Zeovit - System

[Rwpdunne]

Hi Mike, The target phosphate level is .02-.03. The tricky part is balancing your feeding with your zeo... but once you do... magic happens!

Hi James what other zeovit products do you use apart from bak start and food

Robbie

 

[Jstn]

Ok, I would reduce the amount of media in the reactor to 100ml until your tank stabilizes. Getting some phosphate and nitrate into your water column may not be a bad idea. Wait until your corals are healthy again, then slowly venture back into zeo. Also, I have trouble keeping LPS growing when I get down to my target params of .2 trate and .03 phate. You may want to consider keeping a slightly higher nutrient load.

Warmest Regards,
James

Thanks James,

I keep changing GFO and my PO4 stay around .3-.4 ppm, any other suggestions?

I also have no algae other whats on my glass and no cyano amazingly.

 

[CUNAReefer]

Hi James what other zeovit products do you use apart from bak start and food

Robbie

Hi Robbie,

I do not use zeofood right now. The only food for my tank is Oyster Feast. I feed just enough oyster feast to keep my tank within its target params. Right now I have 900ml of the zeo media in my tank since I restarted my zeo 2 weeks ago. With 3 tsp. of the oyster feast every other night, I am able to keep phosphate around .05 or lower. Because I have a dense SPS population, I like to feed my tank quite a bit. Since I want a lower nutrient level, I increased my media to 900ml of zeo media. I'm playing withsome dry food right now for when my nutrients begin to fall below .02.

Hope this helps!
James

 

[CUNAReefer]

Thanks James,

I keep changing GFO and my PO4 stay around .3-.4 ppm, any other suggestions?

I also have no algae other whats on my glass and no cyano amazingly.

Hi Jstn,

Right now you have 100ml of media in your reactor. Can you increase your flow to ~280lph (75gph through your reactor). Your zeostart3 dosage should be .4ml broken up between morning and night. In two days I want you to add another 100ml of media and keep your flow the same. Also, lets perform a 20% water change today to bring down your phosphate. You should investigate to find the source of phosphate in your tank. You can take your GFO offline. The ZEO approach is more than able to handle you nutrients.

Please test your water a couple hours after your water change. Test you water 24 hours after that. and again 24 hours after that. This should bring you right up to the point that I recommend to add another 100ml of media. Continue to test and monitor. Please report back with your results.

Warmest Regards,
James

 

[CUNAReefer]

PO4 are coming up a little, which is good, but I want to make sure I don't over shoot my range.

Measured today and I'm at .021 ppm. On the 10th I was at .012.

Alk continues to be high (8.6). I will do a large water change next week (30g) to help get it lower. Other parameters are as follows:

Alk: 8.6
CA: 410 ppm
Mg: 1350
K: ~400

My current dosing is 8 drops of zeobac (2-3x / week), along with 10 mL of diluted zeostart (1.6 mL daily). RX has 2L of zeolites with a flow of about 80 gph.

I have sponge power and bio-mate that I would like to begin using. My thoughts on those are as follows:

Biomate: 8 drops (2-3/week) with zeobac?
Sponge power: 8 drops daily

Thanks.

Hi Chris,

If your phosphate is .02, your right in that perfect zone. You can use the bio-mate and sponge power. Can you tell me what you want to use them for? The highest I want you to keep your phosphate at is .03. How are the corals looking. Have you been feeding Oyster Feast at all?

Warmest Regards,
James

 

[karsseboom]

Oster feast is my absolute favorite food for Sps. I have noticed a major improvement in polyp extension and overall health.

 

[Jstn]

Hi Jstn,

Right now you have 100ml of media in your reactor. Can you increase your flow to ~280lph (75gph through your reactor). Your zeostart3 dosage should be .4ml broken up between morning and night. In two days I want you to add another 100ml of media and keep your flow the same. Also, lets perform a 20% water change today to bring down your phosphate. You should investigate to find the source of phosphate in your tank. You can take your GFO offline. The ZEO approach is more than able to handle you nutrients.

Please test your water a couple hours after your water change. Test you water 24 hours after that. and again 24 hours after that. This should bring you right up to the point that I recommend to add another 100ml of media. Continue to test and monitor. Please report back with your results.

Warmest Regards,
James

Thanks, I am curious how less media is going to help the PO4, its seems GFO is stabilizing it at 0.3 ppm, (not 0.03ppm). I am just trying to understand what is happening here, I appreciate the help!

Justin

 

[CUNAReefer]

Thanks, I am curious how less media is going to help the PO4, its seems GFO is stabilizing it at 0.3 ppm, (not 0.03ppm). I am just trying to understand what is happening here, I appreciate the help!

Justin

Hi Justin,

That's an excellent question.

When we first started, your LPS was shriveled and you were very aggressive with the zeo. Your phosphate was at .46. When zeo is used over aggressively, it removes other elements from the water other than ammonium, potassium, etc. This aggressive use of zeo causes your corals to become weaker in a sense. This is why a series of large water changes can often help. The water changes replace what has been removed by the media. Another way to help relieve coral stress due to the over usage of zeo, is to remove media from your reactor.

Once your corals start to recover from the lesser amount of media, you can slowly increase the amount of zeo media, start3, reactor flow, etc. The beautiful thing about zeo, is it is strong enough to handle nitrate/phosphate reduction without any other chemical means of filtration.

"We also recommend against use of phosphate absorbers, no matter if iron or aluminum based, when using this system. The system by itself is able to lower and maintain low levels of PO4 very effectively."

If you feel the need to use the GFO until you get to a lower phosphate level, do. You can eventually remove the GFO though. You may see an increase in phosphate, but this is all part of finding out what level of media/dosing works for your tank... and to slowly and safely find that level.

Keep those questions coming.

And to touch on what karsseboom said... Oyster Feast is awesome! Its my favorite food and can be used in place of some of the other zeo additives.

James

 

[Jstn]

Oh ok, I never though about the other things it removes from the column. Fair enough, my only concern is how high is too high for phosphates. I dont want to kill my sps, they are kind of brown but still decent PE and hanging on, I wonder what elements I am lacking now (Sr, I2 ect.)

 

[CUNAReefer]

Oh ok, I never though about the other things it removes from the column. Fair enough, my only concern is how high is too high for phosphates. I dont want to kill my sps, they are kind of brown but still decent PE and hanging on, I wonder what elements I am lacking now (Sr, I2 ect.)

A good ol fashion water change is all you need to help replace any elements that are removed. The best advice I can give you is to find what contributes the most to you phosphates, and minimize/remove it. This will be the biggest help when it comes to maintaining low phosphate.

 

[RxMike]

Zeovite

Zeovite

Hello
A fellow reefer told me he tried oyster feast and he does not like it because it raises phosphates like mad. In his opinion, that is. I guess all things have a postive and a negative. It is how we use the supplements that matters most.

Dosing the correct amount to feed your sps while not overfeeding is the key.

I want to try oyster feast. Does anyone know where i can get it online?

 

[Jstn]

A good ol fashion water change is all you need to help replace any elements that are removed. The best advice I can give you is to find what contributes the most to you phosphates, and minimize/remove it. This will be the biggest help when it comes to maintaining low phosphate.

I think its my rocks, I rebooted by bleaching them followed by a acid bath. The rocks sat in RODI for 7 days (changed daily) to remove PO4, they all tested zero but my test packets were bad.

 

[CUNAReefer]

I think its my rocks, I rebooted by bleaching them followed by a acid bath. The rocks sat in RODI for 7 days (changed daily) to remove PO4, they all tested zero but my test packets were bad.

Hi Justin,

You could be right. I had to deal with bad rock once. I was not able to get my phosphate down until I removed ALL of the rock and sand from my system. My rock and sand had constant outbreaks of cyno. My phosphate would fluctuate on a daily basis... That was the event that made my tank what it is today... almost completely free of sand and rock. The 1 piece of rock I have was added later, after all of the bad rock was removed. I have enough sand in a Tupperware container for my wrasse to sleep in. Other than that, there is no rock or sand in my tank. Keeping my tank clean is extremely easy now. All of my biologic filtration is done with the use of the Zeovit System.

Warmest Regards,
James

 

[CUNAReefer]

Hello
A fellow reefer told me he tried oyster feast and he does not like it because it raises phosphates like mad. In his opinion, that is. I guess all things have a postive and a negative. It is how we use the supplements that matters most.

Dosing the correct amount to feed your sps while not overfeeding is the key.

I want to try oyster feast. Does anyone know where i can get it online?

Hey Mike,

If a bottle of Oyster Feast is ever left out of the fridge, the food will go bad and will do nothing but raise phosphate. I've thrown $40 bottles of new food out because I left the food out for a couple hours. If the food is always refrigerated, its one of the greatest foods available for SPS. I'm testing some other foods for the community, but as of this message... I think its the best food for SPS. As you mentioned, the key to feeding your tank is to max out your feeding while still maintaining low nutrients. That's where the constant testing and the slow introduction of zeo really works. You find that perfect balance for your tank. Today, I have only 900ml of media in my reactor and my corals are looking GREAT!!!

Warmest Regards,
James

 

[Patrick Cox]

Good Zeo...
Bad Zeo...

I guess I can also say bad camera good camera

Hi,
I appreciate your contributions to this thread. Very helpful. I do have a question on these photo examples. What tank parameters are different in the "Good" and "Bad" photo examples?

Thanks!

 

[CUNAReefer]

Hi,
I appreciate your contributions to this thread. Very helpful. I do have a question on these photo examples. What tank parameters are different in the "Good" and "Bad" photo examples?

Thanks!

Hi Patrick,

Excellent question!

Bad Zeo Pics:
- 0.0 Nitrates
- 0.00 phosphate
- 1.5L of Zeo Media
- Did not feed anything other than the recommended zeo products.
- Followed the guide perfectly

Good Zeo Pics
- .2 Nitrates
- .02-.03 phosphate
- 600ml of Zeo Media
- dosed Potassium to keep near 400
- Feed 2 tsp. of Oyster Feast every other night an hour after the lights go out.

Hope this helps!
James

 

[Patrick Cox]

Hi Patrick,

Excellent question!

Bad Zeo Pics:
- 0.0 Nitrates
- 0.00 phosphate
- 1.5L of Zeo Media
- Did not feed anything other than the recommended zeo products.
- Followed the guide perfectly

Good Zeo Pics
- .2 Nitrates
- .02-.03 phosphate
- 600ml of Zeo Media
- dosed Potassium to keep near 400
- Feed 2 tsp. of Oyster Feast every other night an hour after the lights go out.

Hope this helps!
James

Thanks James, yes very helpful. Can I also ask which test kit you use to measure your nitrates? I use Salifert and while I believe it is a good test kit, I am not sure I can be as precise as I can with say the Hanna Phosphate checker.

If I may, I would also like to ask another question. Where can I find a good summary of the principals of the Zeovit system? I am considering switching to Zeovit but before I do, I would like to have a better understanding of the system. I am running an ULNS that is achieved through heavy skimming and running GAC and GFO reactors and I would like to know how Zeovit is different from what I am doing. I have good coral growth but my corals don't have good color. Now my tank is only 6 months old say maybe that is the issue but I am not sure.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[CUNAReefer]

Thanks James, yes very helpful. Can I also ask which test kit you use to measure your nitrates? I use Salifert and while I believe it is a good test kit, I am not sure I can be as precise as I can with say the Hanna Phosphate checker.

If I may, I would also like to ask another question. Where can I find a good summary of the principals of the Zeovit system? I am considering switching to Zeovit but before I do, I would like to have a better understanding of the system. I am running an ULNS that is achieved through heavy skimming and running GAC and GFO reactors and I would like to know how Zeovit is different from what I am doing. I have good coral growth but my corals don't have good color. Now my tank is only 6 months old say maybe that is the issue but I am not sure.

Thanks again for your help.

No problem, Patrick. Here is a link to the zeo guide:

www.korallen-zucht.de/files/zeoguide_103_english-1.pdf

This should give you an understanding of the basic zeo principles.

As for the testing, I use Salifert for Nitrate and use hanna for Phosphate. As long as I can get a slight pink on the low range nitrate test, I am happy.

 

[Rwpdunne]

Hi Patrick,

Excellent question!

Bad Zeo Pics:
- 0.0 Nitrates
- 0.00 phosphate
- 1.5L of Zeo Media
- Did not feed anything other than the recommended zeo products.
- Followed the guide perfectly

Good Zeo Pics
- .2 Nitrates
- .02-.03 phosphate
- 600ml of Zeo Media
- dosed Potassium to keep near 400
- Feed 2 tsp. of Oyster Feast every other night an hour after the lights go out.

Hope this helps!
James

Zeovit recommend the use of there other blue bottles when p04 and n03 are low lke cv pohls extra amino acids k balance to name a few
Zeovit is like a two part system the first stones bak start and sponge power to reduce nutrients
The second is the additives and elements
So I dont think you can call them pictures good and bad zeo

Robbie

 

[karsseboom]

Thanks James, yes very helpful. Can I also ask which test kit you use to measure your nitrates? I use Salifert and while I believe it is a good test kit, I am not sure I can be as precise as I can with say the Hanna Phosphate checker.

If I may, I would also like to ask another question. Where can I find a good summary of the principals of the Zeovit system? I am considering switching to Zeovit but before I do, I would like to have a better understanding of the system. I am running an ULNS that is achieved through heavy skimming and running GAC and GFO reactors and I would like to know how Zeovit is different from what I am doing. I have good coral growth but my corals don't have good color. Now my tank is only 6 months old say maybe that is the issue but I am not sure.

Thanks again for your help.

There is a forum dedicated to just zeovit called zeovit.com check out the forums and it should answer all your questions. Also check out the zeovit basics guide in the general disscussion.