MbunaJohn
Community Member
I'm about 2-3 months into a new build using the triton method. I modified a trigger crystal sump to make the first compartment much larger and get me to ~15% of main tank volume per Triton's requirements.
In order to kick start the cycle (or avoid most of it) I put about 30-40 marinepure biospheres from my 2.5yo aquarium into the fuge of the new one as well as some new marinepure "rock". I have had chaeto in there for about 3 weeks and it is growing nicely under a Kessil H380 running about 8h each night.
My question is about the contents of the Fuge. In the "Guide to the Triton Method" pdf it says "there should be no sand bed in the algae refuge compartment however a few small pieces of live rock (and the beasties they shelter) are beneficial." My refugium is currently about half filled with marinepure "rock" and spheres (and~15k mixed copepods from a couple of sources). I'm assuming I'm well over the "few small pieces of live rock", and I was wondering if the 2-3 months of time was enough for much of the bacteria from the spheres to transfer to the new "rock" so that i can remove them and reclaim some liquid space in the fuge? Should i remove the spheres in stages so as not to shock the biological filtration too much? Maybe remove 10 per week for a month until they are all gone? Water parameters are excellent at the moment and i haven't started dosing yet because my alkalinity is still high enough and pretty stable (8.7-9.0 dKh).
Things are going well, but i'm trying to follow the guide as close to exact as possible and have zero experience with tank transfers and making sure i don't ruin things by removing the old seed media too quickly.
Thanks for the help!
In order to kick start the cycle (or avoid most of it) I put about 30-40 marinepure biospheres from my 2.5yo aquarium into the fuge of the new one as well as some new marinepure "rock". I have had chaeto in there for about 3 weeks and it is growing nicely under a Kessil H380 running about 8h each night.
My question is about the contents of the Fuge. In the "Guide to the Triton Method" pdf it says "there should be no sand bed in the algae refuge compartment however a few small pieces of live rock (and the beasties they shelter) are beneficial." My refugium is currently about half filled with marinepure "rock" and spheres (and~15k mixed copepods from a couple of sources). I'm assuming I'm well over the "few small pieces of live rock", and I was wondering if the 2-3 months of time was enough for much of the bacteria from the spheres to transfer to the new "rock" so that i can remove them and reclaim some liquid space in the fuge? Should i remove the spheres in stages so as not to shock the biological filtration too much? Maybe remove 10 per week for a month until they are all gone? Water parameters are excellent at the moment and i haven't started dosing yet because my alkalinity is still high enough and pretty stable (8.7-9.0 dKh).
Things are going well, but i'm trying to follow the guide as close to exact as possible and have zero experience with tank transfers and making sure i don't ruin things by removing the old seed media too quickly.
Thanks for the help!
