I have a one of my systems running to the basement as well. Why do you have 25' of head pressure? I agree that's a lot of water to push in general, but have you considered bigger diameter pipe to reduce head pressure? That would help a lot. Is it not a straight shot down to the basement?
I see. You're probably at about 12' of pressure depending on how many bends. I ended up redoing mine with 2" pipe and eliminating some nonsense along the way. I wouldn't say for someone like you it's not possible, but you'd need a good size pump. I don't have a flow meter but to me it is what it is. In my thinking macro is absorbing whatever it's submerged in all the time, be it fast moving water, or slow. It's still saturated in"x" continuously. My thinking is more towards having enough water movement to keep detritus in suspension, and keep it going towards the overflow. So I've added powerheads to the sump and aimed an extra display powerhead at the skimmer basket.
Good points. I think you can get away with slightly lower flow from a heater prospective by running the sump a little warmer then the display. Compinsate to an extent a few degrees, but I get what you're saying.The turn over is really just related to heating and filtering the water. I don't think 10x return is going to keep much of anything in suspension in the tank or sump, it just isn't that high velocity. You probably only need more than a few times turn over to heat it. Filter stocks will obviously have better performance with doubling or tripling the passes. The Carbon and GFO or other filter media will almost certainly achieve their daily goals in a just a few passes an hour as well. Since the skimmer has a fixed flow rate I guess I don't see incredible gains by increasing the flow rate through that chamber as well. I am sure that getting 10x would increase performance on all of these elements but by what degree and how much are you willing to spend?
On a Triton system, they don't always say why they do things a certain way so we can only guess but I can see some potential benefits to a true 10x. First, with Triton I think we are transitioning from the fuge being a supportive filter to being the primary filter, not only is the fuge responsible for a majority of the nitrate and phosphate reduction there is a very reasonable chance the algae may actually prefer ammonia as it's nitrogen source. So this is a critical filter and unlike media reactors and skimmers which often have fixed flow rates regardless of sump turn over, the return pump and overflows are the feed to this important filter. So I would think of it as passing the system water volume through a specific filter 10x an hour which is a real thing rather than just 5-10x sump turn over which is a guideline without out much thought to the system or equipment in it.
I think in some ways this gets to the heart of why some reefers have success with "methods" and others don't. So often each component of the method gets debated and the individual reefer ends up passing on elements or adjusting it in a variety of ways. The net result is no longer the Triton method, it's "Ryan's method". For this discussion, I would say if you decided to change the method to your own desires and run 3x turn over and don't have the desired success I would certainly consider following the actual 10x recommendation for the primary filter before determining if the method works for you. It might be that 10x turn over is not possible and you just need to do your best and adjust or try something different. There are a lot of system designs and methods that work
It makes a huge difference. Use the biggest pipe and the absolute fewest bends you can get away with. Use this flow chart and play with numbers with your pumps rating and you'll see. My return pump on my upstairs tank is the apex cor 20. I used to run the magdrive 24. But it has a 1.25 inch output. Right at the union go bigger. I increased mine, litterly had the plumping all ready to go. I waited for the wife to leave and got the hole saw out to go bigger. Saves the argument. She never realized.
Aminos are naturally created in the system when the algae goes through its natural life cycle, when some of it is allowed to die off then fatty acids and sugars etc are released back into the water column which the corals then consume. You do not need to dose aminos with the Triton Method.
A fowlr tank wouldn't have enough consumption to use the elements, so no. As long as you have corals, soft or hard, then you have consumption. The system will work with any coral, but some have more demand. You can start the method now. You just wouldn't have as much demand as a fully stocked tank. It system may only use 2ml a day of each bottle, but that's fine.
Yeah. Due to the cyano and low nutrient system you might get rid of some of that macro to let the system balance out some. You aren't carbon dosing or using gfo are you?
The 3s have the alk in them. But just lower all parts equally. Maybe just skip a day of all 4 bottles and start at 2 ml tomorrow. Always adjust all 4 together equally based on alk. If you then need a boost of something, add it separate. Your numbers look good.
