS. when i ran the "other method" my ATS really suffered and under performed.

Adding other "enhancers" can be done but just watch out for nutrient levels like the typical N and P.

The only issue I have is low pH, currently 8.10, a drop from 8.25-8.30. Not sure what is causing it.

Hope this helps.

Poppsie · Feb 2, 2021

Thank you Dxmarinefish, will give the weekly dose application of coral snow a try.
I just wanted make sure that it didn't harm the chaeto growing in the sump and add additional elements... i do weekly home hobby testing so i should pick up on the raise of N and P.
FYI my ph has raised slightly since removing gfo and active carbon to 8.40 at night and to 8.35 during the day? (measured via seneye reef)
Dosing white vinegar to try and tackle that but also not sure why I have the raise in ph.

DxMarinefish · Feb 3, 2021

Your ph looks good to me. I am envious and happy for you.

.
Personally i won't do anything to the ph values, they are spot on and a dream for many to achieve.

Sharebear · Feb 3, 2021

Ohhhhh I was just thinking of adding Coral snow too... and running Triton..
With us both luck hah

Poppsie · Feb 23, 2021

Update on the Coral Snow and all seems ok, cheato growing like crazy and elements seem stable, one thing I am seeing and this maybe due to a good fuge is the follow results...
No2 = 0.025
No3 = 0.2
Po4 = 11
Still have a PH around 8.3/8.4
Found that my RO water is high in PH at 10,
TDS meter reads zero so not sure what thats about?
Would like higher No2 and No3 though, can I lift these two by feeding more?
I thought maybe taking the fuge off line for a few days might bring them up.

DxMarinefish · Feb 23, 2021

Poppsie said:
Update on the Coral Snow and all seems ok, cheato growing like crazy and elements seem stable, one thing I am seeing and this maybe due to a good fuge is the follow results...
No2 = 0.025
No3 = 0.2
Po4 = 11
Still have a PH around 8.3/8.4
Found that my RO water is high in PH at 10,
TDS meter reads zero so not sure what thats about?
Would like higher No2 and No3 though, can I lift these two by feeding more?
I thought maybe taking the fuge off line for a few days might bring them up.

The question for me would be, are you seeing any negative effects on your tank inhabitants with the low readings?
I have Similar low readings and I only see red slime when my N03 is clear =0.
it is about 2 now.
I just feed more and don’t “clean” the sump.

it’s not that there is no N03 or P04, it’s just that your system is very efficient are nutrient export.

Better to respond based on the health of your tank inhabitant, not just numbers.

DxMarinefish · Feb 23, 2021

Just to add, fuge needs feeding too. It’s an ecosystem on its own and I would not want to imbalance it.

Sharebear · Feb 24, 2021

Poppsie said:
Update on the Coral Snow and all seems ok, cheato growing like crazy and elements seem stable, one thing I am seeing and this maybe due to a good fuge is the follow results...
No2 = 0.025
No3 = 0.2
Po4 = 11
Still have a PH around 8.3/8.4
Found that my RO water is high in PH at 10,
TDS meter reads zero so not sure what thats about?
Would like higher No2 and No3 though, can I lift these two by feeding more?
I thought maybe taking the fuge off line for a few days might bring them up.

You probably don’t want to increase NO2? Nitrites are bad, also normally wouldn’t check too much as long as you have enough bacteria in an established tank. If your phosphate is 11 ppm that seems a bit high? Or depends when you tested it too. I usually test mine at night time after 4-5 hours of feeding to make sure phosphate isn’t just high due to the food.
I got attacked with cyano hahaha Bc of too high phosphate so now I try to keep it 0.03-0.1.

ive noticed that my ORP went up super high once I did coral snow... so my PH dropped. I just added in co2 scrubber to my skimmer to increase it to 8.3...
maybe it’s time to change the filters or resin for the RODI water?
coral snow... does make the tank look super clean though heh

Poppsie · Feb 24, 2021

Sharebear said:
You probably don’t want to increase NO2? Nitrites are bad, also normally wouldn’t check too much as long as you have enough bacteria in an established tank. If your phosphate is 11 ppm that seems a bit high? Or depends when you tested it too. I usually test mine at night time after 4-5 hours of feeding to make sure phosphate isn’t just high due to the food.
I got attacked with cyano hahaha Bc of too high phosphate so now I try to keep it 0.03-0.1.

ive noticed that my ORP went up super high once I did coral snow... so my PH dropped. I just added in co2 scrubber to my skimmer to increase it to 8.3...
maybe it’s time to change the filters or resin for the RODI water?
coral snow... does make the tank look super clean though heh

Yeh it does clean it up well, I do once a week now.
That's the thing? I am fighting dyno's I think, its a brown/red looking mist all over the class and bottom of tank, I have a bare bottom, but when I scrape the skimmer picks it up of course and it looks more green in normal light...the P04 read is high and that's what am struggling with.
Have been dosing white vin for some carbon as my N03 was high a while back and also to try and control my high PH, from last week I am dialing that back every day slowly and monitoring levels.
RO water, I not sure they need changing you know, filters look clean and getting zero TDS which is the target we aim for, just has high PH which I have read that can come from highly oxygenated water source...?

Sharebear · Feb 24, 2021

Poppsie said:
Yeh it does clean it up well, I do once a week now.
That's the thing? I am fighting dyno's I think, its a brown/red looking mist all over the class and bottom of tank, I have a bare bottom, but when I scrape the skimmer picks it up of course and it looks more green in normal light...the P04 read is high and that's what am struggling with.
Have been dosing white vin for some carbon as my N03 was high a while back and also to try and control my high PH, from last week I am dialing that back every day slowly and monitoring levels.
RO water, I not sure they need changing you know, filters look clean and getting zero TDS which is the target we aim for, just has high PH which I have read that can come from highly oxygenated water source...?

Ah you can always put in some GFO in a sock in the sump to lowers the phosphate and then switch it with phosguard. But wouldn’t want to make it 0. Do you test after the refugium or from DT? Just curious if there’s any difference between the two?

Higher PH usually happens with when I dose Alkalinity for me or using CO2 scrubber. I guess I’ve never tested my RODI water for PH before a water change! I only do temperature and salt..

How much are you dosing triton and what’s your total water?

Check out this thread:

ph high on RODI water?

Hi all, I was making some freshwater to dip a fish in and i checked the PH on my RODI water. I have never done this before until now and I am getting a reading of 8.6. My tap water is 7.5. I also have 160 gallons of saltwater mixed at 1.024 and it is reading 8.2 which i expected to be higher...

www.reef2reef.com

Poppsie · Feb 24, 2021

Sharebear said:
Ah you can always put in some GFO in a sock in the sump to lowers the phosphate and then switch it with phosguard. But wouldn’t want to make it 0. Do you test after the refugium or from DT? Just curious if there’s any difference between the two?

Higher PH usually happens with when I dose Alkalinity for me or using CO2 scrubber. I guess I’ve never tested my RODI water for PH before a water change! I only do temperature and salt..

How much are you dosing triton and what’s your total water?

Check out this thread:

ph high on RODI water?

Hi all, I was making some freshwater to dip a fish in and i checked the PH on my RODI water. I have never done this before until now and I am getting a reading of 8.6. My tap water is 7.5. I also have 160 gallons of saltwater mixed at 1.024 and it is reading 8.2 which i expected to be higher...

www.reef2reef.com

I have made myself a gfo reactor today but not put it on live yet, was thinking it will take out po4 but also other good stuff?
I have taken the fuge off line for the moment to see how that effects the no3.
I test straight from the DT, never thought about testing after the fuge, may try that.
Dosing 12ml a/b, 4ml of part 2 and 4ml of part 1....oh and from my icp test results said to do 0.2ml iodine daily which am doing.
All other levels are good, cal, mg, kh and sal.
My tank is a redsea 250 reefer.

Sharebear · Feb 24, 2021

Poppsie said:
I have made myself a gfo reactor today but not put it on live yet, was thinking it will take out po4 but also other good stuff?
I have taken the fuge off line for the moment to see how that effects the no3.
I test straight from the DT, never thought about testing after the fuge, may try that.
Dosing 12ml a/b, 4ml of part 2 and 4ml of part 1....oh and from my icp test results said to do 0.2ml iodine daily which am doing.
All other levels are good, cal, mg, kh and sal.
My tank is a redsea 250 reefer.

Ahh, are you trying to boost up your alkalinity more?

I’m guessing that’s why you are doing 6 ml (6x2) vs 4 ml? I think triton also sells just the alkalinity portion so when you use core 7, it would be finished at the same time.

I don’t use a reactor for carbon, GFO, or phosguard. My space is pretty limited in the sump and I like to switch gfo/phosguard out (but only use it when my phosphates are out of control). So I just use like a media bag inside the media cup then just hang it where my water is moving from chaeto to skimmer.
But works for me! And easy to just take out the media bag when my phosphate gets to the level I want.

you can alwyas try phosguard, super easy to use. From what I’ve read though people like to switch GFO and phosguard. Mine decreased super fast, so if you do use it... just make sure to keep an eye out and to remove the media once you reach 0.03-1

GFO and phosguard shouldn’t remove nitrate but if you are super concerned about too low nitrate level, look up neonitro

I like to keep neonitro and neophos just in case they reach zero... or just feed the fish a ton.

Poppsie · Feb 24, 2021

Sharebear said:
Ahh, are you trying to boost up your alkalinity more?

I’m guessing that’s why you are doing 6 ml (6x2) vs 4 ml? I think triton also sells just the alkalinity portion so when you use core 7, it would be finished at the same time.

I don’t use a reactor for carbon, GFO, or phosguard. My space is pretty limited in the sump and I like to switch gfo/phosguard out (but only use it when my phosphates are out of control). So I just use like a media bag inside the media cup then just hang it where my water is moving from chaeto to skimmer.
But works for me! And easy to just take out the media bag when my phosphate gets to the level I want.

you can alwyas try phosguard, super easy to use. From what I’ve read though people like to switch GFO and phosguard. Mine decreased super fast, so if you do use it... just make sure to keep an eye out and to remove the media once you reach 0.03-1

GFO and phosguard shouldn’t remove nitrate but if you are super concerned about too low nitrate level, look up neonitro
I like to keep neonitro and neophos just in case they reach zero... or just feed the fish a ton.

Thank you for all the great advice Sharebear, to be honest the reason for 12ml A n B is because am testing my kh daily and its been dropping slowly over the last week or so, so am just adding 1 ml each side of the twice daily dose pumps intervals and now at 6 for 6, one dose at 8am and one dose at 8pm.
Will defo have a look at phosguard.
I have something similar called phos out, could be the same thing.
I just try, outside of triton dosing, to be as natural as possible u know.
Already tho I can see my PH going up from cutting down on dosing vinegar...tonight's read from seneye is 8.41...

Sharebear · Feb 24, 2021

That’s... crazy.... your air must be super duper clean... have you tried maybe not using your skimmer for like a day? I wonder what your ORP is although people say it’s irrelevant haha