drawman
2500 Club Member
I figured I would post my triton test results to get some dialogue going. A little back story first. Things were going quite well in my 30 gallon Acro dominant reef. I started to get some STN/RTN on pieces that were previously doing great and showing considerable growth. I of course attempted to compensate and things got quite bad. I bought several new test kits and after several tough weeks I think things are finally starting to level off. Alkalinity consumption has rocketed back and has actually been a little tough for me to hone in on. STN seems to have halted or slowed down a lot.
Now why do I think all of this happened? I attribute a lot of it to nutrients bottoming out. I started to get unmeasurable NO3 and dosed NaNO3 to compensate without paying close enough attention to PO4 (I think I got burned here and that made things plenty worse). I do not carbon dose but my Siporax media is too efficient at reducing nutrients. I would probably do better with live rock alone as my sole source of filtration in this small system. One other factor that contributed was raising Mg with Tech M during this period when I thought Mg was getting a little low (just too much stress/instability).
Now to get myself out of this hole I have been feeding more, adding some PO4 in the form of brightwell PO4 (at first) and more recently algaebarn phytoplankton, and have kept the big 3 stable where I want them to be. I am not dosing anything other than Ca, Alk, and some phyto at this time and I'm letting water changes keep Mg where I want it.
Now what I've noticed from the Triton test:
1. Lithium is high - I attribute this either from my salt mix or the one time dose of Tech M. I certainly won't get drastic here other than doing regular water changes. @Randy Holmes-Farley had the same thing so if he isn't concerned I won't be either.
2. Vanadium is high - Why? I'm not entirely sure. Is it too high in my salt mix or an impurity in my CaCl or Soda Ash? Again I'm not sure.
3. Iodine is low - I don't dose it and I know it is depleted relatively quickly. I may consider dosing it minimally to see if things will improve further. I know it has helped some combat STN.
4. PO4 is a lot higher than I thought now - on April 20th I test PO4 at 0.02ppm from my Hanna ULR Checker. This test is from April 25th and I'm kind of shocked. The tank does not grow algae very well other than Valonia sp.
Now why do I think all of this happened? I attribute a lot of it to nutrients bottoming out. I started to get unmeasurable NO3 and dosed NaNO3 to compensate without paying close enough attention to PO4 (I think I got burned here and that made things plenty worse). I do not carbon dose but my Siporax media is too efficient at reducing nutrients. I would probably do better with live rock alone as my sole source of filtration in this small system. One other factor that contributed was raising Mg with Tech M during this period when I thought Mg was getting a little low (just too much stress/instability).
Now to get myself out of this hole I have been feeding more, adding some PO4 in the form of brightwell PO4 (at first) and more recently algaebarn phytoplankton, and have kept the big 3 stable where I want them to be. I am not dosing anything other than Ca, Alk, and some phyto at this time and I'm letting water changes keep Mg where I want it.
Now what I've noticed from the Triton test:
1. Lithium is high - I attribute this either from my salt mix or the one time dose of Tech M. I certainly won't get drastic here other than doing regular water changes. @Randy Holmes-Farley had the same thing so if he isn't concerned I won't be either.
2. Vanadium is high - Why? I'm not entirely sure. Is it too high in my salt mix or an impurity in my CaCl or Soda Ash? Again I'm not sure.
3. Iodine is low - I don't dose it and I know it is depleted relatively quickly. I may consider dosing it minimally to see if things will improve further. I know it has helped some combat STN.
4. PO4 is a lot higher than I thought now - on April 20th I test PO4 at 0.02ppm from my Hanna ULR Checker. This test is from April 25th and I'm kind of shocked. The tank does not grow algae very well other than Valonia sp.
