Macroalgea Reactors & Triton Method

[daelie]

Part of the Triton method is letting the macro sit until it breaks down and releases back into the water for corals. From this aspect a reactor would not work.

Macro can die in a reactor just as easily as it can die in a refugium so I’m not sure you make a solid argument.

Not to mention, there’s a beautiful tank on RC using the triton base elements combined with an ARID reactor so it most certainly will work.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there any actual evidence that macroalgae are releasing compounds that make a significant impact on corals in a positive way?

How is some dying macroalgae different than a little fish food, which often is, or certainly can contain, algae?

 

[Roggio]

Macro can die in a reactor just as easily as it can die in a refugium so I’m not sure you make a solid argument.

Not to mention, there’s a beautiful tank on RC using the triton base elements combined with an ARID reactor so it most certainly will work.

Would that not restrict flow? I’m not arguing but it’s still not the same.

 

[daelie]

Would that not restrict flow? I’m not arguing but it’s still not the same.

Their whole argument is that it gets broken down as it dies releasing aminos and everything else that makes up the algae back into the tank as nutrients, so I’m not sure why you think that would restrict flow or maybe you’re asking an entirely different question that I don’t see.

 

[NefTunzReef]

I converted my refugium into a clean holding area for fish or frags and put a skimz Macroalgae reactor instead. Got tired of bits of cheato getting all over the place including my DT. With proper size reactor, it should be as good or even better and more efficient. After all, I'm just growing chaeto in a vertical instead of horizontal compartment.

 

[Brogratz]

Part of the Triton method is letting the macro sit until it breaks down and releases back into the water for corals. From this aspect a reactor would not work.

You ultimately get die off because light not penetrating areas if I am not mistaken. How would this be different if you just took some of the chaeto and threw it in the sump where no light penetrates as you harvest it? This would still give “die off”. All I am saying is this isn’t just black and white. I think a real test and or maybe someone from Triton Labs chiming in .

 

[Brogratz]

I messaged Tim on FB when I set up my reactor

What I would love to know, is if they advised you to use the other method because they haven’t done enough testing with reactors? Or was it advised against because they’ve tested it and found it didn’t work at all.

Outside of space a reactor theoretically does the same thing that a refugee him does just vertically. So really the only issue is the space itself in the amount of refugium that you have. But are you being asked to have 10 percent of your total water volume because a refugium just isn’t as efficient as an reactor? Than that brings up die off, which is easily remedied by taking out portions of the chaeto you harvest and letting it die off in the sump.

 

[Roggio]

Their whole argument is that it gets broken down as it dies releasing aminos and everything else that makes up the algae back into the tank as nutrients, so I’m not sure why you think that would restrict flow or maybe you’re asking an entirely different question that I don’t see.

The algae will fill the space, restrict flow and become nonpervious before it can break down. I’m not using Triton. I just know this is part of their method. Like most things you can make your own adjustments but if you’re looking to follow the recommendations I don’t believe this would work. It takes weeks before my Chaeto is smothering itself and it’s grown under a 380. I believe there’s a variable where the Chaeto acts like a filter. I’m not well read on Triton

 

[Brogratz]

The algae will fill the space, restrict flow and become nonpervious before it can break down. I’m not using Triton. I just know this is part of their method. Like most things you can make your own adjustments but if you’re looking to follow the recommendations I don’t believe this would work. It takes weeks before my Chaeto is smothering itself and it’s grown under a 380. I believe there’s a variable where the Chaeto acts like a filter. I’m not well read on Triton

The algea will only restrict the flow if you aren't harvesting the chaeto. So you aren't wrong, there would be more involved with this. And I am not a Triton user yet either, but I have been reading up on it a lot. They want die off and as much exposure and time with chaeto as possible to pull out the excess nutrients to reduce water changes. A reactor would achieve this, but would it need to be bigger? Possibly, my main point is that we don't have definitive answers we only have speculation either direction. I think it would be awesome if BRS was able to do testing with a reactor and see if they can achieve the same results so that those of us using RSR's or tanks that can't have a refugium wouldn't be limited from using this method. Logically none of the concerns brought up have been a nail in the coffin for me. But this is why BRS exists, they test these kinds of things for us and let us know if it's feasible or if it would work. Triton only "recommends against" using a reactor, but without a definitive no. This doesn't mean they are saying it won't work, but are saying that they haven't done enough testing to say that it will or won't. Which is totally ok, but not everything is black and white. Just because you don't harvest any chaeto in a fuge. Doesn't mean it's 1:1 and you can't harvest it from a reactor which is why it would "restrict flow". In this case you most definitely would need to harvest it once a month or more and just take some of the chaeto and throw it in the sump to get the "die off" for amino acids etc. I like the idea of no water changes like everyone, but I can't feasibly get a fuge at 10% and still keep my skimmer . And also to get a fuge at 10% I can't even use synergy reefs because it's only 8% of my RSR 350. So I am trying to think outside of the box, but there is not much research done here in terms of alternatives to the fuge. If Triton or BRS came out and said flat out NO reactors won't work at all because of A B C, that's what I want.

 

[Roggio]

The algea will only restrict the flow if you aren't harvesting the chaeto. So you aren't wrong, there would be more involved with this. And I am not a Triton user yet either, but I have been reading up on it a lot. They want die off and as much exposure and time with chaeto as possible to pull out the excess nutrients to reduce water changes. A reactor would achieve this, but would it need to be bigger? Possibly, my main point is that we don't have definitive answers we only have speculation either direction. I think it would be awesome if BRS was able to do testing with a reactor and see if they can achieve the same results so that those of us using RSR's or tanks that can't have a refugium wouldn't be limited from using this method. Logically none of the concerns brought up have been a nail in the coffin for me. But this is why BRS exists, they test these kinds of things for us and let us know if it's feasible or if it would work. Triton only "recommends against" using a reactor, but without a definitive no. This doesn't mean they are saying it won't work, but are saying that they haven't done enough testing to say that it will or won't. Which is totally ok, but not everything is black and white. Just because you don't harvest any chaeto in a fuge. Doesn't mean it's 1:1 and you can't harvest it from a reactor which is why it would "restrict flow". In this case you most definitely would need to harvest it once a month or more and just take some of the chaeto and throw it in the sump to get the "die off" for amino acids etc. I like the idea of no water changes like everyone, but I can't feasibly get a fuge at 10% and still keep my skimmer . And also to get a fuge at 10% I can't even use synergy reefs because it's only 8% of my RSR 350. So I am trying to think outside of the box, but there is not much research done here in terms of alternatives to the fuge. If Triton or BRS came out and said flat out NO reactors won't work at all because of A B C, that's what I want.

Maybe a more important variable than the fuge size is the lighting used? The 380 is so powerful it's pulling too much from my tank. If it were me I'd give it a shot. I really enjoy having a fuge though, I find myself looking at it a lot. Between the amphipods, mysid shrimp, sponges, differn't pod species, and weird stuff that grows in there it's cool to watch. A few weeks ago after the cold front hit I had some little jellyfish creatures swimming around.

 

[Brian W]

Maybe a more important variable than the fuge size is the lighting used? The 380 is so powerful it's pulling too much from my tank. If it were me I'd give it a shot. I really enjoy having a fuge though, I find myself looking at it a lot. Between the amphipods, mysid shrimp, sponges, differn't pod species, and weird stuff that grows in there it's cool to watch. A few weeks ago after the cold front hit I had some little jellyfish creatures swimming around.

Yes that 380 is too strong. I wish it came with a control to dim it.
I know you can buy one but...it should of came with one for the price.
That light has quickly reduced my NO3 to 0 and now I'm trying to find the sweet spot for my sps and bring NO3 back up to around 5ppm.

 

[Urbanknight]

Following

 

[radar_17]

I recently went to the Triton Method (a couple of months now) and installed the large Skimz reactor about 3 weeks ago. I've not been impressed so far... but I also think I just figured out why this morning. My chaeto just will not grow in the reactor. I have it set for 12 hours on a reverse light cycle. But... I just saw in another thread a flippant comment about Vibrant killing chaeto... oops. So... I think I'll stop dosing Vibrant and see what happens. As an aside, I seeded one of the 3 "chambers" in the Skimz with Dragon's Breath macro-algae and it has shown some growth. Not a lot, but it's faring better than the chaeto.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Hello from Snohomish. I got a Pax Bellum about 10 days ago. Also have a refugium but thought it would be better to have algae separate. I will let you know how it goes after a few weeks.

 

[Mortie31]

I’d love to know how many Triton users, actually manage to fully control nutrients using just chaeto as described by the Triton method. From all the reading ive done, both on their fb page and these forums, I’m not seeing a lot of evidence that it’s a high percentage of there users anyway. I directly asked the question and only got a few replies. Is there an over emphasis on this 10% of total volume algae chamber and a mixed algae bed and die off etc, simply because the tests the conducted just happened to use this size. Why wouldn’t a reactor export nutrients just as well as an algae bed? Even though I don’t think the beds work as well as they would like us to believe, I’d love to be proved wrong in this point btw, because it is potentially more natural.

 

[Brogratz]

I’d love to know how many Triton users, actually manage to fully control nutrients using just chaeto as described by the Triton method. From all the reading ive done, both on their fb page and these forums, I’m not seeing a lot of evidence that it’s a high percentage of there users anyway. I directly asked the question and only got a few replies. Is there an over emphasis on this 10% of total volume algae chamber and a mixed algae bed and die off etc, simply because the tests the conducted just happened to use this size. Why wouldn’t a reactor export nutrients just as well as an algae bed? Even though I don’t think the beds work as well as they would like us to believe, I’d love to be proved wrong in this point btw, because it is potentially more natural.

Well said, all signs point to refugiums being inefficient overall. They do work, but not as effectively as a reactor for power consumption and space requirements.

 

[Brogratz]

Hello from Snohomish. I got a Pax Bellum about 10 days ago. Also have a refugium but thought it would be better to have algae separate. I will let you know how it goes after a few weeks.

Hey neighbor!

That would be awesome, I am going back and forth and tempted to just grab one because a fuge just isn’t super viable for me.

 

[NefTunzReef]

Notwithstanding the fuge versus algae reactor ongoing debate, I can tell you that as a former fuge user and now a current Macroalgae reactor user, my sump is squeaky CLEAN without any bits of floating cheato or unsightly algae growing on the walls. All of the byproduct "mess" is now contained inside the reactor, which is a bonus if you like clean-looking sumps.

 

[Zagreus]

Hey BRS,

I have a question that no one seems to be addressing. But it's two fold, we know that refugiums work for nutrient control. But my question is, how well do macro algea reactors work for those that can't get a feasible refugium like those of us using Red Sea Reefers? And also would a macro algea reactor work with the Triton method vs a refugium and would it have to be oversized as well?

Also side note if possible.

Pros vs Cons of different branded macro algea reactors and DIY.

1. DIY
2. Pax Bellum
3. Skimz


This is just something I would really love to see, as I have red sea reefer tanks and the refugiums would require a new sump and possibly skimmer as I would have to downsize my skimmer.

Brog nice post! I asked brstv about this as well since I really do not have room for a fuge and was interested in triton. I was seriosly considering getting a PAX Bellum, think c19 or 17 anyway the smallest of the new generation. But I was scared away when I read and or saw some videos of them suggesting to dose nitrates due to the high success of the reactor. For me less is more....keep it simple method and that was more than I was willing to do at the time.
I just saw that BRS posted a new article on fuges being too efficient and will watch that now. Happy New Year!

 

[Brogratz]

Brog nice post! I asked brstv about this as well since I really do not have room for a fuge and was interested in triton. I was seriosly considering getting a PAX Bellum, think c19 or 17 anyway the smallest of the new generation. But I was scared away when I read and or saw some videos of them suggesting to dose nitrates due to the high success of the reactor. For me less is more....keep it simple method and that was more than I was willing to do at the time.
I just saw that BRS posted a new article on fuges being too efficient and will watch that now. Happy New Year!

Thanks ,

I believe the C series is the larger series and that the ARID reactors are overall their new ones. I just placed an order for a N18 because I don't mind it being "too efficient". I overstock my tank anyways . But I definitely get where you are coming from, I saw somewhere someone claiming that the Pax Bellum is a great choice for the Triton method. But still to me it's unproven, but at least for now. To compete with any potential algea etc it's worth having.