Triton/ Ati water test comparison

[Danny Venditti]

So fast turnaround is definitely a big plus when you are having a tank issue.

Price point is also a big factor for a lot of us. Although 10 or 15 bucks in the big picture isn't much. It seems we have a lot reefers with tighter budgets than others. Throwing big money out just for sake of it isn't smart no matter what your budget.

Triton is so much more than just a water test with their complete system in place. Like you said a more detailed report is always welcome.

I can't wait to see mine side by side just for the comparison and entertainment value.

yeah I am very interested to see the at the same time comparison.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So fast turnaround is definitely a big plus when you are having a tank issue.

Price point is also a big factor for a lot of us. Although 10 or 15 bucks in the big picture isn't much. It seems we have a lot reefers with tighter budgets than others. Throwing big money out just for sake of it isn't smart no matter what your budget.

Triton is so much more than just a water test with their complete system in place. Like you said a more detailed report is always welcome.

I can't wait to see mine side by side just for the comparison and entertainment value.

Seeing some of these detailed reports, however I was force to conclude in another thread today:

"IMO, Triton recommendations are devised on maintaining particular levels, but not whether those levels are needed. I do not think most of those corrections are needed."

Super Impressed with Triton Tests and their recommendations...attached
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...ts-and-their-recommendations-attached.332834/

 

[CoralWealth]

following along.

 

[Danny Venditti]

Seeing some of these detailed reports, however I was force to conclude in another thread today:

"IMO, Triton recommendations are devised on maintaining particular levels, but not whether those levels are needed. I do not think most of those corrections are needed."

Super Impressed with Triton Tests and their recommendations...attached
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...ts-and-their-recommendations-attached.332834/

Oh I agree with that and Triton is very detailed and provide a very granular remediation to fix problems conversely they also do it for everything that is off even a little and far less important. The ATI really just covers the critical items. Triton also shows preference to their products in the remediation.

 

[smokin'reefer]

I've had a chance to look at mine.

Danny, did your RO test recommend 35psu on the salinity?
Almost wonder if i should have sent them some fresh mixed w/c water.

My RO shows high copper and zinc. Kind of odd. But something to check. I didn't send them water straight out of the RO tube but out of one of my reservoir buckets. I thought there might be some contamination from moving my mixing powerhead and heater over to fresh bucket.

I might need to send another test with RO fresh out of the tube to eliminate any contamination.

ATI is a little simpler to digest the info. Maybe because I have gone through and studied a Triton test before I was able to understand better.

But, initial takeaway is big plus to the RO test. For stated reasons in my case.

 

[Danny Venditti]

I've had a chance to look at mine.

Danny, did your RO test recommend 35psu on the salinity?
Almost wonder if i should have sent them some fresh mixed w/c water.

My RO shows high copper and zinc. Kind of odd. But something to check. I didn't send them water straight out of the RO tube but out of one of my reservoir buckets. I thought there might be some contamination from moving my mixing powerhead and heater over to fresh bucket.

I might need to send another test with RO fresh out of the tube to eliminate any contamination.

ATI is a little simpler to digest the info. Maybe because I have gone through and studied a Triton test before I was able to understand better.

But, initial takeaway is big plus to the RO test. For stated reasons in my case.

My salinity was at 30.35 which says its a little low. I am going to check the calibration on my refractometer. I have high Tin and Zinc I am tearing what I can apart today to see if something is in there. I needed to make some aquascape adjustments anyway.

 

[Danny Venditti]

I've had a chance to look at mine.

Danny, did your RO test recommend 35psu on the salinity?
Almost wonder if i should have sent them some fresh mixed w/c water.

My RO shows high copper and zinc. Kind of odd. But something to check. I didn't send them water straight out of the RO tube but out of one of my reservoir buckets. I thought there might be some contamination from moving my mixing powerhead and heater over to fresh bucket.

I might need to send another test with RO fresh out of the tube to eliminate any contamination.

ATI is a little simpler to digest the info. Maybe because I have gone through and studied a Triton test before I was able to understand better.

But, initial takeaway is big plus to the RO test. For stated reasons in my case.

but yes the recommended is 35

 

[Danny Venditti]

Yes it basically told me I need to change my DI cartridge so I will be running to the LFS later.

 

[smokin'reefer]

but yes the recommended is 35

I thought RO should be 0. After being filtered?

 

[smokin'reefer]

My salinity was at 30.35 which says its a little low. I am going to check the calibration on my refractometer. I have high Tin and Zinc I am tearing what I can apart today to see if something is in there. I needed to make some aquascape adjustments anyway.

I know my first Triton had oome back with high levels of heavy metals. Scott from Aquarium Specialty recommended that I use these poly pad filters while I am searching toremove the metals from the water. They work great and will change colors to show you what day are removing. That and being an under $10 fix.
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/poly-bio-marine-filter-pads

 

[Danny Venditti]

I thought RO should be 0. After being filtered?

yes I was talking about tank I missed the RO part the first time

 

[Akela]

following

 

[smokin'reefer]

Got the email this morning thats my Triton is ready for viewing. That not bad at 8 days. Seems like the last one I had sent took a little longer. Might have been because I was going through tank issues, it seemed longer.
Can't wait to get back this evening and compare the two.
I had tested my tank the morning of the samples being taken and had parameters in normal ranges:

Salinity 1.026
Mg 1400
Kh 7.5
Ca 400
Nitrates 0
Phosphates .16

Tested with Ref Sea Pro Kits

The Ati came back with:
Salinity 33.5 psu (1.023?)
Mg 1250
Kh 6.99
Ca 455
Nitrates .1
Phosphates .23

 

[smokin'reefer]

Test results are back. Numbers have been compared and I think everyone will be surprised at the results.

First I want to say that this was not done to discredit either one of these labs.
Also, I am not doing this as anything other than a hobbiest that was curious about how close these numbers would come out. I only have about a year and a half experience in this hobby and am looking at these through novice eyes. I do not use the Triton method but admire some of the tanks and commitment it takes to use this process.

This is not a white paper subject to peer review so please don't beat me up for my non scientific approach.

Hopefully this will help some who need a water test and are trying to decide which to use.

 

[smokin'reefer]

First, here is the amount of data you get for each test.

This is the results and recommendations from ATI.

This is what you get from Triton. The actual lab is the three papers on the left. Everything else is the help tab and the dose tab printed out.

Triton costs a little more and you get a lot more information as you can see. For me, I found the Triton a bit hard to read. They basically use periodic table abbreviations for their main analysis and, well, I didn't study that hard in school and had to do additional googling to read theirs.
They do not give you an alkalinity or salinity result. Although sodium is tested, it's not graded as a salinity reading we would recognize. Maybe it's in there and I can't find it.

ATI spells out each element which makes it a lot easier for me, as a hobbiest, to read. Alkalinity and Salinity are tested and put at the top of the page.

Both of them use a red, yellow green type of indicator to show deficiencies measured. As Mr. Farley stated earlier, each one sets their own standards. I would assume from the information you give about your tank. I found ATI to be closer to the parameters that I shoot for based on my reading on R2R and also Red Sea's set point for ulns system.

 

[Tham121988]

This is very interesting to see! I just started triton (and core 7 triton method) and wasn't aware of another water testing company. Although, I will be sticking with triton as I have the system dialed in now, I will certainly look at ATI in the future. Thank you for sharing!

 

[smokin'reefer]

Alright, enough blather about the big picture. This has always been about the numbers. How close do these two come to the same test results.

Sodium: ATI 10395 mg/l
Tri 10033 mg/l

Magnesium: ATI 1255 mg/l
Tri. 1290 mg/l

Calcium. ATI 446.9 mg/l
TRI 451. mg/l

Potassium. ATI 377 mg/l
TRI 369 mg/l

Strontium. ATI. 12.72 mg/l
TRI 13. mg/l

Lithium. ATI. 13.68 mg/l
TRI. 10. mg/l

Phosphorus. ATI. 36.33 ug/l
TRI 15. ug/l

Phosphate. ATI. 0.11. mg/l
TRI. 0.0459 mg/l

I think that covers the major numbers on my report. Remember both of these samples were taken at the same time. I think the deviations in numbers really aren't that bad. Much like our own hobby test kits, are subject to interpretation by the tester.

I think both tests are a great tool available to us and when used properly can help us in our goals to a stand out tank.

For me, I liked the fact ATI gives you the addition RO test for less money than the Triton. My first Triton had shown some heavy metals and gave me some things to look for from corroding metal to hand lotion. Luckily, after not finding the source I chose to use some poly filters to remove the metals. Now that I have the ATI RO test showing the metals in my RO reservoir I am closer to tracking the source. I might send an additional test taking the RO straight from the outlet tube to further trace it down.

In Danny's case the RO test showed clean from what I gather. That also has value in helping him track his issue down.

 

[smokin'reefer]

This is very interesting to see! I just started triton (and core 7 triton method) and wasn't aware of another water testing company. Although, I will be sticking with triton as I have the system dialed in now, I will certainly look at ATI in the future. Thank you for sharing!

I think Danny had a good idea to alternate every once in while. I found out that ATI also has their own line of elements. One element I needed from the tests was lithium. If I dosed per Tritons recommendations I would have to buy 2 of their 100 ml Li's at $32 each. ATI recommendation would only need one 100 ml bottle at $16. I don't know which would be better.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think Danny had a good idea to alternate every once in while. I found out that ATI also has their own line of elements. One element I needed from the tests was lithium. If I dosed per Tritons recommendations I would have to buy 2 of their 100 ml Li's at $32 each. ATI recommendation would only need one 100 ml bottle at $16. I don't know which would be better.

Lithium has no known positive biological role in any known organism. I would not spend money to add it.

 

[smokin'reefer]

Lithium has no known positive biological role in any known organism. I would not spend money to add it.

Thanks Randy. I was just thinking about snagging some lithium from my crazy aunt while she is at bingo. Thanks to you she will be safe.