Going Triton Method
Now that all the gear has arrived it's time to start the Triton method using the Core7 elements. My plan is to do Triton for 1 year and re-evaluate. If it works, great, I'll continue. If it's not for me, I will already have the dosing pumps I need for 2 part and auto water changes.
Why I am going Triton (in order of importance):
- Fewer water changes / low maintenance. I am somewhat realistic about this, knowing that I'll need to perform them once in a while when commanded to do so by the Triton overlords. That being said I am very much looking forward to eliminating this time consuming, messy task from my list of weekly / biweekly duties.
- High quality reagents. From what I understand the Core7 Cal, Alk, and Mag additions with the trace elements are very high quality. This means I don't have to worry too much about brands and what the right amount is for each. Speaking of which....
- Eliminate the guesswork of dosing. I dose 1 part of each into the tank. Simple. Whatever that '1 part' is in terms of quantity, it should be consistent across all 4 reagents.
- It's been done. Plenty of people using this method to maintain very healthy and stable tanks. So I know it works, and it's just a matter of figuring it out for my tank.
Not a significant factor:
- Cost savings. I am fairly sure this is going to be the same cost as water changes, especially shipping ICP tests. So I don't see any gains here.
Equipment I needed to get:
- My sump. A while back I picked up the Crystal Reef Aquatics RSRN250 with the idea that this is a Triton capable sump.
- Neptune Dos pumps. This is BY FAR the most expensive aspect of this little project. Christ almighty, $400CDN a pop, and I needed 2 of them. My comfort comes from knowing that I can use them down the road for auto water changes and other dosing if Triton falls through. I went with Dos because of the Apex integration and relatively consistent reviews on their quality. They're the size of a cinder block though.
- 375mL VOSS water bottles. Someone on this forum had the idea to use these for dosing containers, which is frankly brilliant. Rather than spending money on dosing containers, just use these. The Neptune dosing containers weren't even remotely considered due to their cost.
- 4 x 5L containers of Triton Core7 reagents. I figured if I am going to pay for reagents then I might as well get the large bottles because I don't want to run out and get stuck if they go on back order, which has happened to others in the past. Also, considering the base dose is 5mL / day this should last me ~1000 days IF they don't expire and this is the dose I need on average. If I decide Triton isn't for me, I am QUITE sure I can sell the remaining amount. This stuff is VERY hard to get in Canada.
- 4 x Triton ICP Tests. I figure I'd use all 4 over 1 year, so snatched these up.
With the sump in my possession I ordered the remaining items (save the VOSS bottles) from BRS on Black Friday. Got some decent deals and had it shipped to my US box. I used this time to get my Alk stable to ~8.0 which is the recommended starting point for Triton.
Unfortunately one of the reagents froze, Core7 3B. Crystallized actually. I thought it was ruined but thanks to the helpful folks at BRS and Reef2Reef, I found out it just needed to sit in warm water for a while. Sure enough, it worked.
Set up
I got to work on mounting the pumps. Did I mention the size of these things? Geez…
As a result, I had to mount them in different spots. I chose these locations because I had no room left, and decided to stagger the pumps so I could see everything I needed to. I ordered some cable ties / clips so I can make this a lot neater later, so ignore the mess
Calibrating and priming the pumps couldn't be easier really. All you need to do is follow the directions on the Apex. I calibrated using RODI water, then when I was done and needed to prime them for the reagents, I manually pumped dry for 5 seconds to create an air pocket in the line. Then I stuck the VOSS bottle of whatever reagent and ran the pump until the air pocket cleared. Otherwise there's no way to tell where the water ends and the reagent begins.
The initial recommended dose is 2mL / 100L, I estimated my RSR250 with sump had about 247L, which makes the initial requirement 4.94mL / day. I rounded to 5. I have to say setting this up couldn't be easier. It goes something like this:
- Go into the Apex wizard to set up a dosing schedule.
- Which Pump? 6 Right
- How much a day? 5mL
- Ok done.
Repeat 4 times. Easy.
But it's not all smiles and sunshine. The folks saying these pumps are loud are right. They are. Now you might not notice if the room the tank is in is relatively noisy but if you had these pumps in a quiet room and had no overflow or sump noise, you'd definitely get annoyed by the loud whirring noise every hour or so (x4).
Stabilizing
At this point I stopped water changes completely and dosed only. Now the idea is to maintain a stable 8 dkh Alkalinity, so this is a lot of monitoring and adjusting. With the Dos pumps it's somewhat easy. I wish you could apply a common config to all 4 pumps in one shot as opposed to adjusting each pump individually. There doesn't seem to be, granted I am new at this.
12/10 - Alk 8.0
Starting dose @ 5mL / day
12/11 - Alk 8.5, reduce to 3mL
12/13 - Alk 8.9, back off again, 2mL
12/14 - Alk 8.8, slow drop here, maintain
12/17 - Alk 8.8
12/19 - Alk 8.8
12/23 - Alk 9, rising, need to get back to 8, back off to 1.5mL
12/26 - Alk 9, back off again, 1mL, let drop to 8
1/2 - Alk 8.2, up to 1.2, start to stabilize
1/5 - Alk 7.8, up a bit to 1.3mL
1/6 - Alk 7.8, 1.4mL, a bit more
1/7 - Alk 7.9, good.
ICP TEST SAMPLE TAKEN
1/8 - Alk 7.8, still ok.
1/9 - Alk 7.5, oh boy, up to 1.6mL
1/11 - Alk 7.5, up to 1.8mL (want it back to 8)
1/13 - Alk 7.4, ok... up to 2mL
And so on. Good times.
Jan 13 update: My consumption of alkalinity is starting to rise, I think stuff is growing as the corals are more used to the change to Triton now (my theory anyway). I've had to adjust my dosing to 2mL and probably will need to go higher.
I would love to give you more data, but Neptune is so staggeringly inept at making a useful reporting system within the Apex, getting a daily dose report is impossible. Can't even export data. Anyway…
It's not until I did this that I truly experienced the pain of a ~small tank, and why people say bigger is better. It really is hard to maintain a stable reading. The Core7 base elements are so concentrated that 0.1mL in any direction results in a drop or increase in Alkalinity over a relatively short period of time (2 days or so). That’s IF you believe the pumps can accurately dose 0.1mL increments. With a larger tank I'd dose a lot more and the percent change would be much lower. I am going to do some diligence and see whether I can add RODI to the elements to dilute and dose more. My concern here is that if the elements are heavier or lighter than the water, the overall solution density might change over a long period of time (@~3-4mL / day) resulting in inconsistent dosing. I think I'll do some searching and some math on the density of the element solution vs RODI. I understand this isn't the only factor in the ability to mix, but it's a start.
Here's the other problem: Some of the solutions react with salt water so they cannot touch it until dosed. Which means if your dosing output 'tubes' are close to the water and you get water splashing on them (which happens), they will react. I can't say for certain whether this causes an issue as the dosing will continually pump new solution in, but it's something to keep in mind when selecting your dosing line placement. I had to cut the plastic dosing tube on my Stealth sump because uncut it actually submerges below the fuge water line for some, IMO, stupid reason.
Triton Testing
With a stable ~7.8-7.9 it's time to pack off a water sample to Triton labs. It's easy, just go to their site, create a profile, enter your label numbers, and ship it off. They include a shipping label to 'a' lab so then you just need to pay for it with the carrier.
The site is simple enough:
As a Canadian it's a bit more work for me as I have to send it via Canada Post international, pay $14.42 for a 0.084g package, and pray they somehow don't screw it up in customs. Is an aquarium water sample considered restricted material due to biological content? Who knows. I would have preferred to send to a spot in Canada however trying to find lab information on Triton's website is like trying to measure trace elements by eyeballing your water. Impossible. They say send it to your nearest lab, but neglect to tell you where exactly that is. So I just used the shipping address on the US label they included.
I shipped it on Jan 10 2020. Let's see what comes back! I will post all test results and correction measures when I have them.
Initial impressions
So far I really like where this is headed. I do nothing with water right now other than topping up my ATO and keeping a standby garbage can of 20 gallons of mixed saltwater in case I need it. I haven't used a siphon or carried a water bucket since I started this and I couldn't be happier.
In terms of tank 'reaction', it's still undecided. My zoas and palys seem to be growing but that could be the result of the amino acids and other feedings I've changed up lately. My few SPS aren't looking great, I expect one to die, and I get that. Too many parameter changes due to my small tank. Keep in mind my tank also has nutrient issues, with a reasonable PO4 count (0.07) but 0 Nitrates which isn't good. I need to get that up there.
Also, I have red slime and a few other pest algaes creeping up again. Unrelated to this I am sure, again probably a nutrient problem. I will say my chaeto and dragon's breath look like they're growing so the trace elements feeding the macro seem to be doing their job.
In the end I'll say this, if I had a tank smaller than 50 gallon I wouldn't do Triton. I don't think stability would be possible. This is where auto water changes and 2 part would take the win.
I'll update as this moves along!
