My 1st month into Zeo

[Husky_1]

Ok guys, so I have finally reached my first month in Zeovit, so I figured I would share my experience and some pictures.

First off let me give my impressions. Since I have started, I have seen colors enhanced. This really started before I went into full blown Zeovit, as I had leveled my Alk and Calc down to NSW, brought Potassium up to 380, and started dosing Coral Vitalizer. Now I will warn you that my colors changes have not been all that shocking. I attribute this to a couple of things, 1st I did not have "brown" corals, second I still have P04 and Nitrate in the system as is evident by the existence of the Hair algae.

Growth, even though the pictures do not show it well, I have really seen more growth in the past month then I have in any single month previous. The past couple weeks have been good to some corals that I did not have any growth.

Water quality is definitely up, the Saliferts P04 (I need a Hanna!!) showed 0, which is a small improvement over trace amounts in the past. Nitrate is 0, but the most I ever had register was .3. Water clarity is much better.

Hair Algae, unfortunately does not seem to be overly affected as of yet. It does seem to have slowed down, but itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s not in recession. However it should be noted that I now feed 1x per day, as opposed to feeding once every 3 days, I no longer have a Phosban reactor, I no longer have UV, and I did have a Kole tang die without finding a stitch of remains. He refused to eat anything prepared and as the film algae started disappearing so did he...

Please excuse the pictures, I have not been using my camera much and these were snapped in a hurry. I think the colors are not well represented, but I hope to give some idea. The first pictures in each set was taken on 6/10 the others were taken on 7/9.

FTS:

Lokani, not much growth, here but in the past week or so, I have seen encrusting much better and growth tips coming from the bottom.

Blue Green Tort: This coral has had some nice growth, the pictures donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t capture it well, but I am very happy.

Blue Mille is coming along nicely, the color has not changed much, and the pictures I took were for growth:

 

[Husky_1]

This coral is doing well; itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s very finicky on the coloring and some dayââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s looks really nice, others not so great:

Not much movement on this guy, but donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t let the closeness of the picture make you think it got smaller

This coral is doing well; itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s very finicky on the coloring and some dayââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s looks really nice, others not so great:

Green slimmer, I cannot seem to get this coral to grow that fast, I did take a small piece off and put it on the bottom, the small frags seems to grow faster lower in the tank.

Orange Digi: This is the one coral that actually looks worse...Once again, I have a small piece on the bottom of my tank that looks much better than the main colony so I think it may have too much light now with the clearer water

 

[Husky_1]

Oregon, not a whole lot of change here, the colors is a bit better.

Rose Mille: This guys is just starting to get some growth, it did not like its original position so was just moved in the first pic.

Sunset Monti: I did not notice growth until I looked at the pictures.

Blue Tenius: This guy became unglued from its frag plug, so now it is chilln' on the bottom until he encrusts some.

Thanks for looking...

 

[sailfintang]

Looking good Husky, cant wait to see some more improvement from your zeo. I am still awaiting color changes in my tank, but still have a po4 leeching issue as well as some nitrates. Once that is resolved i nthe next few months i think i wil start to see great colors. Looking forward to more posts.

 

[ReefWreak]

Looks good Dale! I've always considered Zeo, but I'm not around enough to keep the tank dosed up since daily dosing is required. I'm thinking about trying vodka dripping since that doesn't really need much more than the initial setup. The tank is looking great though.

How long have you had most of those corals? I tend not to see growth for a few months or so after adding a new coral.

Also could you post other tank equipment on here so everyone can get a good idea of what else you've got going on?

Looks good, and maybe I'll get to see it in person one day!

 

[Husky_1]

Hey Eric, I can see where Zeo would be tough when you are away from school. You should consider the Vodka drip over the summer that way you can monitor it for a bit.

As for the corals, the last corals I put in the tank I did in the middle of February (Sunset, Tenius, Oregon tort, lokani, slimmer). I know some of them would prefer different locations, but I figured I would allow them to get use to the tank, then when I decided Zeo in April, I figured might as well let them stay put until everything is a little more mature. I agree though that most take a few months to really take off. The blue green tort took at least 3 months, if not longer. The Green Acro only really started growing fast since maybe February, and that thing was brought over from my old tank.

As for Equipment:
Lighting: 1x250 Phoenix 14k DE MH, on an IceCap ballast, and Lumenarc stealth mini. 2x24w t5 Actinic (Blue), 1x39w t5 UVL 75/25.

Sump: Custom 20g, with overflow/skimmer chamber, old refug section, and baffles/return. Return pump is an Ocean runner 2500

Filtration: Tunze 9010/9015 skimmer (I have both cups), DIY Zeo Reactor, filter sock on the overflow.

Flow: CL pushed by OR 6500 with penductors on 2 outlets. 1 MJ mod pointing straight down in back. Of course the return as well.

Dosing: Zeo is dosed manually, Alk/Calc is 2 part dosed by an innovative aquatics dosing pump that is on the same time schedule as my Zeo reactor. I use a 5g ATO that I put a small amount of Mrs Wage in, mostly to keep the PH in the ATO high.

Current param: SG 1.026 (I use NSW), MG a little high at 1420, Alk 120ppm (6.7 dkh) shooting for 125. Calc 420

My Current Zeo Dosing:
.3 ml of Start2 2xday
3 drops of Bac and 1 drop of (2x per week when, except after zeolith change out, then every other day)
.8L of Zeoliths, 60gph, 3 hours on 3 hours off
2 drops of Coral Vitalizer every day.

You are welcome to come over when ever you want, I am always open to critique, suggestion, or just shooting the breeze.

 

[volcom69]

I really wouldnt worry about the ph at this point just make sure you keep your alk and cal consistant at this stage. Its starting to look good in the next month or two your po4 and no3 should start to drop. Good job keep us posted.

 

[Saldarya]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the product. I have been on Zeo for 3 months now, here is a before and after to give you something to look forward to....

Before Zeo

3 months in....

G'Luck and hang in there, it is all about patience

 

[mbierzyc]

Good thread, and I hope you keep it updated.

You've had some serious growth on that blue mille.



You didn't post your parameters, is everything pretty stable? From what I know of zeo, you're in the phase where you're trying to lower your nutrients. Later in the system you'll supplement in order to really make the colors pop. Good luck, it's a fun time.

 

[Husky_1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12922908#post12922908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mbierzyc




You didn't post your parameters, is everything pretty stable? From what I know of zeo, you're in the phase where you're trying to lower your nutrients.

I snuck it in another post , everything has been stable for the past couple of months, I did notice a slight alk drop when I initially started Zeo, but corrected for it and now everything seems to be good.

Current param: SG 1.026 (I use NSW), MG a little high at 1420, Alk 120ppm (6.7 dkh) shooting for 125. Calc 420

 

[ReefWreak]

Lookin good. I'll be watching the thread, and one of these days I'll give you a call to check out the tank

 

[dobly_1999]

Please show us your sump setup. Did you purchase the zeo reactor or diy?

 

[Husky_1]

Hi Dobly, I made my own DIY reactor. All in all it cost about $25 to make, but I had some spare stuff around. I have a thread on the Zeo forums in the reactor section if you care to take a look. I did have the 2 tube slide type, but because of my water level and small space constraints, I had zeoliths exposed when the pump is off. I ended up changing taking out the middle tube and just putting a plunger in, old school style of one tube and a little bit of jamming, but all in all, its not too hard to use and beats spending $300+.

I will have to take some current pictures of the sump, I will post when I have them.

 

[Husky_1]

It was suggested that I use some Coral Snow to help speed up the process of getting rid of the hair algae. I ordered it this week and will does 2ml/day for 2 weeks, My first dose was last night.

I also added some more flow, for a total of ~6000gph. Of course after adding the 2100gph, I was worried how everything would respond, but this morning I checked PE, and everything had good PE so I do not think I am blasting any coral too much.

 

[ReefWreak]

Whaaa? Who told you that "Coral Snow" (presumably a coral food supplement) would help a GHA problem?!?!? If it is nutrient supplementation, the only thing I could see it doing is increasing your biological load, making the GHA worse. The only thing that I would add to a tank was vodka to get rid of GHA (yes, I'm big on the vodka theory now )

What did you add for flow? MJ mod?

 

[Saldarya]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12967692#post12967692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
Whaaa? Who told you that "Coral Snow" (presumably a coral food supplement) would help a GHA problem?!?!? If it is nutrient supplementation, the only thing I could see it doing is increasing your biological load, making the GHA worse. The only thing that I would add to a tank was vodka to get rid of GHA (yes, I'm big on the vodka theory now )

What did you add for flow? MJ mod?

Please be careful as to what you may presume. Coral snow is not a coral food nor does it add any nutrients to the tank.

husky, the CS may certainly help, but remember, patience is a virue and a must for Zeo. Have you measured your Phos/trates recently and have you noticed a downward trend since you began?

 

[ReefWreak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12970064#post12970064 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Saldarya
Please be careful as to what you may presume. Coral snow is not a coral food nor does it add any nutrients to the tank.

husky, the CS may certainly help, but remember, patience is a virue and a must for Zeo. Have you measured your Phos/trates recently and have you noticed a downward trend since you began?

Well Mr. Smarteypants, what is coral snow then?

 

[Saldarya]

I am not trying to be smart here or antagonistic, I am sorry you felt that way. in your post you said that you presumed that it was a coral food, I simply corrected you.

It is a shame that you felt the need to respond in such a way as to call me 'Mr. Smarteypants. Kind of silly....

In essence, Coral snow is a chemical/mineral based facilitator to help other products be utilized more efficently to coral.

If you are truly interested, I would suggest you drop by the Zeovit forum and review the Zeo guide. There are descriptions of each of the supplements.

Take care

 

[Amphiprion]

Looks like a fancy liquid version of "aragamight" (or similar products) to me. While I can see the results of the rest of the zeovit system, I am curious as to how this coral snow decreases algae and if it is actually utilized (or does much of anything). Can anyone clear this up or have any info if the supplement is different from what I described? Honestly, I am just going by the description on the KZ website.

 

[nikoli]

Its a little potion that adds mag and calcium as well as aiding the removal of docs from your tank - helps corals take up food in the form of whatever's dosed and also binds others for easier removal by your skimmer - a side effect is pristine clarity.
Matty