Our goal as reef keepers is to emulate natural seawater.Sea water is not mysterious, you can create it using a recipe of distilled water and chemical elements in controlled proportions.Suppose you have set up your aquarium with a salt mixture that approximates natural seawater.Will it stay like this?Nope!Fish, invertebrates, plants and bacteria constantly interact with seawater through respiration, excretion and natural nutrient cycling.These biochemical reactions consume elements and shift their proportions away from those found in natural seawater.Elemental consumption is both natural and normal and should be considered when conserving reefs.

The other fundamental process affecting the quality of your seawater is elemental contamination.Like it or not, unwanted elements will find their way into your aquarium.Metal corrosion from equipment, environmental toxins from paint, and even the food you feed your animals are all sources of contaminants that can build up and distort the balance of your natural seawater.

Each reef aquarium will consume elements and receive contaminants in a unique way.The only way to know what is really going on in your system is to test your seawater.THETestTRITON LABIs the most accurate, comprehensive and affordable seawater analysis available to reef keepers.When your water is tested, you'll receive an email with a link to your online results where an easy-to-use 'traffic light' reporting system alerts you to any issues.An online calculator automatically tells you which supplement or treatment to use and the exact dose required.

The beauty of the TRITON method is that you don't have to be a chemist to use it.Simply test your seawater.Know what's inside.Take action to fix it.

A TRITON METHOD aquarium is a sophisticated, easy-to-use holistic solution for the modern reef keeper.The first step in the reef is to set up your new aquarium and allow the bacterial nitrogen cycle to be established.

To take full advantage of the TRITON METHOD, we recommend that your system uses a sump with a separate algae refuge (10-20% of system volume) which in turn drains into the main sump where you perform filtration and apply the reagent dosage.The return pump capacity should be approximately 10 times the system volume.

When you have established a stable and well-balanced system, send a sample of your seawater to TRITON LAB for analysis.This provides a baseline measurement of macro and trace elements in your seawater prior to any changes due to biological activity and/or external contamination.

By keeping track of the amount of building blocks you add to the system every day and performing regular ICP testing, you are effectively feeling the pulse of a beautiful, living coral reef system.Only the TRITON method gives you such conscious control.When you first set up your system, we recommend performing an ICP test every month.If everything is balanced/stable and there are no obvious sources of contamination, you can extend the testing interval.Remember without testing that you are flying blind.The cost and grief of undetected contamination (replacement of lost livestock, seawater, time and labor) isalways superiorAt the cost of periodic testing.

While Base Elements solutions provide the essential base of macro and trace elements, it is unavoidable in small closed systems that there will be some drift from natural seawater - either due to biological consumption or contamination.The purpose of the TRITON LAB routine test is to warn you BEFORE serious andpotentially expensiveDo not occur.

As soon as your test is complete and verified by TRITON LAB, you will receive an email notifying you that your results are available online.Just log into your account and your results are presented in an easy to understand “traffic light” reporting system.Most problems are caused by element(s) being too low (supplement required) or too high (treatment required).The TRITON reporting system identifies these problems, flags them “in red” and, using an online calculator, automatically tells you which supplement or treatment to use and the exact dose required.

Our support staff can be contacted for further information, as can the wider TRITON METHOD community.Indeed, by using the TRITON METHOD, you contribute to the maintenance of a better reef!Each test contributes to a statistical database that models the biochemical behavior of seawater, which improves the advice we provide to our users.The TRITON method was created tothe gardiansOfreefsBythe reef keepers.You don't need to be a chemist to use it and there is help available if you need it.

A closed system reef tank is like a room full of people with no windows - over time it becomes stuffy and unpleasant due to the build up of gases we don't like!In your saltwater system, you may see signs of a “suffocating chamber” in the condition and behavior of your fish, invertebrates, and plants.It is obvious that something is wrong, but what to do?The traditional solution is to change the seawater which buys some time but the stuffy room syndrome soon returns.The TRITON method is like a breath of fresh air because it allows you to detect and measure contamination before it becomes harmful.

Corrosion of metals from equipment, toxins from paint, and even the foods you feed your animals can add contaminants that accumulate and distort your goal of maintaining "natural seawater."Fortunately, ICP testing can detect when these items are in unnatural proportions and the error correction report will recommend treatment to fix the problem.However, it is important to understand that there can sometimes be side effects from the treatments applied to your reef tank.

For example, when chemical filtration with activated carbon is used to remove dissolved organic carbon (DOC), or to treat copper contamination, it will also clean some of the iodine from your system!Likewise, if your error correction report recommends an aluminum phosphate stripper (DETOX), it will also bind arsenic, barium, and some fluoride.So tracking TRITON LAB tests is important to ensure the balance of elements is maintained in your system.

The TRITON REAGENTS division offers a complete line of reagents to create, supplement and treat seawater.TRITON REAGENT customers benefit not only from our analytical expertise, but also from ICP-driven quality assurance, the same technology that powers our water testing services.TRITON REAGENTS are guaranteed free of impurities and are designed to support the TRITON METHOD, an entirely science-based, easy-to-use workflow.