Kc350twin's Triton results and Opinions please

[kc350twin]

Well let me first state I'm not even sure I want to change my husbandry but the results are concerning. I'd like to ask fellow reefers opinions as well. Some elements I understand and some I don't and not real sure with I should be worried or not.
There are a few things I have been struggling with and one is Red Planet Acro. I cannot keep them and other red acros seem to do poorly.

I would also like to add that this has been one of the most challenging reef tanks to get positive results on. I am on a well in this new house and I believed that it was the cause of my issues but cannot prove it.

I use Reef Crystals and do 1gal water changes a day. I add Iodine every so ofter so I will stop that. Other then Ca, Mg and Iodine being high the others I don't add other then from the Salt.

One question that comes to mind is that are any of these high levels coming from my main water source? Basically getting by the RO/DI unit?

 

[joefishUC]

When you say you aren't sure you want to change your husbandry, I'm not really sure what that statement means? If something is grossly wrong or contributing negatively to the health of your animals, I would think that you would want to make some changes to alleviate those sources immediately. Only make changes based on sound advice and not after talking to just one person. The tin, lithium and iodine are the concerns to me that need addressing first. The bromine is also high. What other additives are you adding? Two part? Although we aren't sure what effects lithium in high concentrations has on marine invertebrates, I think we can all agree that you should certainly try to bring it way down. If it is coming from your salt mix, then your daily water change will continue to add this element and possibly others to the tank. You should research the base elementz by triton and consider trying to get your setup to not have to rely on water changes. Doing this will allow you to "trap" 112 gallon of water in your tank to which you can tweak, manipulate and manage till you get perfect.

If you are worried about your source water you can send that to triton for analysis as well. Looks like some large water changes with a high quality salt are in order so you can get things inline. The Pure salt from triton only contains macro elements of a very pure grade. It does not contain trace elements and is intended to be used in situations like this where you want to dilute a very high concentration of something. A 50 gallon mix will, in theory if used at once flush out almost 50% perc of your lithium, tin and iodine. Good luck

 

[kc350twin]

joefishUC

Hey thanks for responding. I may have mis-spoke when writing that first thread but I am cautious about re-thinking my approach. I do want the best for my tank a inhabitants. I would like to explore the cause of these elevated levels and possibly change the way I do things a little bit. How would you approach it?
Here is my thoughts.

1. Test Plain RO/DI water
2. Test Fresh mixed salt water

Here is what I can think of at the moment I add to the tank.
Fish Food---Frozen Mysis, Nori, and Pellet
Red Sea NOPOX
Kent Tech-M
Iodine (Will stop this)
Synthetic Salt Instant Ocean (Mistake on 1st post)
Kalkwasser from BRS

After those two tests I should narrow the cause.



Thoughts?



Thanks for your time
Kermit

 

[joefishUC]

Performing tests on the ro/di water as well as on the freshly mixed salt would certainly give you better insight. I simply do not know what is in many of the products your are adding to your tank but using only those that are necessary would be a great way to reduce variables. Since each test costs a good amount of money maybe you could just test your ro/di water for now and ask others or look at this and other forums for results on different salt tests. People have posted these results. Just keep in mind that this is not an exact science by any means and it is highly possible that the samples people submitted are not perfect representations of each manufacturers salt mix. Their source water could have been bad, the batch may not have been completely used, the mixing bucket may have had residue, etc etc. There is also variability of contents from batch to batch. You should still be able to find usable information about your salt and other brands however after studying people's posts.

Once you have a better idea about what is causing certain buildups, you can then adjust your husbandry to prevent these buildups from occurring in the future. I like most of the products you use but as of late have tried to limit the amount of products we add to our UC raceways to the bare minimum. Using natural filtering methods over products is something I am really gravitating towards of late. Balancing out the nutrient loads by allowing algae to proliferate either in a refugium style filter or in an algae turf scrubber is a natural way to keep nitrates and phosphates to a certain extent in check. You can also do this by cultivating bacteria in a reactor (think zeovit, biopellet, natureef, etc) At Triton we like the algae approach as it doesn't seem to crash a system as easily as using other products for nutrient control. Often times people will realize that their phosphates have risen to undesirable levels so they replace the gfo in their reactors and plunge the phosphates only to realize that they shocked the system and killed some coral. A well functioning algae bed will stabilize these nutrients and prevent the need for corrections that can disrupt the sensitive balance of the aquarium. I remember a long time ago when I had a 2 foot diameter red monti cap that had grown so nicely in my store's 500 gal cylinder tank. GFO was just starting to be employed and I got very excited to finally have a filter that would keep my phosphates in check. I filled a nylon sock with a small bucket of gfo and put it in a high flow area in my filter. Two days later the phosphates read 0.01, down from .35. I lost half the red monti that day and many other large sps colonies that I had grown from frags also melted on me. I learned a very valuable lesson that day about the benefits of stability and to not make quick adjustments. Got off topic a bit...