Hey guys. I totally understand your concerns and waiting two full weeks for results is certainly not what we ever wanted for our customers. We are very transparent with how the typical time frame breaks down. Ill give you a rundown. Typical shipping from a client in the US with the USPS (the most economical and included at no additional charge if the test is purchased from Unique Corals) can take between 2-5 days for us to receive at our LA facility. We usually receive the samples within 3 days from when most people mail them. They come to us as first class mail. We immediately open the packages and record the id numbers, names, email address, etc of all received samples and enter them into our database. Every tuesday and every thursday we stuff a fedex package with all the tests we have on hand and send them to Germany via fedex express. Since our fedex pickup time to Germany on these two days is 4pm, any samples received on tuesday or thursday will be sent out the same day. The only times we delay shipping is in the rare event when there are just too many too ship on that day. This has only happened once or twice but they fly out on the next shipment date. As this testing service becomes more popular we anticipate shipping out 3 days pr week. Remember, all shipping both domestically and internationally is included in the $49 price so we have to do our best to balance cost vs speed. If we were to overnight everything to our clients and overnight the samples to Germany, the price pr test would go up tremendously. Back to the timeline- once we ship to Germany, they usually receive the samples 48 hours after we ship. It gets there quite fast as we are on a fast track through customs now. Ehsan and his team try to test our samples the same day he receives them or the very next day. If you add up this process, that is how we get to the estimated turn around time of 7-11 days from the time people mail the tests to the time they have results.
Occasionally when Ehsan is out of the country (He did happen to be attending Nerac in NY this past weekend) testing will wait until he returns. I'm not saying that is what happened with your samples but it certainly is possible. What i recommend is that you send us an email with your id and we will make sure that the samples did in fact reach us and were sent off to Germany.
If anyone wants to pay extra for expedited service that is absolutely an option. Just shoot us an email. My personal email is
[email protected]
Regarding the results- The triton tests are not intended to fully replace regular home testing of basic parameters. Although we test for the macro elements like Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, etc, you should be testing these regularly (at least Ca and Mg in the beginning) to dial things in. Triton does not test the Alkalinity and this is probably the most important parameter to stay on top of. I recommend using Triton to see where your trace element levels are, to see if you have any unwanted heavy metals, to see if you have been dosing too much iodine, iron, etc or any other element that is often dosed by hobbyists but not accurately checked for. Use it to rule out contaminations, to check the accuracy of your hobby kits (record home hobby kit results on the same day and time you grabbed the triton sample then compare both sets of results). Use triton to see if you have any detectable levels of certain desirable trace elements like Zinc, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, etc. Many people do not have any detectable levels of these important elements we have found. With two data sets from two spaced out triton results, you can note trends and make wholesale corrections to dosages or maintenance procedures to get or keep things in the targeted areas. Most of the frustration and concerns we see from Triton users is from a lack of really understanding what the data means. Don't chase numbers too. With results like those posted on a triton result sheet, it is tempting to want to have your numbers at the perfect spot. Don't obsess over the actual number, instead shoot for an acceptable range. Bragging rights and success are measured in how the corals appear and what their health if like, not how well one scored on a triton test
We are just starting to understand the roles many of these trace elements play and greatly looking forward to learning with you guys so to stress over the actual numbers seems irrational at this point in time.
