Triton method discussion

ofzakaria

ofzakaria

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Am hoping we can put out collective experince about Triton method in this thread for us all....
Anyone who has some experience or observation about Triton method can you please chime in?



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Vhuang168 said:
Going on 3 years. Doing something similar. Not using their chems.


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Care to elaborate and share?
What do you mean something similar? Are you referring to the large refugium path?
Would love to learn more.
 
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I definitely don’t run the “system” but rather cherry picked some viable options while eliminating the need to join another subscription service. No socks, large healthy fuge and an adequate skimmer while dosing 2 part to maintain levels seems to do the trick.
 
I run most of the Triton System, but not 100%. What I like most about it is the relatively scientific/logical approach it takes, including relying heavily on the natural biological systems in our tanks.

What I like/do:
  • I like that it’s a well-documented system with every angle considered, and years of success for many reefers.
  • Large well-lit refugium then large skimmer.
  • Triton 3-part Alk/Ca/Mg/trace (Core7) dosed through a doser (DOS), dosed in stable proportions based on Alk testing. FYI 3a and 3b can be combined with doubled dose, which I do, so I call it 3-part. Using the Triton Core7 supplements specifically (as opposed to DIY) is important in my opinion since they are (supposedly) balanced with all the major/minor/trace elements needed for a reef tank with active refugium. I can’t prove this because they don’t say what exactly is in them, but at least their approach makes sense to me, and I know that a DIY approach would not have this benefit. Likewise, a CaRx gives what is needed for stony coral skeletal growth in the correct proportions, but is not expected to give everything else the coral animal tissue and the macro algae need.
  • Triton ICP testing every 3 months or so.
  • Carefully reviewing the Triton results, sometimes following their recommendations but often with my own supplements. For example, I use Brightwell Potassion potassium as needed- it‘s the same concentration, easier to find, cheaper, longer track record.
  • Run activated carbon in a reactor.
  • No filter socks (except when I’m cleaning).
  • Not doing water changes just because of a schedule, rather for specific reasons. This doesn’t eliminate them for me, just reduce them quite a bit.

What I don’t like/do:
  • I don’t follow all the recommendations for every element supplement in the ICP results. They make some pretty crazy recommendations about dosing minute quantities of trace elements that no one knows the importance of. Combined with their heavily inflated prices, this feels like they are trying to take advantage of the user.
  • Likewise, ICP results often tell me to do 6 weekly water changes, but doesn’t say why exactly. When I look at the results, I guess it’s because of some trace element like Li or Cr that’s occasionally elevated for unknown reasons, and with unknown consequence. I do put some effort into figuring out if it’s something to worry about and where it might be coming from. And sometimes I’ll follow the water change recommendations. Case-by-case.
  • I don’t like how they aren’t forthcoming with what is in their bottles. With some digging, you can find out which Core7 bottles have the Mg, Ca, and Alk (they are in that order), but why not just say on the bottle like everyone else? The main selling point is the logical scientific approach with all the trace elements a growing reef needs, but then they don’t say what minor/trace elements are in each of the Core7 supplements, so maybe they don’t actually have everything they should. And they don’t say what concentration is in each of their individual extra supplements making it harder to use other brands’ supplements to correct deficiencies. There is a thread on R2R where they figured out the concentrations of most of the Individual supplements based on the ICP recommendations for specific tanks that I refer to if I’m going to do individual supplements (which I don’t usually). But why put users through this? It feels petty like they are trying to force users to buy their overpriced supplements.
  • Triton recommends no UV sterilizer but I run one anyway. Honestly not sure if this has any effect good or bad.
So the bottom line is that I agree philosophically with the Triton Method, and I try to follow their method including using their Core7 dosing and ICP testing. There are a few issues I have with their approach, mostly centered on lack of transparency. Which is ironic since the sales pitch for Triton is that success is based on putting more knowledge in the hands of the reef keeper.
 
Wonder what the "no filter sock" approach is all about? Fish poop/food for refugium critters? Banking on the idea reefers won't change them as frequently as they should?
 
Triton says:
“The water enters the sump directly into the algae refuge compartment, TRITON does not recommend the use of filter socks/floss as they remove beneficial ingredients that algae require.”


For me personally, I agree with the above and also don’t think they help in any way that is as important as how annoying it is to keep up with cleaning them twice a week.
 
Eh, I don't find them to be annoying. Although I use the mesh socks, not the thicker filter socks, very easy to just spray them down with water, and let drip dry while clean ones replace them. Considering the amount of crap (literally and figuratively) they collect after a few days, feel like they are doing a good job at removing waste from the tank. Plus chaeto isn't exactly a rooting plant, it's not going to siphon up the fish crap that sits in your refugium part of the sump, in fact wouldn't surprise me if the chaeto acts like a very course filter pad and just collects all the crap, I mean I remember occasionally squeezing my chaeto ball (who doesn't? :D) and seeing the brown cloud that comes from it.
 
I started doing no water changes before I knew there was a triton method. Once I found out what it was, much of what I was already doing was covered in the method. Like John, I only use socks when I’m cleaning the tank. My fuge was the first chamber in my sump because I wanted it to have the largest volume of water. My skimmer was oversized for my system but I eventually took it out because I wasn’t seeing anything beneficial from it. I dosed trace elements based off of ca uptake. If ICP testing was more affordable I would have done that too. As it was, I did not and felt like I was dosing a little blindly. I think the no socks and UV is so pods don’t get trapped or killed but only a small amount of pods are floating in the water column so there may be a different reason. I plan on running UV on my next tank but still no socks.
 
All this is such a great summaries and sharing thank you all.
I also no longer use socks for years. But I do every now and then use pads.
Effectively my system will have a cleaning pad 3 days a week, and 4 days nothing
 
ofzakaria said:
Care to elaborate and share?
What do you mean something similar? Are you referring to the large refugium path?
Would love to learn more.
Click to expand...

I used the Red Sea Colors program when I 1st started. Very similar in that it doses back trace elements. I use the test kit Red Sea offers for it.
I do not use filter socks. Took them out very early on. The refugium in my sump is as big as I can make it, would love to go bigger. It is lit with a 150w (rated at 300w) grow light. Light period is early evening to mid morning. Macro is like a solid block.

I went to the Triton chems/ICP early last year. But the testing took forever and I felt I was always playing catch up. Chems were not always available. I do not use the Core method but rather the individual bottles.

I've since gone back to the Red Sea Colors because I can purchase the test kits easily and I can test regularly myself and dose accordingly.

I would prefer the Triton method as I have control over individual chems (Red Sea uses 4 bottles with chems mixed in ratio) and they've since opened up ICP testing in LA so the turnaround is now within a week which is much better. I may go back to that. Downside is I cannot dose some of the chems using the DOS because the amounts required are so small. 0.07ml a day for 1 of them. That's less than 0.5ml a week. Would rather dose every day vs once a week. So the plan is to dose once a week for those and regular dosing for the rest.
 
Vhuang168 said:
Downside is I cannot dose some of the chems using the DOS because the amounts required are so small. 0.07ml a day for 1 of them. That's less than 0.5ml a week. Would rather dose every day vs once a week. So the plan is to dose once a week for those and regular dosing for the rest.
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Think you could dilute your chem in RO/DI water or something? Make a 1/10 or 1/50 solution so you could do a 0.7ml/day or 3.5ml/day dosage?
 
JVU said:
Triton says:
“The water enters the sump directly into the algae refuge compartment, TRITON does not recommend the use of filter socks/floss as they remove beneficial ingredients that algae require.”


For me personally, I agree with the above and also don’t think they help in any way that is as important as how annoying it is to keep up with cleaning them twice a week.
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Not running any kinds filter like a mesh has given me tons of GHA... so not I use mesh bags.. still have goodness available for algae but not the gha bits to respawn
 
Seems like a lot of these "methods" are just the old way of reefing just with no water change and trace elements....am I reading this wrong? I was all into triton but then sorta fell off it for some unexplained reason. Have ICP tests gotten good enough to trust fully?
 
Bryce.martin23 said:
Seems like a lot of these "methods" are just the old way of reefing just with no water change and trace elements....am I reading this wrong? I was all into triton but then sorta fell off it for some unexplained reason. Have ICP tests gotten good enough to trust fully?
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Sounds like the moonshiner method. Basically no water change, ICP for trace element. I guess everyone is doing that but with different names.
 
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