o2manyfish - Triton Results for 1100g System with poor maintenance practices

[o2manyfish]

I got the opportunity to be one of the first tanks to try the Triton Water Test back in July.


I was pretty surprised by my results. Since I don't do water changes, and I don't dose anything regularly (or accurately). My dosing consists of my Calcium RX and Kalkwasser for Topoff.


These are the results from July 25, 2014

I wasn't surprised by my Phosphate levels, but thought that was one of the things I could easily resolve. The first step was I pulled out my little Hanna Pocket Colorimeter the $50 toy, and was happy to see it was within 2 1/100ths of the Triton value. I pulled out my reliable Deltec 509 Fluidized Reactor and put in maybe 3 cups worth of media.


After a week the phosphate levels had dropped by half. In August and Sept I stayed on top of replacing the GFO every 3-4 weeks. However, for the past 6 weeks I have been dealing with an ill parent and I have left the tank untouched, other than the Alk issues from the Calc Rx. I haven't had time for any maintenance.


Last week I sent in another water sample to see how things were looking, and these are the second round results

Tonight when I get home, I will definitely be cleaning out the Deltec Rx and putting in a fresh batch of GFO and work on getting the Phosphates back down. At the moment, even with these high phosphate levels the corals in the tank look really good. The only coral that sticks out as not looking as good as it could is my Suharsanoi. It's color lightened dramatically when the Alk was bouncing all over the place, and it has darkened back up yet.


Dave B

 

[Keithcorals]

Thanks for sharing!
Any idea where the Cadmium came from it was showing up in the first test but not the second

 

[Hedgedrew]

Dave. Can you give me a buzz on email. [email protected]. And i will send you my phone numb. Need to chat with you. Thx.

 

[reefkeeper2]

Do a phosphate test with your Hanna meter before and then directly after feeding. I think you might be surprised by the results. Your PO4 levels may not be as high as you think.

 

[dgrigor02]

On a system that large, have you researched and/or considered LaCl3 instead of GFO. That would be a significant cost savings on a system that large.

 

[o2manyfish]

Keithcorals, -- The only thing that I changed between the first and the second was when I got the low Mag levels in July I switched from BRS Kalkwasser to Brightwell Kalk2 (With Mag)


HedgeDrew -- Email sent -- Look forward to talking with you.


Reefkeeper2 - I have an autofeeder that feeds a mixed of dry foods 5x a day. I supplement that with Chefzilla's Chowdown food which is ground up seafood frozen with no additives. Which foods do you think could be causing the spike, and how long after feeding do you think I should test to see a difference? I find it hard to believe that a 1/2 teaspoon of pellet and flake food could throw off the phosphates in such a huge water volume.


Dgrigor02 -- I have looked athe LaCl3 and read up on it quite a bit. My problem is that I am a super lazy and forgetful reefer. And it seems that with the LaCl3 you have to closely monitor the dosage and the precipitation. My lazyiness is why I use only a Deltec FR 509 with GFO on a system my size so that I don't overdose. I saw a really cool looking LaCl3 reactor at one of the wholesalers, which is a gadget right up my alley, but its a European import and I can't find them here in the US. If you have any ideas for stupid simple ways to dose the Lanthium please let me know.


Dave B

 

[reefkeeper2]

The frozen food most likely. I rinse mine well before feeding.

 

[Ike]

Keithcorals, -- The only thing that I changed between the first and the second was when I got the low Mag levels in July I switched from BRS Kalkwasser to Brightwell Kalk2 (With Mag)


HedgeDrew -- Email sent -- Look forward to talking with you.


Reefkeeper2 - I have an autofeeder that feeds a mixed of dry foods 5x a day. I supplement that with Chefzilla's Chowdown food which is ground up seafood frozen with no additives. Which foods do you think could be causing the spike, and how long after feeding do you think I should test to see a difference? I find it hard to believe that a 1/2 teaspoon of pellet and flake food could throw off the phosphates in such a huge water volume.


Dgrigor02 -- I have looked athe LaCl3 and read up on it quite a bit. My problem is that I am a super lazy and forgetful reefer. And it seems that with the LaCl3 you have to closely monitor the dosage and the precipitation. My lazyiness is why I use only a Deltec FR 509 with GFO on a system my size so that I don't overdose. I saw a really cool looking LaCl3 reactor at one of the wholesalers, which is a gadget right up my alley, but its a European import and I can't find them here in the US. If you have any ideas for stupid simple ways to dose the Lanthium please let me know.


Dave B

So you really didn't do anything else to boost the mg other than switching kalkwasser brands? My understanding has always been that Brightwell lists magnesium simply because it's present in an insoluble form in all kalkwasser and always assumed it was no different from any other calcium hydroxide. I'm shocked if it really raises mg that significantly, if at all...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Keithcorals, -- The only thing that I changed between the first and the second was when I got the low Mag levels in July I switched from BRS Kalkwasser to Brightwell Kalk2 (With Mag)

While I see your magnesium increased, I don't believe it could have been due to the Kalk+2 since there is actually little magnesium in it (less, actually, than the unbranded bulk material I used to use from the Mississippi Lime Company), and nearly all magnesium will preciptiate from limewater anyway, so unless you dose cloudy limewater to the aquarium, the magnesium isn't making it into the aquarium.

The reason your magnesium increased (and some other things as well) is because the salinity increased quite a bit. This can be seen in the sodium value (and many others), which rose 15%. If the magnesium had the same rise, it would have moved from 1215 to 1399. You got 1370 ppm for magnesium in the second test, so if anything, it is loosing ground relative to the salinity (although I expect that minor difference is within the error of the reproducibility of the test).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So you really didn't do anything else to boost the mg other than switching kalkwasser brands? My understanding has always been that Brightwell lists magnesium simply because it's present in an insoluble form in all kalkwasser and always assumed it was no different from any other calcium hydroxide. I'm shocked if it really raises mg that significantly, if at all...

It didn't. See my post above.

 

[Ike]

While I see your magnesium increased, I don't believe it could have been due to the Kalk+2 since there is actually little magnesium in it (less, actually, than the unbranded bulk material I used to use from the Mississippi Lime Company), and nearly all magnesium will preciptiate from limewater anyway, so unless you dose cloudy limewater to the aquarium, the magnesium isn't making it into the aquarium.

The reason your magnesium increased (and some other things as well) is because the salinity increased quite a bit. This can be seen in the sodium value (and many others), which rose 15%. If the magnesium had the same rise, it would have moved from 1215 to 1399. You got 1370 ppm for magnesium in the second test, so if anything, it is loosing ground relative to the salinity (although I expect that minor difference is within the error of the reproducibility of the test).

Good catch Randy, I wasn't looking at the possibility of salinity increasing...

 

[Ehsan@triton]

Good catch Randy, I wasn't looking at the possibility of salinity increasing...

While I see your magnesium increased, I don't believe it could have been due to the Kalk+2 since there is actually little magnesium in it (less, actually, than the unbranded bulk material I used to use from the Mississippi Lime Company), and nearly all magnesium will preciptiate from limewater anyway, so unless you dose cloudy limewater to the aquarium, the magnesium isn't making it into the aquarium.

The reason your magnesium increased (and some other things as well) is because the salinity increased quite a bit. This can be seen in the sodium value (and many others), which rose 15%. If the magnesium had the same rise, it would have moved from 1215 to 1399. You got 1370 ppm for magnesium in the second test, so if anything, it is loosing ground relative to the salinity (although I expect that minor difference is within the error of the reproducibility of the test).

Yes I am working on that but it is not as easy to teach the computer the higher salinity...
or the lower one...
as the shifts between Macros are quite often, and the the Matrix is not as stabil then.

Is an pogramer here could help with that...
maybe a kind of rule to put into the sourcecode so it would tell you high or low salinity???

 

[Ehsan@triton]

Oh and Randy,

Magnesium is working quite good with our ICP Methode but longterm-stability is not to good so deviation is about +/- 17 ppm.
just to let you know.

All the best Ehsan

 

[JimWelsh]

The reason your magnesium increased (and some other things as well) is because the salinity increased quite a bit. This can be seen in the sodium value (and many others), which rose 15%. If the magnesium had the same rise, it would have moved from 1215 to 1399. You got 1370 ppm for magnesium in the second test, so if anything, it is loosing ground relative to the salinity (although I expect that minor difference is within the error of the reproducibility of the test).

Apologies for resurrecting an old post, but Randy, what do you make of the overall significant (75-80%) decrease in sulfate (shown as S in the report) between the two reports, after correcting for salinity?

 

[Sangheili]

Yes I am working on that but it is not as easy to teach the computer the higher salinity...
or the lower one...
as the shifts between Macros are quite often, and the the Matrix is not as stabil then.

Is an pogramer here could help with that...
maybe a kind of rule to put into the sourcecode so it would tell you high or low salinity???

Ehsan, I am a programmer and may be able to help but would need much more information to understand the problem. PM me if you would like to talk

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Apologies for resurrecting an old post, but Randy, what do you make of the overall significant (75-80%) decrease in sulfate (shown as S in the report) between the two reports, after correcting for salinity?

To be clear, it is a drop to 77%, not of 77%, right? I see a relative drop of about 23% in sulfate.

IMO, that is probably from boosting salinity with something that was excessive in chloride, such as mostly sodium chloride.

O2MANYFISH, how did you boost salinity?

 

[JimWelsh]

Yes, I meant TO 75-80%. Thank you for clarifying.