Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Thanks, truly appreciated.
The power rack is available on eBay or any sound components store (Very affordable too... well compared to aquarium equipment at least).
Juan's IM NUVO 30L Reef Aquarium Build
- Thread starter Juanrmattos
- Start date
Thanks, truly appreciated.
The power rack is available on eBay or any sound components store (Very affordable too... well compared to aquarium equipment at least).
Ranchhand02
New member
Thanks. What brand is yours?
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Day 10 of the Nitrogen Cycle
Still have detectable ammonia (0.02 ppm), but I decided to stick to the program down to the dot...
10% water change, introduced the Aqua Gadget Media baskets (Using Filter Floss only) and also the ZeoVit activated carbon (36 grams inside a mesh bag).
Also introduced the 1st resident... Ladies and Gents, please meet Wilson
The White Stripe Maroon Clown has always been one of my favorite fish; I know they tend to be aggressive as they get bigger in size, but in the mean time the plan is to enjoy of him... Maybe I get lucky like the last time, and this one grows to be chill.
Still dosing 20 Units (0.2 ml) of Zeo Start daily, a drop of ZeoBack twice a week and will be performing 2 gallon water changes every 4th day until water parameters are 100% stable, once they are, will begin to dose the Bi-Ionic Calcium / Alkalinity program and also the Magnesium.
Moving Along!!!....
Still have detectable ammonia (0.02 ppm), but I decided to stick to the program down to the dot...
10% water change, introduced the Aqua Gadget Media baskets (Using Filter Floss only) and also the ZeoVit activated carbon (36 grams inside a mesh bag).
Also introduced the 1st resident... Ladies and Gents, please meet Wilson
The White Stripe Maroon Clown has always been one of my favorite fish; I know they tend to be aggressive as they get bigger in size, but in the mean time the plan is to enjoy of him... Maybe I get lucky like the last time, and this one grows to be chill.
Still dosing 20 Units (0.2 ml) of Zeo Start daily, a drop of ZeoBack twice a week and will be performing 2 gallon water changes every 4th day until water parameters are 100% stable, once they are, will begin to dose the Bi-Ionic Calcium / Alkalinity program and also the Magnesium.
Moving Along!!!....
ssick92
New member
This Zeovit system is making my head spin haha. Just out of curiosity, what drew you to using this system?
And in your opinion what are the pros and cons of using this system vs. a typical reef tank? I'm genuinely interested because I don't know much about it...
Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
And in your opinion what are the pros and cons of using this system vs. a typical reef tank? I'm genuinely interested because I don't know much about it...
Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Thanks a million !!!
The ZeoVit system is basically a low nutrient environment that replicates natural levels; not only is a proven method but the results are undeniable.
The system is fairly easy to manage, even though it requires full commitment when it comes to dosing, understanding your water parameters and paying close attention to your corals behavior... I have used some of these products in the past with excellent results, but this would be my very first time using the full system. The big deal in this particular aquarium has been to figure out the right dosing schedule (The tank has a net water volume of 20.5 gallons and most of the components are based on drop per 25 gallon basis).
Giving it all I have though :rollface:
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Personal lesson of the day:
For those of you interested in using the Aqua Gadget reactor for the Zeolite media, 1. Fill the media in line with the overflow water level (This guarantees the media will always be submerged, even during water changes) and 2. "DO NOT" raise the canister to flush the mulm, you can accomplish this by spinning it instead...
Allowing air into the media is detrimental to the colonizing bacteria residing in it.
On a separate note, Wilson is a bum, he already knows his feeding spot and swims up to the tube every time I come by... Feeding well on Spectrum sinking pellets and frozen Misis/Brine shrimp.
Ah!, will begin to dose ZeoFood tomorrow, the guys at KZ replied confirming the component is not only meant for corals but also for the bacteria... so it seems I've been starving them.
Just ordered a Small Sarcophyton (Good option to anchor Wilson to a spot in the tank), now chasing a Montipora Digidata colony.
For those of you interested in using the Aqua Gadget reactor for the Zeolite media, 1. Fill the media in line with the overflow water level (This guarantees the media will always be submerged, even during water changes) and 2. "DO NOT" raise the canister to flush the mulm, you can accomplish this by spinning it instead...
Allowing air into the media is detrimental to the colonizing bacteria residing in it.
On a separate note, Wilson is a bum, he already knows his feeding spot and swims up to the tube every time I come by... Feeding well on Spectrum sinking pellets and frozen Misis/Brine shrimp.
Ah!, will begin to dose ZeoFood tomorrow, the guys at KZ replied confirming the component is not only meant for corals but also for the bacteria... so it seems I've been starving them.
Just ordered a Small Sarcophyton (Good option to anchor Wilson to a spot in the tank), now chasing a Montipora Digidata colony.
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Day 14th of the ZeoVit Nitrogen Cycle (Final day).
Right when I was about to claim defeat at the end of day 13, the reef came back around overnight and into schedule...
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
PH: 7.9
At: 8 dKH
Salinity: Fluctuating 1.024 / 1.026
Water temp: Fluctuating 76 / 79
I don't want to jinx it, but I never got to see any algae bloom (Pretty sure I will have a nice explosion some day).
Dosing the ZeoVit program as follows:
ZeoLite Media: 7 oz at 40 gph (Spinning the canister every morning).
Zeo Start: 1 unit (0.1 ml) daily.
Zeo Back: 1 drop twice a week.
Zeo Food: 1 drop diluted in 5 ml of reef water and dosing 2.5 ml of the content twice a week (Alternating with Sponge Power).
Sponge Power: 1 drop diluted in 5 ml of reef water and dosing 2.5 ml of the content twice a week (Alternating with Zeo Food).
Started to dose B-Ionic Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium:
Calcium: 5 ml every other day.
Alkalinity: 5 ml every other day.
Magnesium: 15 ml twice a week.
Will begin dosing Strontium on Tuesday.
Dialed in on my permanent light schedule.
Introduced 1st coral...
Won't be dosing Iodine so I hope it sticks...
And so, we are rolling... Thanks to everyone that stuck with this thread, for all the positives and the encouragement... Updates will follow but I will post on bi-weekly basis... For now, This is all there is:
Cheerio!!!
Right when I was about to claim defeat at the end of day 13, the reef came back around overnight and into schedule...
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
PH: 7.9
At: 8 dKH
Salinity: Fluctuating 1.024 / 1.026
Water temp: Fluctuating 76 / 79
I don't want to jinx it, but I never got to see any algae bloom (Pretty sure I will have a nice explosion some day).
Dosing the ZeoVit program as follows:
ZeoLite Media: 7 oz at 40 gph (Spinning the canister every morning).
Zeo Start: 1 unit (0.1 ml) daily.
Zeo Back: 1 drop twice a week.
Zeo Food: 1 drop diluted in 5 ml of reef water and dosing 2.5 ml of the content twice a week (Alternating with Sponge Power).
Sponge Power: 1 drop diluted in 5 ml of reef water and dosing 2.5 ml of the content twice a week (Alternating with Zeo Food).
Started to dose B-Ionic Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium:
Calcium: 5 ml every other day.
Alkalinity: 5 ml every other day.
Magnesium: 15 ml twice a week.
Will begin dosing Strontium on Tuesday.
Dialed in on my permanent light schedule.
Introduced 1st coral...
Won't be dosing Iodine so I hope it sticks...
And so, we are rolling... Thanks to everyone that stuck with this thread, for all the positives and the encouragement... Updates will follow but I will post on bi-weekly basis... For now, This is all there is:
Cheerio!!!
CorbinSawyer
New member
Looks beautiful
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Thanks bud... Im truly enjoying this reef.
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Cesar357
New member
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
A bit of a rough week...
Finally got some patches of Red Algae (Not the hairy kind, but more so like light dots) all over the rock and substrate... I believe due to a full dose of Strontium on a still very unstable system (The nutrient load is so low, I have yet to clean the glass for the very first time). Not sure why, or how, but I had an ammonia spike, so I removed the media floss, the Carbon and stopped dosing the B-Ionic 2 part. Only dosing the ZeoBack and ZeoStart (No ZeoFood or Sponge Power to help the die off process).
This coincided with a hardware malfunction in one of my Radion lights... I saw it going off and back on for 3 seconds a couple times last Thursday, honestly thought it was the cloud effect on the schedule, so I did not pay further attention, but right before lights out on Friday, I saw the buttons blinking Red and the unit just went off.
Finally got a hold of Ecotech this morning, they are sending a brand new replacement unit that should be here on Wednesday (Tomorrow)...
Introduced 12 Turbo Snails, 6 Blue Leg Dwarf crabs and 1 Blue leg crab as a cleaner crew... We also brought home a 2" Yellow tang foreseeing green hairy algae coming out of the Red spots (Wife had to name him Bubbles), we should be able to have him for some time before he over grows the space.
Other than that, will be doing water tests today and maybe a small water change.
Sorry I have no pictures this time around.
Finally got some patches of Red Algae (Not the hairy kind, but more so like light dots) all over the rock and substrate... I believe due to a full dose of Strontium on a still very unstable system (The nutrient load is so low, I have yet to clean the glass for the very first time). Not sure why, or how, but I had an ammonia spike, so I removed the media floss, the Carbon and stopped dosing the B-Ionic 2 part. Only dosing the ZeoBack and ZeoStart (No ZeoFood or Sponge Power to help the die off process).
This coincided with a hardware malfunction in one of my Radion lights... I saw it going off and back on for 3 seconds a couple times last Thursday, honestly thought it was the cloud effect on the schedule, so I did not pay further attention, but right before lights out on Friday, I saw the buttons blinking Red and the unit just went off.
Finally got a hold of Ecotech this morning, they are sending a brand new replacement unit that should be here on Wednesday (Tomorrow)...
Introduced 12 Turbo Snails, 6 Blue Leg Dwarf crabs and 1 Blue leg crab as a cleaner crew... We also brought home a 2" Yellow tang foreseeing green hairy algae coming out of the Red spots (Wife had to name him Bubbles), we should be able to have him for some time before he over grows the space.
Other than that, will be doing water tests today and maybe a small water change.
Sorry I have no pictures this time around.
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
UPDATE:
Received the replacement XR15w G4Pro fixture yesterday, very relieved to have the whole tank illuminated again.
The cleaning crew has been doing a pretty good work, the rock is nearly free of any spots and the substrate has greatly improved...
Now, after hours and hours of research and dosing experimentation, I've come to the conclusion that the Ammonia spikes are being generated by the Salt Mix and constant water changes of 3 gallons every 5 days (According to the reviews from KZ and RedSea, it does not mean is a bad batch of salt, but more so precipitation of crystals and concentrated element content... Or so they say). To come to this conclusion, I've have discontinued one by one each of the elements in the dosing schedule (Suspended the ZeoLite / ZeoStart for 48 hours with no major change; Skipped a dose of ZeoBack and ZeoFood with no significant change; I went through the extent cleaning the Media baskets, the Skimmer body and even the floss with RO boiled water (Killing a lot of beneficial bacteria in the process)... Further more, I have tested the RO/DI before mixing to make sure the water was ok, tested the ROD/DI water after a few hours of being stored on the mixing container to make sure the container was ok, tested again after a couple hours of introducing the mixing pump to make sure it was not the pump and all came back ammonia free.
My question now, is if I should keep dosing the two part Alk and Ca, and how would the Ammonia presence affect the process (My PH levels are decent, but Alk is very low, which is not helping with the algae eradication either).
Help?
Received the replacement XR15w G4Pro fixture yesterday, very relieved to have the whole tank illuminated again.
The cleaning crew has been doing a pretty good work, the rock is nearly free of any spots and the substrate has greatly improved...
Now, after hours and hours of research and dosing experimentation, I've come to the conclusion that the Ammonia spikes are being generated by the Salt Mix and constant water changes of 3 gallons every 5 days (According to the reviews from KZ and RedSea, it does not mean is a bad batch of salt, but more so precipitation of crystals and concentrated element content... Or so they say). To come to this conclusion, I've have discontinued one by one each of the elements in the dosing schedule (Suspended the ZeoLite / ZeoStart for 48 hours with no major change; Skipped a dose of ZeoBack and ZeoFood with no significant change; I went through the extent cleaning the Media baskets, the Skimmer body and even the floss with RO boiled water (Killing a lot of beneficial bacteria in the process)... Further more, I have tested the RO/DI before mixing to make sure the water was ok, tested the ROD/DI water after a few hours of being stored on the mixing container to make sure the container was ok, tested again after a couple hours of introducing the mixing pump to make sure it was not the pump and all came back ammonia free.
My question now, is if I should keep dosing the two part Alk and Ca, and how would the Ammonia presence affect the process (My PH levels are decent, but Alk is very low, which is not helping with the algae eradication either).
Help?
shelleyBoston
Member
Can I ask where did you get those LED lights? I need a similar set for my stand.
Thanks
Thanks
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
They are Ecotech Radion XR15w Pro lights mounted on Ecotech RMS brackets; they are available from most online resellers (BulkReef Supply, Marine Depot, Smith & Foster etc etc)... They are expensive, but worth every cent.
shelleyBoston
Member
Oh sorry I meant the LED lights on your stand, the 3 lights with the remote control.
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Duh!!!... Sorry, I figured that after I had submitted the reply...
I found those on eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/141892741133
Juanrmattos
Premium Member
Day 30th update
It seems to be reaching a stable water balance... Not there yet, but close, so I have restrained myself from adding any corals until stability becomes solid (The Toad Stool "guinea pig coral" has good days and extends decently on others, it may be lacking the Strontium and the Iodine though)
The Red algae dots in the rock are fully gone, very light patches in the substrate that seem to intensify during the day (Because of this, I have lowered the light intensity from 65% to 50% and the daylight duration to 9 hours instead of 10)... This should help the soft coral too.
The ammonia level has lowered, the test isn't showing the desired Yellow shade to consider a zero reading, but is not Green enough to reach the 0.02 ppm either
Nitrite: 0.05 (I think because the ZeoLite needed replacing).
Nitrate: 0
PH: 8.2
Alkalinity: 7 (The goal is 10)
Calcium: 450
Dosing:
Just replaced the ZeoLite media for the very first time, went up to 8.5 oz (Need to educate myself: "DO NOT lift the canister when flushing the media").
ZeoStart: 2 units (0.2 ml) every day.
ZeoBack: 1 drop twice a week.
Zeo Food: 1 drop twice a week (Same day of ZeoBack).
Sponge Power: 1 drop every other day (Except on ZeoBack / ZeoFood Days)
B-Ionic Alkalinity: 10ml every other day until I reach 10 dKH
B-Ionic Calcium: 5 ml same days as Alkalinity.
Not dosing Magnesium or Strontium (Since there is no coral load seems to increase Algae bloom).
After doing some extensive research, I've decided to begin dosing Vibrant Aquarium Cleaner , it should help greatly with the bloom on the sand; I'm hoping to avoid having to syphon the substrate by all necessary means.
Other:
Here is a good one: One of the snails loves to crawl on top of the Blue Hermit Crab (The wife named the crab Megan), I know is always the same guy, because he has two tiny feather dusters in its shell; but that is not it... Bubbles (The Yellow tang), keeps leaning on its side "like playing dead", next to Megan, at the beginning I thought he was trying to nip at her legs, but he is not, what he does is to wait for her to come over on top for a few seconds and then swims away, he keeps doing this for hours at a time... The issue is that as of this morning, he is missing a little piece of his fin and another little bit of his tail. We've been feeding Megan shrimp every other day, she also likes to chase the very few food pellets that make it all the way to the bottom, so I don't think is a feeding thing. For now, the plan is to take Bubbles back to the fish store after the next water change
As the days go by, I'm becoming more positive on the idea of a second MP10... Space inside the cabinet is tight as it is, but I'm certain better flow could be useful on the right side very soon.
That would be all for now...
It seems to be reaching a stable water balance... Not there yet, but close, so I have restrained myself from adding any corals until stability becomes solid (The Toad Stool "guinea pig coral" has good days and extends decently on others, it may be lacking the Strontium and the Iodine though)
The Red algae dots in the rock are fully gone, very light patches in the substrate that seem to intensify during the day (Because of this, I have lowered the light intensity from 65% to 50% and the daylight duration to 9 hours instead of 10)... This should help the soft coral too.
The ammonia level has lowered, the test isn't showing the desired Yellow shade to consider a zero reading, but is not Green enough to reach the 0.02 ppm either
Nitrite: 0.05 (I think because the ZeoLite needed replacing).
Nitrate: 0
PH: 8.2
Alkalinity: 7 (The goal is 10)
Calcium: 450
Dosing:
Just replaced the ZeoLite media for the very first time, went up to 8.5 oz (Need to educate myself: "DO NOT lift the canister when flushing the media").
ZeoStart: 2 units (0.2 ml) every day.
ZeoBack: 1 drop twice a week.
Zeo Food: 1 drop twice a week (Same day of ZeoBack).
Sponge Power: 1 drop every other day (Except on ZeoBack / ZeoFood Days)
B-Ionic Alkalinity: 10ml every other day until I reach 10 dKH
B-Ionic Calcium: 5 ml same days as Alkalinity.
Not dosing Magnesium or Strontium (Since there is no coral load seems to increase Algae bloom).
After doing some extensive research, I've decided to begin dosing Vibrant Aquarium Cleaner , it should help greatly with the bloom on the sand; I'm hoping to avoid having to syphon the substrate by all necessary means.
Other:
Here is a good one: One of the snails loves to crawl on top of the Blue Hermit Crab (The wife named the crab Megan), I know is always the same guy, because he has two tiny feather dusters in its shell; but that is not it... Bubbles (The Yellow tang), keeps leaning on its side "like playing dead", next to Megan, at the beginning I thought he was trying to nip at her legs, but he is not, what he does is to wait for her to come over on top for a few seconds and then swims away, he keeps doing this for hours at a time... The issue is that as of this morning, he is missing a little piece of his fin and another little bit of his tail. We've been feeding Megan shrimp every other day, she also likes to chase the very few food pellets that make it all the way to the bottom, so I don't think is a feeding thing. For now, the plan is to take Bubbles back to the fish store after the next water change
As the days go by, I'm becoming more positive on the idea of a second MP10... Space inside the cabinet is tight as it is, but I'm certain better flow could be useful on the right side very soon.
That would be all for now...
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