sailfintang
Member
Alright then I will dose straight vodka these next few days and see if that will resolve the issue with the brown diatoms, will keep you all posted on that.
Zeovit
- Thread starter sailfintang
- Start date
Alright then I will dose straight vodka these next few days and see if that will resolve the issue with the brown diatoms, will keep you all posted on that.
Canarygirl
New member
Hi everyone, I just want to clarify my earlier statements that I do not know what the formula is for Start2, as it is proprietary. I have a theory that it is some kind of sugar but that is a very (very) broad statement as there are many possibilities and I could be all wet about this. So take it with a grain of salt. (Don't you just hate all these silly puns? :lol: )
Canarygirl
New member
It took about 1 week or less, for me to see resolution of the brown diatoms after adding vodka to my Start2 dosing.
stony_corals
New member
No need to apologize
Its all good... I think you're right though, not all carbon sources are equal... my .02 cents. I think genetics posted something on the vodka thread about this....
Kolognekoral
New member
Not to throw a monkey wrench into the works, but I have had less than sterling experience mixing Start2 with vodka. It seemed to support STN in Acroporas, causing tip degeneration on a few tables. After about 4 days of dosing, I stopped and the regeneration started slowly. Now, I may have been dosing too much, but I was using aprox. 0.8ml for 240gals daily.
Keep your eyes open.
Keep your eyes open.
sailfintang
Member
So when the brown diatoms stopped for you guys did any brown algae that remained die off? I have some sttringy brown hair like algae that I am hoping will perih with the vodka remedy. I have some hermits and a lawnmower blenny but they do noot seem at all interested in eating that stuff. I plan to add around 24 - 48 nassarius to keep the sand bed clean of any nasty elements. I may even add another 24 dwarf hermits. Anyhow will be adding corals once i get back from florida in late june if anyone has any frags they are trying to pawn off please pm me!
sailfintang
Member
Thanks Zedar. I have already seen a reduction in the brown diatoms sinceI have been just dosing the Vodka element, less borown slime on the glass and powerheads. I have switched to using the right now bacteria and added 1 pound of the tri pellet carbon into my sump passivley (we wil lsee what difference this makes). Still running the matrix reactor and two small strips of the cell pore media. I started dosing the bacteria slowlyto prevent an o2 depletion, they recommend running no skimmer for 24 hours but I left mine on since I was using the vodka to as I need to keep a high O2 level. I only am dosing about 2-4 caps of the right now bacteria a day to see how things go (10-20 ml) Will see if this drops my nitrates to zero they have been fluctuating from 5 to 10 ppm. Will update you all in a week with the new water parameters, mainly just the no3 level.
sailfintang
Member
If you read from the begining this thread is about all the zeo stuff and cost effective alternatives to the zeo system. We are substituting some of the kz stuff that is pricy with other cost effective products that will give the same desired results.
matrix rocks = zeo rocks
stability = zeo cac
iherb Kcl = k strong and k balance
warner and brightwell AA's = zeo AA's
The same popping color and appearances can be achived with only a few of the zeo supps is what we are striving to do here. The zeo forums is where you should go for full blown zeo methods.
sailfintang
Member
I turned and old skimmer into a reactor for my rocks but it is not necessary you can use them passivley in the sump. the good thing is that they never need replaced. You can read more about them here;
http://seachem.com/products/product_pages/Matrix.html
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stony_corals
New member
I don't think you can say that Seachem's Matrix is the same as KZ's ZEOvit. There are some 200+ zeolites made, are you sure they are the same? I know KZ uses multiple kinds in their mix....
I am having a little bit of brown diatom on the sand in one area and in another some green fuzzy algae that looks like cyno but its green, I will try switching to straight vodka to see if this reduces it. Its not very much but I did not have it before, I am assuming its either the sugar or vinegar in the v/s/v mixture, been feeding about 4ml per day for 125 gallon with 36 gallon sump
Macsturm
Macsturm
Kolognekoral
New member
Stony is right, Matrix and Zeovit are two different animals. Also, Matrix does clog after about 6 months and should be partially or fully renewed. As to shaking it about, this would seem to be a good move, as biofilm should be released.
The big difference between a glass/ceramic media such as Matrix or Siporax and a zeolith, is the ability of a zeolith to selectively absord via ion-exchange specific molecules. In the case of the Zeovit (and other similar) marine zeoliths, they adsorb ammonia compounds, which traps them for the bacteria. Also, the size of the stones plays a key role in their effectiveness.
The big difference between a glass/ceramic media such as Matrix or Siporax and a zeolith, is the ability of a zeolith to selectively absord via ion-exchange specific molecules. In the case of the Zeovit (and other similar) marine zeoliths, they adsorb ammonia compounds, which traps them for the bacteria. Also, the size of the stones plays a key role in their effectiveness.
stony_corals
New member
Oh, I was assuming that Matrix WAS a zeolite?!? My bad, even truer then... Matrix is definitely nothing near to ZEOvit for the reason Jamie mentioned. There is a key reason to utilize an ammonia ion exchange media to culture bacteria, providing that source of N...
I was really off ( no surprise!), I thought it was something like Tunze zeolites or something....
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