d2mini
Premium Member
Pretty much indiscernible. I don't think the valve on my drain line needed any adjustment after installation.
d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build
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Pretty much indiscernible. I don't think the valve on my drain line needed any adjustment after installation.
VJV
New member
Hi Denis, glad to see you are pulling out. I must say I am in a very similar place to you:
1- started a Triton reef 5 months ago with rock from my previous tank;
2- placed chaetomorpha and caleurpa in the five. Claeurpa died right away, chaetomorpha grew for 3 weeks, doubling in size each week. Than it stopped and started to die off
3- Nitrates have always been zero.
4- snooty green algae (I believe it is derbesia) started to appear in the five. It smothered the macros which would disintegrate.
5- in the display patches of it started to appear;
6- the refugium became overwhelmed with that stuff, and tiny hairs would fill the water column (visible if you can look across two glass surfaces with strong light on the opposite end. And I have a Theilling Rollermat filter so all this crap is coming from the refugium hitch I believe at this point is doing more bad than good (ton of GHA growing, decaying and spreading across the tank).
I have read more than one similar report from Triton users, constantly fighting algae. I am seriously thinking about switching to Fauna Marin Zeolight. I have done the Triton tests and nothing hints at cause nor solution. This thing was supposed to make us "educated reefers" but I feel like I am flying just as blind as before.
Still zero Nitrates and almost zero phosphates (0,012)
Just sharing, because it seems remarkably similar to what you are going from.
On a final note, I have used DinoX twice before. It seemed to work during the treatment but after I stopped the thing came back 3x worse than before. Hope you have better luck.
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1- started a Triton reef 5 months ago with rock from my previous tank;
2- placed chaetomorpha and caleurpa in the five. Claeurpa died right away, chaetomorpha grew for 3 weeks, doubling in size each week. Than it stopped and started to die off
3- Nitrates have always been zero.
4- snooty green algae (I believe it is derbesia) started to appear in the five. It smothered the macros which would disintegrate.
5- in the display patches of it started to appear;
6- the refugium became overwhelmed with that stuff, and tiny hairs would fill the water column (visible if you can look across two glass surfaces with strong light on the opposite end. And I have a Theilling Rollermat filter so all this crap is coming from the refugium hitch I believe at this point is doing more bad than good (ton of GHA growing, decaying and spreading across the tank).
I have read more than one similar report from Triton users, constantly fighting algae. I am seriously thinking about switching to Fauna Marin Zeolight. I have done the Triton tests and nothing hints at cause nor solution. This thing was supposed to make us "educated reefers" but I feel like I am flying just as blind as before.
Still zero Nitrates and almost zero phosphates (0,012)
Just sharing, because it seems remarkably similar to what you are going from.
On a final note, I have used DinoX twice before. It seemed to work during the treatment but after I stopped the thing came back 3x worse than before. Hope you have better luck.
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d2mini
Premium Member
Have you done anything to deal with your low nitrate?
That seemed to be the cause of my problems, or it was just a crazy coincidence.
As Triton explained to me, the macros need the nitrate to feed on to grow, and while growing, can consume the additional nutrients being added by the Triton Elements. If the algae is not growing (or if its dying) it can't consume those extra nutrients being added to the tank so you are going to see nuisance algae.
What I'm finding is that it's a delicate balance. Screw up one thing, and it throws everything out of whack.
Once I started dosing nitrates and getting more fish in teh display, the fuge was able to sustain macros again, and even start growing them a bit. Still nothing like before, but before I had pretty high nitrates and p04 from all the new live rock and sand from TBS. Once things settled down and really kicked into gear, nitrates dropped further and further until they zero'd out and then the refugium crashed and all the nasty stuff started to appear.
D2Mini, I purchased a blueline pump from Lifereef on my build. It advertised 1750GPH. It was way to loud for my setup. I immediately purchased the vectra M1 since it had a 2000gph rating. The blueline had so much flow, I had to restrict the input side. When I added the vectra, I had it dialed wide open and still had nowhere near the flow as before. It still seems fine for my display since I have plenty of powerheads to compensate, but it was at least half to a third less powerful than the blueline. I was also feeding my fuge with the original setup. I have since added a second pump for the fuge, and have the vectra for the display only.
I talked to ecotech about it. The only solution they offered was to not do a calibration on the pump. They said it was factory set at max flow rate available. They replaced my pump, so I let it set to factory. I see a small difference, but nothing compared to the blueline.
I talked to ecotech about it. The only solution they offered was to not do a calibration on the pump. They said it was factory set at max flow rate available. They replaced my pump, so I let it set to factory. I see a small difference, but nothing compared to the blueline.
EcoTech products and cheaper do not go hand in hand
But on a serious note, that is a pretty huge drop in performance. That was actually a pump on my short list for primary return. Assuming nothing is defective I'll go out on a limb now and say I'm scratching it off my list. I like the idea of DC pumps, and actually have a Jebao DCT-15000 to test with but the EcoTech M/L series are pushing 350 - 450...that just seems like too much fall off.
VJV
New member
I saw your post on Nitrates. I understand the logic behind but must confess I was a bit concerned about adding Nitrates to a tank with GHA. It feels like adding gasoline to a bonfire. Having said this, it is not the first time I have zero Nitrates and GHA...
The system is about 200 gallons and I have 11 fish, including a Powder Blue, a Foxface, a Kole Tang and a regal. I guess this should be enough bioload? I feed pellets 3/4 times per day but only as much as they can eat in 10 seconds. No single pellet even hits the bottom.
Anyway, hope you pull through this. I guess it takes time for a Triton tank to fully mature and create the bio diversity that is required to keep it in balance.
I am going to replace my sump and with it take all the gunk out with the old one. I will have a smaller refugium that I will regularly clean this time.
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The system is about 200 gallons and I have 11 fish, including a Powder Blue, a Foxface, a Kole Tang and a regal. I guess this should be enough bioload? I feed pellets 3/4 times per day but only as much as they can eat in 10 seconds. No single pellet even hits the bottom.
Anyway, hope you pull through this. I guess it takes time for a Triton tank to fully mature and create the bio diversity that is required to keep it in balance.
I am going to replace my sump and with it take all the gunk out with the old one. I will have a smaller refugium that I will regularly clean this time.
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d2mini
Premium Member
Ok, update on the plumbing...
All barb connectors are gone.
I'm now 1" straight from the pump to the 3/4 adaptor at the overflow, except for two little 3/4" bushings on each end of the .98" flow sensor that were needed to convert to Imperial sizing.
I've gone from an average of 2250/lph to around 2450/lph or 590 gph to 650 gph.
So i removed what I would feel is a lot of restriction but didn't gain much.
The overflow itself is a bottle neck.
And what I didn't realize (or forgot about) is that if you don't use the 1" blue collar on the L1, the actual output is 1.5".
So I'm cutting that down by 1/3 right out of the gate.
The problem, is all the higher powered pumps use larger outputs like that.
What I need is a higher pressure pump that can accomplish higher flow rates through a smaller output.
All barb connectors are gone.
I'm now 1" straight from the pump to the 3/4 adaptor at the overflow, except for two little 3/4" bushings on each end of the .98" flow sensor that were needed to convert to Imperial sizing.
I've gone from an average of 2250/lph to around 2450/lph or 590 gph to 650 gph.
So i removed what I would feel is a lot of restriction but didn't gain much.
The overflow itself is a bottle neck.
And what I didn't realize (or forgot about) is that if you don't use the 1" blue collar on the L1, the actual output is 1.5".
So I'm cutting that down by 1/3 right out of the gate.
The problem, is all the higher powered pumps use larger outputs like that.
What I need is a higher pressure pump that can accomplish higher flow rates through a smaller output.
d2mini
Premium Member
And going back to my last post on this subject...
Tank is looking like poo!
Deep rust brown diatoms(???) all over the sand bed and elsewhere.
SPS are losing all their vibrance and a couple frags have lost all color.
From day 1 my sps colored up great. It's frustrating to see issues like this 9 months into the build when things should really be starting to pick up.
I'm hoping this is just a stage it has to go through after the DinoX treatment.
All major parameters (calc, alk, mag, no3, p04, etc) seem spot on.
I sent a Triton ICP test off this morning so should know more in another week or so.
d2mini
Premium Member
Which is one reason I'm trying to increase my flow!
I don't like the idea of putting powerheads in there and the maintenance involved with them.
I will start chopping it down if I start getting some good growth again.
Right now the chaeto is not growing at all. I think the red macros are but slowly.
Vinny Kreyling
Premium Member
http://www.marinedepot.com/Fluval_S...quarium_Pumps-Fluval-HG14337-FIWPSBTO-vi.html
The SP6 is 1.25 in/out
The SP6 is 1.25 in/out
d2mini
Premium Member
Yup, that's a contender.
And there is this one I just found...
http://current-usa.com/pumps/eflux-dc-flow-pumps/
Vinny Kreyling
Premium Member
It does use 3/4" & 1" barbs for the return so that's a plus.
This is also one of the pumps Marine Depot suggested for the Drop Off Tank video series.
Have to wait & see if it is chosen.
This is also one of the pumps Marine Depot suggested for the Drop Off Tank video series.
Have to wait & see if it is chosen.
d2mini
Premium Member
Yeah, and at 12' of head it's still rated for 1200 gph.
I'd say the these are the two pumps that are top of my list right now if I was to get a replacement.
But I have emails into both ecotech and elos to see what they have to say.
Elos says their Quiet Drain's "ideal flow" is 1000-1500 gph.
And they have their own dc pumps... like the Elos SF 6000 & 1100.
This was on my short list for return pumps. One of the attractions was the price being in the middle of the Vectra and Jebao DC series. Picture and media wise, it looks well built and laid out. Similar functionality and features has similar products. I found a pretty good sale on a Jebao DC back in December so picked one of those up. I still may pick one of these up just to have something back in case of a failure.
d2mini
Premium Member
Annnnd.... I just started running nano microbubbles. 
Been wanting to try this out for awhile.
I figure since my tank has been going through some issues lately, it could use all the help it can get.
And I haven't seen anything negative come of it so why not give it a shot.
Going to try 10pm to 4am and see how it goes.
Been wanting to try this out for awhile.
I figure since my tank has been going through some issues lately, it could use all the help it can get.
And I haven't seen anything negative come of it so why not give it a shot.
Going to try 10pm to 4am and see how it goes.
Annnnd.... I just started running nano microbubbles.
Been wanting to try this out for awhile.
I figure since my tank has been going through some issues lately, it could use all the help it can get.
And I haven't seen anything negative come of it so why not give it a shot.
Going to try 10pm to 4am and see how it goes.
can you explain what you mean? I've read 95% of this thread and hadn't seen you mention "nanobubbles" before?
d2mini
Premium Member
I never have.
Just been quietly watching various threads on the subject.
If you search google for nano or micro bubble scrubbing you'll find tons of info and youtube vids. There was a huge (and controversial) thread on the other forum. But in a nutshell the theory is that it will help keep ph elevated at night, deslimes the corals, and floats particulates to the surface to be skimmed out of the display. Basically turns the whole display into a skimmer. People report better PE, better growth, better skimmer performance and more stable ph. A wooden airstone placed in the return section of the sump and the bubbles are sent to the display via the return pump.
No negative effects on fish.
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