180G Triton Method
- Thread starter oldedb
- Start date
Very interested in this. My tank seems to start doing poorly right around the 18 month mark every time. Some zoas will continue to grow rapidly, while most of the rest suddenly seem to shrink and die away. I'm not the best with testing, so it would be nice to have a pro test.
Negative.
I change 20G in a 110G system volume once a week. Phosphate is kept between .1 and .3, depending on how aggressive I want to be with vodka dosing. I suspect its an issue with alk levels oscillating over time. I don't really have the space to add dosing pumps and the like, so I manually dose BRS 2 part about once a week-ish. Next day testing after the dose places the Alk at around 8.9, but dips below 8 during the week I'm sure.
I change 20G in a 110G system volume once a week. Phosphate is kept between .1 and .3, depending on how aggressive I want to be with vodka dosing. I suspect its an issue with alk levels oscillating over time. I don't really have the space to add dosing pumps and the like, so I manually dose BRS 2 part about once a week-ish. Next day testing after the dose places the Alk at around 8.9, but dips below 8 during the week I'm sure.
Is there somewhere that provides instructions on the entire procedure? When is it necessary to buy their brand of supplements (after the initial test)? Can you use plain old vodka for carbon dosing (I'm guessing not)
I'd just like to plan out and see what it would cost me to get up and running with this.
I'd just like to plan out and see what it would cost me to get up and running with this.
From what I've read, you don't "need" to dose anything outside of their additives, so no need for vodka dosing.
It looks like start up cost would be $50~ for the initial test, $50~ for a follow up test to confirm you've corrected any issues, and then $80~ for the set of additives, which would last about 4-5 months on a tank of your size. When you run out of additives, you would want to test again, so it would be an ongoing cost of $80~ + $50~ every 4-5 months to buy more addivites and an additional test.
If you were to map it on a timeline, it would look like this:
Day 1: $50 test
Day 30: $50 test
Day 40: $80 Additives
Day 180: $130 test and additives
Day 320: $130 test and additives
Day 460: $130 test and additives
It looks like start up cost would be $50~ for the initial test, $50~ for a follow up test to confirm you've corrected any issues, and then $80~ for the set of additives, which would last about 4-5 months on a tank of your size. When you run out of additives, you would want to test again, so it would be an ongoing cost of $80~ + $50~ every 4-5 months to buy more addivites and an additional test.
If you were to map it on a timeline, it would look like this:
Day 1: $50 test
Day 30: $50 test
Day 40: $80 Additives
Day 180: $130 test and additives
Day 320: $130 test and additives
Day 460: $130 test and additives
Alk tested out at 7.5 dkh this morning so I am upping the dose again. I am going to add a 9th round of dosing which will increase the total ml dosed to just over 89ml. Other things I have noticed is my Calcium remained stable but at 385 it's still lower than I would normally target. Also my salinity was slightly low but the interesting part about the Triton method is that there is something in the 4 part dosing that slightly increases salinity over time so they advise that you remove a small amount of water on a weekly basis. Triton has a calculator that will tell you how much to remove and I have read where guys will use peristaltic pumps and an APEX to automate this water removal on a daily basis.... Im not there yet!
Some more pictures from the tank... Almost everything that I have was grown from small frags. The green monticap with blue polyps was from pure reef and was about 2"x2" when I got it about 1.5yrs ago. The big green birds nest was about 3" and grows so fast that my frag tank looks like a birdsnest farm. The purple polyp birdsnest has double in size in less than 6 months and that after being neglected in my low light/flow frag tank. The trumpet coral is one of the very first corals I ever bought and is about 2 years old. It has never split... It did add a 3rd mouth but never fully split into a 3rd head. I used to feed it all the time and now I put it on the back side of the rocks for sentimental reasons. The hairy mushroom sits in the corner of my tank b/c it doubled in size in a month and was stinging everything. Funny thing is that I had a nem in the tank for my clowns... when I moved the mushroom in to the corner the clowns hosted that immediately. Go figure!
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Update on dosing... After 2nd day of dosing Alk fell again to 7.28 dkh. I manually dosed another 9 min round of Elements bringing the total dosing for night 2 up to close to 100ml. Because of the declining trend.... I increased dosing from 100ml to 120ml last night (night 3). Was happy to see that Alk remained stable at the 7.23 so I think I am pretty close to my maintenance dose. Will possibly dose a manual round over the next few days to try to inch the alk up towards the 8 dkh that is recommended.
Almost a week in to dosing Triton and my Alk and Ca levels have remained stable but lower than I would prefer. Alk has been around 7.3 dkh and Ca around 385ppm. Last night I proceeded with my standard 120ml dose but I supplemented with BRS Alk and Ca. I used the BRS calculator to determine the amount to dose to hit my targets. Because I wasn't trying to move the needle that much on the Alk, I put the full BRS recommended dose and on the Ca I put half the dose. This morning my Alk was up to 7.84 and my Ca up to 390. A little more to go but a step in the right direction. For whatever reason I couldn't move the levels much with the Elementz and I confirmed with at least one other Triton user that they have at times made corrections with BRS additives.
As for other products... I haven't used any yet but the testing and results document would guide you as to what you would use and how much. As of now, the only consistent additive are the Elementz product.
Tank looks healthy with good PE and growth. Zoas still struggling but hoping that they bounce back in the next few days. All considered, I am pretty happy with the results at this point.
As for other products... I haven't used any yet but the testing and results document would guide you as to what you would use and how much. As of now, the only consistent additive are the Elementz product.
Tank looks healthy with good PE and growth. Zoas still struggling but hoping that they bounce back in the next few days. All considered, I am pretty happy with the results at this point.
Things are starting to stable out... I have had to adjust Alk, Ca, and Salinity. For the most part... I have settled in on 120ml per night which is significantly more than the 70ml I started with. In hindsight I guess I have a heavily stocked tank... I have never really thought about it.
In honor of the 1 week mark I am posting some closeup pics I took of some of my coral. These were taken with my Nikon as opposed to my iPhone. Hope you enjoy!
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In honor of the 1 week mark I am posting some closeup pics I took of some of my coral. These were taken with my Nikon as opposed to my iPhone. Hope you enjoy!
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looking good!
About 2 weeks in and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. Levels are all very stable. The tank looks very healthy and the corals all have great PE. I can see new growth on many pieces. One of the most encouraging pieces is my pink lemonade acro. This is one of my most slow growing pcs. Since the switch to Triton, I am seeing daily growth, 2-3x PE, and a fantastic yellow color. Will probably wait a week or so to post pics. Also planning on sending off for a water sample around the 1 month mark.
JD great shots! Your colonies are looking amazing! I need to get over to your place and see everything in person!
