Ok folks, so it seems there is enough interest so here we go...
Setup:
Volume: 500 litre tank (including displacement of LR) filled with NSW
Lighting: 2 AP700s, 1 evergrow IT50 led panel for sump
Flow: 2 MP40 QD, 1 imitation maxspext gyre, 1 undranded, 1 jebao return pump, 1 small jebao
Filtration: D-D fluid reactor (with rowaphos), bubble magus curve 5 protein skimmer
Dosing: D-D pro4 dosing pump
After using the red sea program for a while I decided I wanted to try something new and the idea of not having to do water changes had a certain appeal. I have NSW delivered to me and pumped into water butts in my garage which I would then heat and pump into the tank on water change day.
I test alkalinity, calcium and phosphate almost every day, so I know what the general balance of my tank is which is useful information when changing methods.
The exciting first delivery arrives of my new Triton core7 products but it's not quite what I was expecting, and here we have the first set back. The red sea program comes in plastic bottles with handy lids that you can attach straight to a dosing pump. Triton comes in cardboard cartons (x4) so now I need to buy dosing containers. Easy enough, right? Well unfortunately in the UK it's very difficult to get 4 chambered dosing containers!!! I bought a 3 chamber and made a makeshift fourth.
Its important to note, you can mix the C&D elements together (and these come in powder form and need to be mixed with RO water) however my container sizes wouldnt allow that (hence creating a makeshift fourth - thank you red sea bottles)
The 4 dosing cartons then are a and b, which are two separate 1l liquids and then c and d which are two separate powders to be mixed with ro water (together or separately). Its annoying they're not as user friendly as the red sea product but they say it's to reduce plastic and tbh, I cant argue with that. We all love the reef and we should all be doing our part to save them
Before I start the switchover I thought it important to send my first icp test off so I can understand then before and the first stage after.
After setting up the dosing and following the instructions exactly on the dosing amount (which is very small as it's super concentrated) my next step was to change my sump around. I had been running as filter sock - skimmer - refugium (chaeto, marinepure blocks and lr) then return but the triton method says no filter sock - refugium first- skimmer - return pump. I also increased the return pump flow to 10x as instructed. Not sure how important it is to make these changes, I couldn't find any evidence anecdotal or otherwise that said that it had better results but if I want to assess the method I have to follow it exactly (well almost).
One thing I haven't changed (though triton doesnt seem to mind) is I have kept rowaphos vs there own AL99 product. AL99 gets mixed reviews and with a tank with a lot of sps i cant afford for my phosphates to go wrong.
The first few days I closely monitor my parameters. I have slightly increased the dosing instructions as it stated this was based on a low/normal stocked tank and I am sps dominant. To my delight, everything holds steady.
Next post: first observations, first icp results
