my reply to a recent debate if your interested in that sort of thing... reefcentral/forums/showthread.php?t=2463181&page=3 Sorry guys, ive been away for a few days enjoying Christmas. I really didnt mean for this debate to turn into an argument. I am just going to point out a few things from each side of the debate. Please if you continue to discuss dont turn this into a battle. Each person is allowed their own thoughts/ideas and while you may disagree do it respectively. Titons data shows that reefs can be sustained without water changes, that is a fact. They have proved they can grow tanks with healthy and hard to grow corals such as acro and monti. They also elude that they do not remove water based on a schedule, however they do use a detox compound that binds bad organics and metals together that is filtered out with the use of activated carbon. On the other hand most of us have been using PWC for years with great success. You have your frag tank and display and your fish and corals are healthy but are they growing at their optimal speed? There have been studies done and when keeping all levels in check for a 1 year period resulting in 10 inches of pora growth. I have had little luck growning any poras over 2 inches in a year let alone 10. There is a thought that a weekly 10% water changes is the best solution. The fact is doing PWC removes 10 percent of what is bad and what is good. Being able to keep a reef stable is the key with minor fluctuations. If something is bad slowly increase or decrease it, if something good is in excess then slowly decrease it and vise versa if its depleted slowly increase it. Does anyone hobbyist test for all the compounds in natural sea water...no, does any test offer as many test as Triton, I havent found one so please let me know if you have. The thoughts seem pretty simple to me you really only have two options: PWC or dose. Either way you are essentially doing the same thing - you are monitoring what is good or bad and adjusting. The best analogy I can come up with is that: a farmer delivers 1,000 apples, 1,000 oranges, and 1,000 pears all at once into a single bin. You notice some of them look bruised or too ripe. You blindly scoop out 300 fruits 10% and call it a success? This is how I see a PWC. You might have removed some of the bad, you also removed some good. Did you remove all the bad, no only a percentage. Were you able to record your success and adjust the next time? Triton offers you a chance to see your water not your neighbors not mine. You can see oh my iodine is a little lower than the recommended base line, I need to add a little. My copper is higher than it should be I need to get that reduced. A bad of premixed chemicals does not allow you to adjust your levels. Yes, I do live on an island where there is ocean water all around, the problem I have had with collecting sea water is I dont know until I get how much nitrate levels. I had batches that test great and other batches that have tested with 50 ppm nitrate. I recently got a CI infection that resulted in the death of 5 fish. I assume I picked up a parasite from the ocean water and gave birth to ich in my tank. While I am not 100% sure that it came in from the ocean I cannot be totally sure either. On the other hand did I collect water that was already depleted of calcium or mag or alk or some other trace mineral I cant test for? Like I said earlier this is only my thoughts but if the price of Triton test and minerals comes out to be cheaper than mixing salts and you have more control over the parameters in your tank and that equals greater growth and color then its up to you to choose how to go forward.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:16:25 +0000
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