Triton test results

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Got my triton test back. Got to pinpoint where these bad sources are coming from(tin, copper, sulfur) and bring up some others (mag). Changing rodi filters this week but haven't done a water change in over 2 months except ATO.

Didn't want to make a bunch of changes before I got the water test back to see what is causing SPS to continually die off after about 2-3 months.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thejoshdavis · Jul 9, 2015

What does the stock of your tank look like right now?

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Here is the pdf file

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

105 dsa tank. 6 bulb ati.
Yellow tang
Blue tang
Flasher wrasse
8 chromis
3 lyre tail anthias
4 barelettes anthias
2 blue eye cardinals

thejoshdavis · Jul 9, 2015

If you can remember, what was the last thing you did before all this started? That's a lot of metal in the system. Makes me wonder if the pumps are leaching into the tank.

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Feed 4x a day by auto feeder. Pellets and flakes

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Checked all the pumps and can't find anything. Taking apart the sump this weekend. Can't find anything that is rusting

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Josh this the same problem I have always had even when I had the 150. The only things that I haven't changed are the pumps, sump and rocks. There are some rusty hinges on the cabinet but I don't see how that rusty is falling in the tank. Will look in the canopy to see if any rusty screws are there

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2015

Sulfur is sulfate. It comes from your salt mix (it is the 3rd most abundant ion by weight in seawater) and would also come from Epsom salts. It may just be a test error. I really don't see how it could be that high since cations and anions must balance, and they do not look to do so in that result. What salt mix are you using? It seems odd.

Sources of tin are much harder to track down.

As to aluminum, are you using any white media for any purpose?

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Seachem reef salt.
No gfo or carbon or any media
Use a diy algae scrubber and a skimmer for nutrient export.
Dose Mrs wages pickling lime for kalk.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2015

So either the sulfur result is way off, or the salt mix was off. I've not seen test results recently on Seachem salt to evaluate it, but 15 years ago it did have quite excessive sulfate:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001215...om/fish2/aqfm/1999/mar/features/1/default.asp

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

What are you suggesting that I should do to fix these issues? Not sure what should be the first steps in getting things back on track.

ssdawood · Jul 9, 2015

Do water change with triton salt. And retest.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2015

Seachem salt mix currently claims a sulfate level close to NSW, so it is most likely a test error for sulfur unless you only used a tiny portion of a bag to fill a small tank.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/ReefSalt.html

There's no reason to use a special mix like Triton to remove aluminum or tin by water change as most mixes do not have it (even the cheap IO that I use). Water changes also often fail if you do not remove the source, which might be pipes or foods or additives or something else in the tank.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2015

ssdawood said:
Do water change with triton salt. And retest.

Why Triton? Most mixes do not have tin or aluminum issues.

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

ssdawood said:
Do water change with triton salt. And retest.

Haven't heard of triton salt but I'll search for it.

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Seachem salt mix currently claims a sulfate level close to NSW, so it is most likely a test error for sulfur unless you only used a tiny portion of a bag to fill a small tank.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/ReefSalt.html

There's no reason to use a special mix like Triton to remove aluminum or tin by water change as most mixes do not have it (even the cheap IO that I use). Water changes also often fail if you do not remove the source, which might be pipes or foods or additives or something else in the tank.

That's what I was thinking, this problem has exist for nearly 2 years (sps dieing). Granted I am no sps expert and figure most of the issue is due to stability. If I continually do weekly big water changes (30 gallons in a 105 tank) then all the corals seem happy. As soon as I stop doing water changes, then things begin to die off.
I waited 2 months without doing a water change to send off a worse case scenario water sample to triton.

It seems to me that something is leaching from my tank that is causing most of the issue.
If I start to do water changes again with any of the salts then everything will be back to normal but I don't think that will fix the hidden leaching problem that I think exist.
The goal is to not have to continually change the water to have a striving tank. Once a month or so waterchanges aren't as bad as just continually flushing my tank with fresh salt water to keep these bad elements from rising.

Hope that makes sense...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2015

It does make sense. The Triton folks think some PVC pipes might release Tin, but I've not seen convincing evidence of that correlation in the US. Still, it is hard to judge if some pipes might contain it and some not.

greg0385 · Jul 9, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
It does make sense. The Triton folks think some PVC pipes might release Tin, but I've not seen convincing evidence of that correlation in the US. Still, it is hard to judge if some pipes might contain it and some not.

So I should try doing water changes with a different salt such as instant ocean or red sea?
Or should I use some type of detox/filter to remove the harmful elements and retest to see if they come back without doing a water change?

metrokat · Jul 9, 2015

Poly-filter is supposed to remove metals. Copper can be removed with cuprisorb also.

This is what they sent me:

Our aquarium grade Poly-Filter (R) is pretreated with synthetic saltwater to
eliminate trace element stripping then rinsed in sterile, highly filtered low
TDS water. If you need to remove ultra low part-per-billion, heavy metals such
as copper, lead, mercury, cadmium etc. our wet Poly-Filter (R) discs should be
used in our Fin-L-Filter (R) or Kold Ster-il (R) System. Poly-Filter (R) wet discs
are extracted in sterile, ultra pure water for low part-per-billion metals adsorption.

Poly-Bio-Marine, Inc.
927 Neversink St.
Reading, PA 19606-3732
Phone 610-404-1410
Fax 610-404-1487 www.polybiomarine.com or www.poly-bio-marine.com