Moser
Active member
The fundamentals of the system are to starve out nutrients, so it will starve algae. No tank will be 100% nutrient free though.
You then feed according to the needs of your specific corals, so which supplement you use depends on the effect you desire and the types of coral you have.
If your actual nutrient levels are higher than you think, then your supplements will feed algae and also may feed cyano, so they won't have the desired effect. This is why so any people fail with it.
You really need to get the nutrient control sorted first. Either by using the basic four, or other methods of your choice. Once you have truly low nutrients and decent lighting ( which also is a major source of energy for corals, don't forget!), you can start feeding your corals manually, to top up their requirements.
Top up feeding can be with fish poop, which is what most use, or if you need more, supplements, this can be cyclops, reef pearl, oyster eggs etc. or other coral food like Coral vitaliser or amino,acids.
If you overdo any of those, your corals will not take up any more, but your algae will!. When your algae can't deal with the excesses, cyano can!....
Some of the kz bottles contain mixtures of things and are good all rounders. Eg Pohl's Xtra contains Amino acids, along with some trace elements. It's a good product to choose if you want to limit the number of products, but if your corals are not starving, it may feed algae. It does add a metallic texture to your coral colour, which I haven't seen any of the other products provide, but if you have dark colours to start with, then adding this may darken them further. Similarly, if you have nice non- zeo colours already, then using this may not provide much benefit- you may or may not notice that nice metallic hue!.
Once you have low nutrients, no nuisance algae and decent colours with HEALTHY corals, you can explore coral pigmentation and subtle hue changes with other kz products. If you try these products without the pre-requisite coral health, your corals will suffer!.
Items such as B balance and Spur2 should be thought of as stripping a layer back.... Or 2 for Spur2 !. If your corals are not pristine, then stripping a layer off may kill them!. If they are, then either of these two will lighten and brighten your corals.
If you don't follow the rules, your corals will suffer. If you use any product and don't notice a difference, think why it could be....don't assume the supplement is at fault, rather its indication.
If you nutrients are higher tan you think, the colour sups have no way of working as your coral already have too many zooxanthellae to mask the colours.
In response to the op, you have decent colours already and your corals dont look starved to me. I'm not sure that Pohl's Xtra will help you. It might make your corals darker!.
IF your corals are all very healthy, then B balance at very low dose to start may be something to consider, but please note, it can be very harsh on sick corals, so use it at your own risk, I have seen some fantastic results with Spur2. Please look up Jan Willem's zeo tank video after dosing Spur2. It's the bet example I have ever seen.
It sounds like Bugger may have been one of the unfortunates, who had a bad run with Zeo..... His posts indicate all of the frustrations failed users have with Zeo products. But universally, it's because they took a shortcut, or didn't follow the rules. It's usually that nutrients are higher or lower than the user thinks....getting the first bit right is critical to success
Mo
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I can post it if you want to look at it.
