Ive had my current tank 4.5 years and everything is looking great but I decided I would try a triton ICP to see where things are at in my water chemistry and I've just had my first results back, a little shocked really Cu of 21.91 ppb and tin of 1.67, yesterday following tritons advice I started there 3 day Detox, which hopefully will get these levels down.. Has any one else tried this detox and did it work? I've also bought Arcadia polyfilter to try as well if the copper doesn't come down quickly. I cannot find any source for the copper or tin, but it could have been in my system for years without me knowing.. I'll let you know if it works or not.
Triton Detox
- Thread starter Mortie31
- Start date
mattsreefadise
New member
Following because I recently started Detox as well.
SchnitzelReef
Active member
Interesting. Where did your rocks come from? Seems like that happens to be the source of copper for some people.
Are your corals all doing ok?
Are your corals all doing ok?
My rocks have come from multiple sources over the last 8 years or so, none new for over 4 years, my corals are all fine, no issues at all as are my clean up crew. Honestly the tank looks great apart from the horrid brown tinge that the detox solution gives it. I have bought lots of maricultured sps over the last few years some of which I hadn't removed the base from, so after reading about potential but as far as I can see if unproven reports of these leaching heavy metals, yesterday I removed the bases on those that weren't fully covered with base out.
Does copper come in different forms? Maybe with different levels of toxicity..
SchnitzelReef
Active member
Here's a quick iPad pic, for reference one day into Detox, all seems ok apart from the crappy pic..
Seems like that copper and tin are really affecting the corals. Things look horrible.
If it ain't broke, don't mess with it.
Thank you, the butterflies or my majestic Angel who's camera shy don't do any real damage a peck here and there, i don't get any PE during the day, but I always new test and was a trade off I was prepared to accept.
48 hours into the copper and tin detox and no issues so far, no rtn at all which was my first worry. I'll add the carbon tomorrow to pull the bound heavy metals out of the aquarium, another potential risk point, but I do normally run carbon so impact shouldn't be as extreme as if I didn't, so fingers crossed.
reefmutt
Active member
Nice tank!
Following.
I would think the problem with extremely high levels of something is that everything looks great until it suddenly doesn't, as the levels become intolerable to the corals..
I would probably to the same as you, if I saw those levels.
What worries me a bit is how quickly they get removed with the detox.. The corals must acclimate over years to the rising levels.. To pull them all out in 3 days worries me a bit..
Following.
I would think the problem with extremely high levels of something is that everything looks great until it suddenly doesn't, as the levels become intolerable to the corals..
I would probably to the same as you, if I saw those levels.
What worries me a bit is how quickly they get removed with the detox.. The corals must acclimate over years to the rising levels.. To pull them all out in 3 days worries me a bit..
I agree completely I felt a bit between a rock and a hard place, I could not risk the levels increasing further, and potentially crossing the tipping point and causing wide scale issues but am extremely worried about the speed of the effect of the Detox, I'm not sure if one dose removes all traces in one go or not, so I'll give it a couple of weeks and send another test into triton, triton is an established company in Europe and I have to take there recommendation at face value, I am a little surprised though at how few articles do relate to its use either good or bad, which is why I decided to document this.
Thank you, I do agree about the lack of impact and was surprised at the test result, the metals don't seem to have had a negative effect yet..but they certainly arnt doing things any good.. And that's why I went for the detox
This is a press release, it has been out a few years now but use does seem limited, maybe because we don't know about it, don't have trace metals in tanks or like me have never tested for them until I got an ICP Test
Most reefers will be looking for trace levels of desirable elements, such as Zinc, Manganese and Cobalt, but some users of Triton testing will notice small bumps of unwanted barium, lead, mercury, and sometimes even copper! Of course if you have levels of any of these in the parts per million, your corals are probably already dead or dying but what should or what can you do in the case of trace levels of these heavy metals?
Activated carbon, GFO and resins can only remove these heavy metals down to the parts per billion. Short of having a massive phytoremediation setup with a substantial standing crop of macroalgae, you need to use a "œadsorption amplifier" so that activated carbon and the like can actually remove these trace heavy metals.
Triton Detox is precisely this adsorption amplifier, consisting of extra pure humic acid, a large molecule that will actively take up and bind with free floating trace levels of heavy metals. After a few days of mixing in your tank water, you simply add activated carbon to remove the large humic acid molecules and you will have removed a good amount of the toxic heavy metals.
It would be good if some chemists could add to the discussion with types of copper and toxicity levels etc
reefmutt
Active member
Interesting.. They seem to imply that if you use macro algea in your system, there is less likelihood of these metals building up in the first place....
This might explain the Triton Method's use of a macro algea fuge...
So, it's basically humid acid which binds with the metals.. Cool..
This might explain the Triton Method's use of a macro algea fuge...
So, it's basically humid acid which binds with the metals.. Cool..
Just a quick update, it's 3 days since I added the detox and I've had no observable issues whatsoever, no hint of Stn or rtn, my nem has fully opened again. I added 250 ml of carbon in a media bag to the sump a few hours ago and turned my Phos reactor back on, as per tritons instructions, thankfully the brown tinge that the detox solution caused is already fading. I Just need to Change the carbon out in a week then hopefully all done and the copper and tin levels are significantly reduced. I'll send another water sample off to triton in a few weeks to see the outcome.
