Scott.h
Valuable Member
I have another system that's ran the full triton method since the end of May. With the exception of testing and tweaking things the first few weeks of using the method, I litterly haven't done anything but clean the glass, fill the top off water, empty the skimmer cup, and test alk. I have 31 species of SPS that are doing well.
Since then I've realized how much salt I was wasting, as well as time I've spent messing around for no apparent reason. I've really been thinking over the last few months on ways I could make this work on another system that I have. This tank is several years old and houses some messy eaters, including a 20" eel. The filtration started out as a wet dry years ago, and has evolved into a home made basement sump made from a 50 gallon tank for the last few years. To most standards it should have been fine.
The last time I tested nitrates it was off the chart on the Red Sea kit, and a little over 60 on Salifert. Surprisingly triton says my phosphate is .08, as I don't use GFO at all. I've found it to be more hurtful then useful. Also this tank accumulates very little algae on the glass, as cleaning it once a week has been fine. I haven't found doing larger water changes to be any more useful then smaller changes, but I've been doing 17% weekly changes religiously. So the whole dynamic of no water changes scares me a bit on how high or nasty things could get.
Since the whole theme of triton is to focus on filtration, with the limited designs of sumps on the market I decided to build my own, triton style. My first chamber is the fuge and is approximately 45% of my display volume. I made the second chamber large enough to house two skimmers if need be, and my return chamber large enough to house any submersible aquarium pump on the market (within reason). I've been testing the apex cor 20, and the pump is doing really well. I've upgraded my old LED fuge lighting to the kessil h380, and went back to my old euro reef skimmer. It may be old and obsolete, but I can tell you I haven't used a modern skimmer that pulls the dark volume of junk this skimmer pulls on a weekly basis. I've also added a 4 head ghl doser. I'll be combining 3a and 3b, and using the 4th head for vinegar mixed with kalk to offset the ph drop that high dosing may contribute to. We'll see.
While I was ripping the old stuff out I decided to build a much needed mounting board for the cords and cables that has drove me nuts for a long time.
Here is a days worth of progress. More tomorrow!
Since then I've realized how much salt I was wasting, as well as time I've spent messing around for no apparent reason. I've really been thinking over the last few months on ways I could make this work on another system that I have. This tank is several years old and houses some messy eaters, including a 20" eel. The filtration started out as a wet dry years ago, and has evolved into a home made basement sump made from a 50 gallon tank for the last few years. To most standards it should have been fine.
The last time I tested nitrates it was off the chart on the Red Sea kit, and a little over 60 on Salifert. Surprisingly triton says my phosphate is .08, as I don't use GFO at all. I've found it to be more hurtful then useful. Also this tank accumulates very little algae on the glass, as cleaning it once a week has been fine. I haven't found doing larger water changes to be any more useful then smaller changes, but I've been doing 17% weekly changes religiously. So the whole dynamic of no water changes scares me a bit on how high or nasty things could get.
Since the whole theme of triton is to focus on filtration, with the limited designs of sumps on the market I decided to build my own, triton style. My first chamber is the fuge and is approximately 45% of my display volume. I made the second chamber large enough to house two skimmers if need be, and my return chamber large enough to house any submersible aquarium pump on the market (within reason). I've been testing the apex cor 20, and the pump is doing really well. I've upgraded my old LED fuge lighting to the kessil h380, and went back to my old euro reef skimmer. It may be old and obsolete, but I can tell you I haven't used a modern skimmer that pulls the dark volume of junk this skimmer pulls on a weekly basis. I've also added a 4 head ghl doser. I'll be combining 3a and 3b, and using the 4th head for vinegar mixed with kalk to offset the ph drop that high dosing may contribute to. We'll see.
While I was ripping the old stuff out I decided to build a much needed mounting board for the cords and cables that has drove me nuts for a long time.
Here is a days worth of progress. More tomorrow!
