Reef nutrition

April Tank Spotlight is The Legendary Bruce Spiegelman

Flagg37 said:
So what makes the sump a smart sump?

Can you tell us about your uv setup? Flow rates, why those sizes, why two?
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I did a lot of research into UV when I set up the tank, and as many of us know there's basically two options for flow for a sterilizer. The first is a fairly rapid rate through the equipment that works well on algae and as a water clarifier. The second, is a MUCH slower rate designed to give the organisms in the water a long enough exposure time to kill protozoa sized organisms (including Ich and Velvet.) The health of my tank was of paramount importance to me so I knew I wanted to go full-blown , and even a little over-powered, to perform that duty. However, I also wanted a beautifully clear tank that took much less maintenance time dealing with algae. The slower flow on the main sterilizer simply didn't turn the tank over neatly enough to do both jobs.


The flow through the 80w is 350gph which is well-below the manufacture maximum of 450-550gph. Generally I see a recommended flow rate of 1.5-3.0 of tank value. I hit the low end of that roughly.
The flow through the 40W is much higher in the range of 1000 gph which gives me lots of turnover.
 
euod said:
Please elaborate your triton method.
A pic of your sump, too.
Thx
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Triton method is as simple (yet expensive) way of dosing as there is. I use two DOS units (4 heads) to dose the four part Triton solution. It (should) contain everything needed to grow corals well. Not just Alk, Mag and Calc, but also Amino's, etc.in a perfectly balanced system. The Dos are controlled by the Neptune Apex and the Trident to keep parameters balanced and where I want them. I'll grab sump and electrical pics tomorrow.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
Triton method is as simple (yet expensive) way of dosing as there is. I use two DOS units (4 heads) to dose the four part Triton solution. It (should) contain everything needed to grow corals well. Not just Alk, Mag and Calc, but also Amino's, etc.in a perfectly balanced system. The Dos are controlled by the Neptune Apex and the Trident to keep parameters balanced and where I want them. I'll grab sump and electrical pics tomorrow.
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FYI to all because it isn’t common knowledge, but I’ve confirmed with Triton:

Triton Core7 3a and 3b are exactly the same product. Not just both alk but with different trace elements. Exactly the same.

I use 3 dosing heads for Triton Core7, and for the 3a/3b, I just refill the container with whichever is open and dose twice as much as the Ca or Mg (or as much as both combined if that makes more sense).

To me anyway, it really doesn’t make any sense to dose 3a and 3b differently with 2 dosing heads, it would be the same as splitting the Ca solution into 2 containers and dosing half as much of each with 2 dosing heads.
 
JVU said:
FYI to all because it isn’t common knowledge, but I’ve confirmed with Triton:

Triton Core7 3a and 3b are exactly the same product. Not just both alk but with different trace elements. Exactly the same.

I use 3 dosing heads for Triton Core7, and for the 3a/3b, I just refill the container with whichever is open and dose twice as much as the Ca or Mg (or as much as both combined if that makes more sense).

To me anyway, it really doesn’t make any sense to dose 3a and 3b differently with 2 dosing heads, it would be the same as splitting the Ca solution into 2 containers and dosing half as much of each with 2 dosing heads.
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I wonder why they do that then
 
JVU said:
FYI to all because it isn’t common knowledge, but I’ve confirmed with Triton:

Triton Core7 3a and 3b are exactly the same product. Not just both alk but with different trace elements. Exactly the same.

I use 3 dosing heads for Triton Core7, and for the 3a/3b, I just refill the container with whichever is open and dose twice as much as the Ca or Mg (or as much as both combined if that makes more sense).

To me anyway, it really doesn’t make any sense to dose 3a and 3b differently with 2 dosing heads, it would be the same as splitting the Ca solution into 2 containers and dosing half as much of each with 2 dosing heads.
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I knew they could be combined with no issues, but I was under the impression they had different trace elements. I've combined them before and run off 3 heads, but didn't know they were the same and I didn't even have to combine.
 
Rostato said:
I wonder why they do that then
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Part historical, part paternalistic.

Historical: In the previous version before Core7 (Base Elements), the alk parts were (as far as I can tell) actually a little different with different trace additives. For the newer Core7 presumably they found a way to simplify production and make them the same, but kept them labeled separately for continuity of existing customers (my guess).

Paternalistic: Also, they feel that being able to tell users to dose the same amount of all 4 makes it simpler and less likely to have an error in dosing. Telling people to dose twice as much of 3 as you do 1 or 2 is a little more complicated and prone to error. They have stated this and I guess it makes sense.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
I knew they could be combined with no issues, but I was under the impression they had different trace elements. I've combined them before and run off 3 heads, but didn't know they were the same and I didn't even have to combine.
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Me too. This was directly confirmed to me by:
Julian Baggio BSc
Head of Science Division Australia
 
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