M Woodhill
New member
Without a reactor, it's quite easy to get a bad cyano outbreak.
Carbon dosers: Do you also dose bacteria?
- Thread starter xenon
- Start date
Without a reactor, it's quite easy to get a bad cyano outbreak.
cugly
Dansreeftank
Start with zeobac and zeostart3 instead of vinegar..once you achieve ulns then you can try xtra and food see what the reactions are with supplements.. start lower than instructed on the bottle they're potent good luck I know it works I've done it and its same way Cornell does it you just need to figure out what works for your system..
M Woodhill
New member
totally agree. you gotta start slowly and can ask for more helpful info at zeovit forum where there are the zeoheads
basically if you see signs of algae/cyano/problems, you should stop/won't necessarily start dosin supplements. once you start dose em, start with half recommended dosage
i replaced zs3 with pellets and 2, had a good result. i, 2, tried run zeo without a reactor--mine broke down--and the tank ended up with a horrible cyano outbreak
Allmost
New member
you can dose Zeobak and zeostart3.
it would work better, if you put some Zeolith in sump as well, dont need a reactor or to change the stones.
remember, bacteria can take up more C, instead of P, if the ratio is skewed ... meaning if you dose too much C [start3] then the bacteria in system will take that up, and not take up as much po4. hence why a balance is needed to be reached.
potent products, so start lower, and play around with it, change dosing every 2 weeks, and take notes on the changes.
it would work better, if you put some Zeolith in sump as well, dont need a reactor or to change the stones.
remember, bacteria can take up more C, instead of P, if the ratio is skewed ... meaning if you dose too much C [start3] then the bacteria in system will take that up, and not take up as much po4. hence why a balance is needed to be reached.
potent products, so start lower, and play around with it, change dosing every 2 weeks, and take notes on the changes.
Allmost
New member
"work" is too general of a term.
each carbon source, would favour growth of a specific strain of bacteria.
each strain of bacteria , will have its own unique nutrient uptake.
so as result, different carbon sources, can and will feed different bacteria, and will have different results.
Zeostart3 is a mix of multiple carbon sources, meant to feed the different strains of bacteria in Zeobak.
so dosing Vinegar, or running biopellets would not deliver all the different C sources, which will result in favouring growth of population of a specific strain, which can result in mono culture of bacteria, and also the system not working as "Efficient"
HTH,
Allmost
New member
just be careful with it, and increase your observations.
FYI. I dose less than 50 CC in my 200G SPS system ... [zeostart3]
choose the starting point, lower than the recommendations. then cut that in half and dose half in morning and half at night. it has much better effects. observe, and adjust dosing in a week or two.
if you test po4, you can use it to adjust dosing. "you want to dose as much zeostart3 as possible, without change to po4" [if you notice po4 rising, you may be dosing too much, or too little !]
or use your corals growth and coloring as the reference.
Allmost
New member
no just dont renew it. leave it running. [the GFO]
after a month or two of Zeo, when u know the bacteria are doing something [maybe changes to no3 or coloration of corals] then remove it fully.
Run GAC, but make sure its not too potent, if it is run less. [ROX is an example of potent GAC that can was out color on corals. GAC is good in bacterioplankton systems as they leave alot of yellowing in water ]
after a month or two of Zeo, when u know the bacteria are doing something [maybe changes to no3 or coloration of corals] then remove it fully.
Run GAC, but make sure its not too potent, if it is run less. [ROX is an example of potent GAC that can was out color on corals. GAC is good in bacterioplankton systems as they leave alot of yellowing in water ]
BrentH
New member
Just tested water alk 156 po4 0.09 no3 20 I need to do something here thanks again should get the zeobak today and zeo start be here tomorow I'll dose half rec dose to start and keep u posted if that's ok .....did the op really start dosing zeobak? I personally am the kind of hobbiest that I think can do zeo I've had aqauriums for over. 20years and don't get bored or sick of it and I like high main keeps me busy
Allmost
New member
yea if u have time and patience, it will work well for you.
if u like post the system volume and net water volume, I could help u with the initial dosage. also check out the zeovit site, Alexander G there is one of the most knowledgable reefers when it comes to bacterioplankton system and zeo.
if u like post the system volume and net water volume, I could help u with the initial dosage. also check out the zeovit site, Alexander G there is one of the most knowledgable reefers when it comes to bacterioplankton system and zeo.
Av8bluewater
New member
I use Prodibio digest with a small amount of biopellets. About 100ml pellets.
I was using biotim and the plan is to use the pellets in place of the biotim because it gets pricey. I am still using HC GFO which I'm about to start reducing and hope to stop using.
For now NO3 is zero and PO4 is zero on hanna. I was struggling to keep PO4 under .03 before the pellets. I would have to add biotim about every 3 days and have my GFO reactor with about 1.5 cups. I only have 9 fish.. mostly small and feed 2-3 small feeds a day.
I will probably continue adding Prodibio digest about every two weeks. If you catch it on sale Marine Depot has it for half price a few times per year so it's only about a dollar per vial that way.
Not sure if really necessary but I like the prodibio so much I'll probably just keep using it.
I was using biotim and the plan is to use the pellets in place of the biotim because it gets pricey. I am still using HC GFO which I'm about to start reducing and hope to stop using.
For now NO3 is zero and PO4 is zero on hanna. I was struggling to keep PO4 under .03 before the pellets. I would have to add biotim about every 3 days and have my GFO reactor with about 1.5 cups. I only have 9 fish.. mostly small and feed 2-3 small feeds a day.
I will probably continue adding Prodibio digest about every two weeks. If you catch it on sale Marine Depot has it for half price a few times per year so it's only about a dollar per vial that way.
Not sure if really necessary but I like the prodibio so much I'll probably just keep using it.
M Woodhill
New member
full zeo needs tons of labor so you really gotta look twice or three times before taking the leap ;-)
IMO it's better to shut down GFO and start runnin GAC. it's recommended runnin it passively in a sock or mesh bag but for me running actively results better. the recommended dosage and duration is based on the passive mode so if you run carbon actively, cut half of both the dosage and duration.
It's very important to use MILD carbons. Not a must to use zeo carbon though most of zeo guys use it and have a good result. IMO BRS carbon is too strong
if you think phosphate level is really high, put the reactor, as instructed by the manual, on a timer and keep an on/off cycle of every 3 hours.
well, your last resort is the zeovit forum. there're some great zeoheads who are always ready to help. below comes my conversion:
my berlin system+GAC+GFO ended up in a horrible dino outbreak: the dino's died out in the picture after 21 days treatment with fauna algae x
then it flourished. 3 weeks or so after the conversion--no more algae
I only tried nonzeo once and it failed :-(
the present one started with zeo and it's ever since been working very fine:
corals are happy and grow except few bleached due to alk swing and aefw. it was my bad for i was goin through an on/off relationship and didnt take care of it for like 3 months. it's now basically 6 months old
will update some pictures this weekend :bounce3: now the only problem is coraline algae got loose
