Triton vs Triton other method for new tank

[symon_say]

Hi

I'm setting a new tank after a few years out of the hobby, I'll like to use a no water change method, I travel a lot an is hard for me to a schedule maintenance.

Triton seen to be a great method cause it takes care of a lot of aspects, I'll build the sump to triton specs.

But for a new tank is better to go full Triton since day one, or go with other method and change to full later when tank is a little more mature?

 

[DLHDesign]

In my experience, you won't be able to hold a new tank stable enough to know how to dose the Triton additives until it has been established for a while. Just how long until things stabilize depends on a number of factors - live rock vs. dry, bio-load, sand vs bare, etc.
My approach (after I struggled with Triton for a few months) has been to do auto-water changes and hold off on starting up the refugium until all my fish are in and I can stabilize my feeding schedule and amount.

 

[DLHDesign]

Note that Triton is now shipping their additives dry (and you mix with RO/DI upon arrival). Yes; there were some frustrating times in the past. Lessons were learned and their product delivery got better (and, incidentally, cheaper - dry products weigh less).
And, yes - their products are still packaged with "saving the world" in mind, only now without all the leaking (thankfully).

 

[CMO]

I've run full Triton successfully from day one on 2 tanks now so I can at least say it is possible (both totally clean dry rock builds with no seed rock). You should just be advised that in a new reef the dosing will be very low and the various parts might not be used in equal amounts as is typical in a more mature reef (but again, the dose is usually low enough in the beginning that equal dosing is typically fine still). With my current tank running a Trident I can see what's going on a bit better in this regard and actually dose unequally to maintain each parameter accordingly (alk, cal and mag). You should be prepared to test alk pretty frequently and adjust the dosing accordingly if you want to start Triton from day one IMO. I tested every other day manually with my first Triton tank in the early stages but now thank god have a Neptune Trident doing it for me. As mentioned above by others, alk demand (and thus your required core 7 dose) may swing pretty heavily with a new tank which is why I think most say it's tough in the beginning (and by beginning, I mean the first year really). But again, if you're willing to test frequently and adjust dosing accordingly it is perfectly fine to use on a new tank.

The biggest difference between the two products is just additional amounts of elements like Iodine and Iron for the fuge in the full Triton core 7. While it may take a while to get your fuge going in a new tank, I've found there to be no issue with these elements building up dangerously in a new tank since the dose of core 7 is so low then (so no need to start with Other Methods formula). You also should monitor N and P in the new tank to make sure they don't bottom which is common with Triton tanks IME.

 

[Nano10]

A new tank shouldn't need much dosing of anything since their wont be corals or coraline consuming anything.

Like any tank... you test and then dose accordingly. For the no water change ever routine using Triton I believe they expect you to send an icp test to them every so often and dose based on their results.

Personally the no waterchange route seems like a bit of a needless hassle imo. You'll have to constantly check for all major and trace elements and dose them. Whereas a simple 10% waterchange a week is easy, quick, good for the tank and replenish trace elements.

If I was going to try a no waterchange approach it wouldn't actually be no waterchange, it would be no water change for me because I'd set up a 2% daily auto water chance.

Not saying no water change cant work but I the most impressive long term successful tanks seem to receive waterchanges weekly. And it seems more often than not ttanks that have a major everything is dead crash tend to have gone a long time without a waterchange.