Triton results

[Dannycelluk]

Hi randy

I was wondering what your opinions are on my triton results? Any advice on what to adjust first, anything major I should be concerned about?

First test

Second test

Cheers

Dan

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It looks pretty good to me!

Do you have any algae troubles? If so, you might bring down the phosphate a bit. Down to 0.02 ppm or so.

Salinity looks a bit lower than 35 ppt, but is probably fine.

Most people don't show any copper. Any idea what that might be from? Tap water? It probably isn't enough to be an issue, but if you have an obvious source, i'd try to remove it.

 

[Sangheili]

Here are my notes from Eshan's talk at Macna, they may apply to some of your results - i'll leave that for you to interpret

Manganese good forgoniopora and algae to grow
Zinc important forSPS growth - stops burnt tips
Vanadium needed
Iodine needed
Pink in SPS fadeswith not enough Boron (b-balance)
Barium binded bymontipora digitat
Strontium needs tobe close to 8 for sps and for recovery from fragging
GFO puts off alittle barium and phosphorus
For example, anaquarium heavily stocked with montipora may require additional zinc or nickelcompared to a similar reef aquarium with no montipora.

 

[JimWelsh]

I agree your salinity looks a bit low, like perhaps around 30 or so. How do you measure salinity?

 

[Dannycelluk]

Hi thanks guys! I don't have any algae trouble. But I am slightly confused, I use an algae scrubber and also Rowaphos to reduce phosphates, My phosphates seem to have increased from my first test, maybe I tested the water to soon after a feed?

My salinity was reading slightly low but reads at 34 on my refractometer. I use ro water to zero it, and do check regularly.

Some of sangs comments are really useful, as a few of my corals did have burnt tips! They do appear to be recovering now tho, so I'll defo be dowsing some zinc!

I do also have a fair amount of digi! So will also dose some zinc!

My pink digi is also not as bright as it once was, but looks fairly healthy.

I'm wondering if the copper is coming from feeding new era algae flake, I read somewhere that this contains trace amounts of copper?

Very helpful thanks!

Dan

 

[JimWelsh]

Dan, have you calibrated your refractometer lately? Please see Reef Aquarium Salinity: Homemade Calibration Standards by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Dannycelluk]

Hi thanks, Yeh I use to water to zero it, maybe I'll try someone's else's just to double check

 

[JimWelsh]

If you should choose to raise your salinity, you must go very slowly. Often people just let evaporation do the trick. The thing is, your Ca is already a touch on the high side, and your Mg is at a good level for salinity = 35. If you were to just let evaporation raise your salinity to 35, you'd end up with something like 530 mg/l Ca and 1535 mg/l Mg! You might consider doing some water changes while slowly bringing the salinity up, to bring your parameters back in line. Just a thought.

 

[Dannycelluk]

I also buffer ph with a kalk stirrer, will this effect the readings? Ph currently cycles from approx 8.10-8.25

 

[Dannycelluk]

I also run my tank at 26 degrees, will this effect the readings?

 

[JimWelsh]

Regarding pH, I *think* that if you raise your salinity without addressing the high Ca, you may end up with calcium carbonate precipitation happening, and pH may play a role in that, but I'd rather let Randy comment on that. A temperature of 26C will have only an insignificant effect on the numbers I estimated above.

 

[Dannycelluk]

Little update, I have now completed my third test after trying to address some of the issues.

I stopped feeding new era flake and my copper has now dropped to 0.

Raised my salinity back up, and as you said the ca is now too high, I havnt noticed any precipitation from this yet.

My Rowaphos ran out, hence the high po4. Now replaced, so hopefully this will drop next test

Corals are growing nicely, I've noticed my seriatopora grew approx 1-2cm in the two weeks I was on holiday!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

530 ppm calcium is fine. I wouldn't do anything about that.

 

[Dannycelluk]

Excellent! Thanks!

I have dosed a few solutions over the last few days. Zinc , iodine, strontium and molybdenum. I have quite a few digi colonies so this could be why the zinc has dropped slightly. Not really sure of the benefits of molybdenum or strontium, but I'm hoping I won't have to dose them regularly anyway once I've got to the correct levels

I have also added a second chamber to my calc reactor and this has reduced the ph swing further!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Strontium will be incorporated into depositing calcium carbonate (accidently substituting for calcium in the crystal structure), but I don't believe most corals actually need or benefit from it.

 

[JimWelsh]

FWIW, I calculate your salinity to be right at 36 PPT @ 26C.

 

[Dannycelluk]

Ok thanks randy, there appears a few elements on the list that don't matter to much! How about
molybdenum?

Thanks Jim! Good news!

Out Of interest I was wondering if you may be able to answer another question? Unrelated to triton. A lot of my corals are growing in a very dense formation. Polyp extension and growth is good. I'm just not sure why they are so dense? I was wondering if the flow was to strong, but other corals that are close are not as dense so I'm unsure?

 

[Dannycelluk]

Latest results looking pretty good!

I've increased my phos media slightly to try and bring down phosphates, anyone have any other advice?

Is it worth chasing things like AI and B?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It all looks fine to me and I wouldn't do anything except keep on top of phosphate.

 

[Dannycelluk]

It's all looking healthy apart from one of my tricolours who's tips look abit burnt, I dosed some iodine and zinc as advised on my triton test and it recovered slightly, but still looking abit burnt. Any ideas?