Triton test, anything to worry about?

[codydemmel4]

Just got my Triton test back.

I am a little worried about my Tin, Copper and Lithium being high, are these normal levels in an aquarium or should I be worried?

I checked all my pumps, etc and found no metal so I am not sure where it could be coming from. Any suggestions?

I am dosing is 2 part from BRS, acropower, Flatworm stop and coral booster.

I am thinking about taking my gfo offline since my phosphates are so low, or should I just take a majority of the gfo out of the reactor. I like the thought of the gfo as I think you have more control of the levels compared to just letting it be. I dont have any carbon in my system. Just gfo, skimmer and cheato

 

[jda]

Gonna be a bit of tough love here, but I mean well... seriously. Seems like you have something different every few days. You aren't going to get instant results on a new tank no matter how much you want them. That test is fine. Yes, you should take the GFO offline until your cycle is 100% complete and your tank can turn nitrate into nitrogen gas (this can take up to a year). Just do the regular maintenance and wait. No matter how much stuff you try, you won't speed this up one bit. It is hard to do, but learn how to view and enjoy your tank without looking too hard at it.

You can stop the acropower, flatworm stop and coral booster. They won't do anything. Spend the money on more salt and change a bit more water.

 

[codydemmel4]

Gonna be a bit of tough love here, but I mean well... seriously. Seems like you have something different every few days. You aren't going to get instant results on a new tank no matter how much you want them. That test is fine. Yes, you should take the GFO offline until your cycle is 100% complete and your tank can turn nitrate into nitrogen gas (this can take up to a year). Just do the regular maintenance and wait. No matter how much stuff you try, you won't speed this up one bit. It is hard to do, but learn how to view and enjoy your tank without looking too hard at it.

You can stop the acropower, flatworm stop and coral booster. They won't do anything. Spend the money on more salt and change a bit more water.

Can I see a picture of your tank?

Thanks for the response but im not trying to cycle a tank so im not sure what you're talking about a cycle and speeding it up. the cycle is well well well over by now.

 

[Stolireef]

I wouldn't give a second thought to those readings. Nothing different than you'd find in any municipal water supply. I'm sure you're using RO/DI water with a 0 TDS reading at the output for your topoff and water changes. If so, there isn't much else you can do for your water quality.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Lithium can be in the salt you use plus water source. But, mine comes back similar and I have no coral issues


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[maxwell]

Hi
Nothing to worry about just follow their recommendations on what to dose etc. I find that the test always show something in my tank its always Sr and lithium which I leave well alone your tank will tell you if somethings wrong.
Bill

 

[jda]

Your cycle is not over until your tank can process NO3 into N gas. This anoxic bacteria takes a long time to grow in the sand and inside of the rocks. It can take a year or more. Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate is the easy part... Nitrate to N gas is what takes a while.

 

[bshow24]

Can I see a picture of your tank?

Thanks for the response but im not trying to cycle a tank so im not sure what you're talking about a cycle and speeding it up. the cycle is well well well over by now.

jda doesn't mean the initial cycle where you you let the rock and sand grow the needed bacterias. He is talking about what we also mentioned on another of your threads: you have a young tank. Theres a reason people always say wait a year before putting SPS in your tank and that's because the fluctuations can occur because your tank isn't mature enough to handle them quite yet.

 

[Hentz]

I do agree with jda a bit. I myself bounce around a lot with tanks because I find it fun to setup and get them going. Though over the past 2 years I've realized its stupid and I enjoy watching things grow. So I'm finally to the point where I'm over that, kinda, and really enjoy just watching life expand.

I've ran ZEOvit on the past two tanks and my SPS were in them well before the year mark. In-fact I'm only 3 months in to my downgrade/reboot of a ZEOvit tank. I'm noticing coral growth every 2-3 days. I'm impressed with the amount of growth I'm getting and realized I'm getting such great and healthy corals because I leave the tank alone and just keep doing EXACTLY what I'm doing in robot mode. Only "in-consistant" thing I do is I might do 2 10% water changes in one week opposed to my 1 10% weekly water change, which my corals seem to thank me for.

However about the bacteria, I may just be having luck with the way ZEOvit runs and how stable I'm keeping everything. I'm not sure how often you're changing the way you run your tank, but doing something slightly different often isn't a good thing. I believe I recall you suffered an Alk swing? If that's the case, let the corals just chill and grow back. Slowly find a nitrate/phosphate level your corals seem happy with and just keep it there. Let your tank find it's sweet spot. Keep doing the same thing you're doing to keep your tank at that sweet and stable spot. By doing so, you'll quickly be rewarded with beautiful colors and growth.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Gonna be a bit of tough love here, but I mean well... seriously. Seems like you have something different every few days. You aren't going to get instant results on a new tank no matter how much you want them. That test is fine. Yes, you should take the GFO offline until your cycle is 100% complete and your tank can turn nitrate into nitrogen gas (this can take up to a year). Just do the regular maintenance and wait. No matter how much stuff you try, you won't speed this up one bit. It is hard to do, but learn how to view and enjoy your tank without looking too hard at it.

You can stop the acropower, flatworm stop and coral booster. They won't do anything. Spend the money on more salt and change a bit more water.

Well said, I agree with you 100% with letting the tank do its thing and mature. It took me 8 months of doing nothing except running my tank fish only before my algae and Dino issues went away but I haven't seen them in two years now that the live rock is mature with the underside being covered in sponge growth.

 

[Piper27]

Cody, I agree with everyone else and don't see anything crazy on the test. Sorry I viewed your pm and forgot to respond, I don't remember what the dose of melafix was I used but I will try and look it up.

Jda, I would like to see your tank as well, got a build thread or pic? You have been giving a lot of advice and I am sure a lot of people would like to check it out.

 

[codydemmel4]

Yeah so I am going to take everyones advise here and just take everything easy going forward and let the reef go through everything itself, just like I posted in my build thread.

Piper, I found the dosage online and used it last week and already forgot it. It definitely was a lot less harsh then bayer on the corals as they had PE back within 30 minutes of being in the tank. I also saw a lot of dead criters in the dip container so that is what I will be using going forward.

 

[Piper27]

Definatly an amazing dip not a lot of people use. We used to use it more years ago when there wasn't as many good options.

 

[Hentz]

Yeah jda, let's see your tank man! You shoot tons of great advice, sir!

Cody, good choice on letting it take its course. After my defeat with Bubble Algae, I reboot my system and let it run for a while before doing anything to it. Only thing I did was add two tester Acropora. Especially coming from dry rock, I wanted the tank to build itself. So I barely even looked at it aside from light feeding for my fish and weekly water changes.

 

[jda]

This is not my thread, so I apologize in advance... I have photos around to help people with specific issues. I also have macro photos. I don't post pictures just to post them since even though pictures are worth one-thousand words, people see what they want to see and don't bother with reading or thinking and the nuance and details in the posts are overlooked.

This was a huge issue when the Nemo/BioCube folks started to hit the web and everything was a shapshot and people would not read the dialogue with Wet Web Media anymore which had way more to offer or turn away sage advice because people could not use a camera.

My home is open to anyone who is near Boulder, Colorado for more detailed and nuanced viewing. I mean this.

...as for my posts above... of course we are talking about bacteria. It takes a LONG time for bacteria to get into the sand bed to turn NO3 into N and to swap/use P from the aragonite. The sand can move from oxic to anoxic zones a bit based on flow and availability of oxygen and will also help swap P with the aragonite as stuff grows and needs the nutrients. This is super important to a tank since a healthy population of both so that a swing here or there can be quickly dealt with by an active bacteria base - fish dies, oxic bacteria quickly multiply and finish off the ammonia, nitrate then rises and anoxic bacteria quickly reproduce to take care of the NO3, etc. This is what has really happens when people say that their tanks mature, but so many have been taught that it is not part of the cycle, but it is. This is as important as the first part of processing NH4 and NO2.

A healthy sand bed can also help buffer is something gets out of whack and can save a tank from a crash. This can be silent when people measure their alk at 6.1 and think that is where it stopped when it could have gone down way further if the aragonite did not buffer a bit. Few realize that their sand bed and rock saved them a bit.

This happens in the rock too. If it is ocean live rock, it can happen fairly fast since it is nearly always free of organics and phosphate. If it is dead/dry rock, then the oxic bacteria will need to break down the organics in the rock before the anoxic bacteria can settle in a bit deeper (no amount of vinegar or acid can get it all out). This usually comes with an massive unbinding of P since the tank water has a lower concentration. It can take up to a few years for dry/dead rock to be all that productive in a reef tank - this depends on where it came from and how much P and organics it has in it.

 

[Piper27]

People follow advice from people who keep nice tanks. If you don't want to share that's ok too.

 

[codydemmel4]

People follow advice from people who keep nice tanks. If you don't want to share that's ok too.

yeah nothing against JDA as it seems like you give great advice but it is hard for someone (at least for me) to take advice when I have no idea what your tank looks like. Im sure you have a nice tank, its just easier to trust someone when I can see your success

 

[lynchmob3000]

Proof is in the pudding!


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[jda]

If only this were true... people have access to pics and tanks from BigEd, Copps, JB etc. yet still don't do what they do. If people only took advice from the best reefers with the best tank photos, then nobody would even attempt to have LED lit SPS tanks, would avoid dry rock and all costs and would not use any kind of bio pellets, GFO, etc for years until they actually had a problem. Instead, they see a picture, see what they want to see and move forward and sometimes bet on the exception rather than the rule - example, somebody wants to use 3 kessils over a 180G tank and sees a photo of a nano with a kessil with a bunch of frags in it and decides to move forward not knowing that that point-light source will not cover that kind of area, probably not be powerful enough and don't understand that frags and colonies are TOTALLY different and have different requirements...the photo did not give them the real info that they need to make their own decision.

If you don't want to take advice from me, then don't. I will stop posting on your threads. However, if the detail and nuance from the words are worthwhile and make you think about how they apply to your own situation, then this is worth one-thousand photos.

Here are some macro photos that I took to show some folks how zoas can grow in SPS quality water under metal halides, contrary to the belief that zoas need dirty water and less light:




Here are some macros that I took of some of my stuff to show the color under Metal Halide to show the difference in contrast and deepness of color compared to other light sources. None of these are touched at all with photoshop or anything greasy.


Red Planet with no green in it:




One of my favorite inhabitants, the blue squamosa:

 

[codydemmel4]

Nice pictures! I definitely did not mean to insult you in the slightest. I was just saying it is easier for me to take advice from someone if I know they have success keeping the corals and they're not just saying it. I dont know, I thought that made sense. maybe not.