Lee’s Nano Reef triton method

[LeeM]

Update on the tank I’ve added the last zoas this week 

 

utter chaos 

Green Bay packers

mindblowing paly 

hawiian people eater

daydreamer paly

 

most of my zoas are nicely settled and growing fast the single pylops of many are now upto 3-4 buds and I do believe this is down to the lighting and reef roids. I’m expecting close to complete coverage 6-9 months in at the current rate.

 

parameters are stable and I’ve sent of a triton test today. I will complete another triton test in exactly 30 days. I will then have a fairly accurate guide of any trace and macro elements my tank that may be used faster then triton base elements replenish, for example iodine and potassium I expect in a softie tank may be used more rapidly. This will form a dosing regime as required for monthly manual dosing. 

 

Still no water changes to this tank.

 

however I have had to battle with few issues 

 

firstly apitasia, I’ve had these in may reefs and no longer worry if I see them on frags. For me I’ve always been able to eradicate them with just apitasia X. I feel that this particular pest can be beaten fairly easily if at the first sighting of one you start a aggressive attack on them. Failure to beat them back early is asking for trouble. Inspecting every rock daily until clear, I also blanket the rock I find one on with apitasia X as these anemones spread through varied methods including leaving little parts of their foot.

 

secondly i have seen some GHA and possible Bryopsis. Like above I believe at the first sighting these micro and macro algae’s should be destroyed. 

 

Both are growing very slowly and I think it’s just a phase you go through with dry rock and new tanks, however I prefer to act now rather then wait. I started fish keeping with high tech planted aquascapes and the conditions in those tanks are perfect for algae, until the tank is fully mature theirs a fine line between success or a full blown algae out break.

 

my secret weapon has always been hydrogen peroxide and I have used this in reefs and planted tanks to great effect. 

 

For the next few months if I see even a small spot of algae it gets nuked with peroxide. In few more months I expect more desirable but slower populating micro fauna and coralline to have claimed the rock preventing these invasive algae’s taking hold.

[LeeM]

Update

 

Been away for a week so just got back to my tank. Below are pics of a rock I treated with peroxide before I left and after the goochester zoas suffered no side effects of the dip and the algae has gone with no return. 

 

Ive actually treated several rocks that are now clean and as the tank settles the algae is not returning. 

 

Triton test has shown levels are good and PO4 and P are in a good range.

 

The tank is doing very well and a lot of new growth on almost all zoas.

 

my sunny Ds however are still sulking for some reason.

 

ICP Triton Test

 

triton test did highlight a few issues to be rectified

 

Firstly a evevated amount of copper, tin, zinc, nickel. I’m unsure where this has come from but I suspect it’s the dry food I was feeding.

 

I have checked equipment and can’t find any corrosion.

 

These  levels do not seem to be causing issues but could be the cause of the sulking sunny Ds???

 

I have dosed triton detox 1.5ml to remove copper, it will remove some of the other heavy metals also. I have used this product before and highly recommend it.

 

The zinc, tin and nickel will also be removed by combination of detox, algae bed, micro water changes from skimmer water and replacement saltwater to maintain SG, carbon and phosphate remover.

 

ICP did recommend water changes but at this time I won’t be carrying these out.

 

iodine and manganese have been flagged for weekly dosing to maintain levels.

 

potassium was a little low and will be raised over the next 10 days.

 

over all I’m fairly happy with the water quality, heavy metals are a pain but I hope the next ICP due December will show them in check.

[Christopher Marks]

Glad to see the peroxide dip worked well for your algae, that's great!

 

I'm admittedly less familiar with the Triton method, I've always been curious what the water analysis results actually look like when you get them back. Any chance you could share a full report?

[LeeM]

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/70179/

 

I believe this will show the full report.

 

i do find that ICP tests allow me to stay in tune with my reef. Without this test I wouldn’t have know about any of these potential issues since my tank inhabitants are growing fast and looking great. 

 

Some of the results do baffle me though,  and it can be a little frustrating to see heavy metals when you can’t find a cause but at least I can act before they become a tank crashing issue.

 

Magnesium was good result as I used my home test kit at the same time and now know it’s reading lower then what’s actually in the tank.

 

P and PO4 I believe are due to the reef roids and pylop booster so not concerned.

 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Yeah, identifying heavy metals from unknown sources seems to be a big benefit, something that might have gone unseen or unknown previously.

 

Thanks for sharing your full web report, that's interesting to see!

[LeeM]

So it’s been awhile since I posted so going to give a update on the tank.

 

Tank is stable and I now think I’ve dialled the dozer in and spread the dose out enough that no matter when I test I’m getting the same reading.

 

The sunny Ds are starting to adapt to the  tank still not fully open but getting there.

 

I have had some Zoas close for a few days but they are growing buds so I’m not going to stress over that yet. Paly grandis, fire maul, jokers, fairy duster, rastas, scrambled eggs to name a few happy to see new polyps.

 

I have lowered the coral foods down to once a week reef Roids and pylop booster whilst I beat bryopsis, below I’m going to discribe how i will do this.

 

firstly identification - I hadn’t identified this as quickly as I wish I had, it looked like GHA, I removed some out of the tank and took a closer look when my attempt to beat it as GHA wasn’t working. It’s the dread of bryopsis.

 

secondly parameter - check them all SG, Temp, KH, Ca, Mg and of course Po4 and No3. Like many I found all my parameters good, after a lot of research on bryopsis it became clear to me that one of the reasons bryopsis is so difficult too get rid of is that this algae is very capable of not only living but thriving from the small amount of ammonia produced by live stock before the nitrogen cycle can process it.

 

thrid stability - if your levels are not stable get that fixed first before the real fight  begins. I’m content my parameters are good for a health reef and this bloom is more to do with my tank not being mature so these algae’s had time to take hold.

 

forth battle plan - get the items you’re going to use ready before you start. I have had great success before using this method. I needed good old hydrogen peroxide, elbow grease and most importantly fluconzole this can be purchased at www.coralsdirect.co.uk for the dose and tank size you need.

 

final phase- manually remove as much as possible this will help export the nutrients held. If possible remove rocks remove what you can then dip in hydrogen peroxide, rinse rocks after 2mins in clean salt water put back in tank. Finally Remove carbon and skimmer cup, add recommended dose of fluconzole to your tank mix this in RO/DI water and add to high flow area. This will kill the rest in your tank and most importantly the roots! Leave for 21 days. Carry out water change after  bryopsis has gone. Reset carbon and skimmer.

 

This has worked for me with no side effects I can see however, this should be done at you own risk.