Reef Discussion

[slin1977]

Time for war against phoshate update......
Last week 0.15 today 0.11
Weekly waterchange due tomorrow.

 

[MTG]

Seems like it's working nils although it will be interesting once you have a bio load on the system

 

[slin1977]

Hey matt,

There are four fish in my tank adding to the bio load.
There is a six line wrasse, coral beauty, bi colour blenny and chromis.
They were all put in there on day 11.

 

[n0rk]

ZEOvit works better with bioload, Matt :) all carbon systems do. It provides less potential for organic limitation which would stop the bacteria from doing their job. They are also more productive under higher nutrient loads.

 

[slin1977]

Ok, lets discuss feeding coral in our Zeovit system.

I have the zeo Amino Acid (AA) and Coral Vitaliser (CV)

I have recently been hearing more and more about cyclope ease and reefroids.
Is it worth adding these or expanding the collection of blue bottles.

 

[n0rk]

End of the day, ZEOvit foods shouldn't be the be all and end all of your feeding - feeding a diverse array of small planktons to the system as well as feeding the fish well will make things much happier. On top of my ZEO I was feeding Cyclopeez, Tropic-Marin Zooton, Reef Pearls (5-200μm), Golden Pearls, Reef Roids, and a few others on top several times a day. In having said that my stocking was light (a single 1" Angelfish) and my skimmer was overrated by around 8 times so it became necessary.

You shouldn't be feeding additional foods (Amino Acids and Coral Vitalizer) until you progress to stage 2 at least. Don't forget the staging system proposed by Aged Salt:

ZEOvit phases depend on the nutrient level & coral appearance. Nutrients are relatively high[with "pooled-reserves"] & corals are dull in coloration. Polyp-extension may or may not be present.

Consider phase 1 the initiatation of ZEOvit method. The basic 4 are used to reduce nutrients in a balanced manner. As nutrients & "reserves" are depleted, the corals become brighter, lighter in appearance & the quantities of the zeo's dosed becomes less.

Enter phase 2[~3-6mos], the corals continue to colorize more & nutrients are becoming more exhausted. During this phase, however, if dosing is stopped for more than a few days, nutrients again begin to rise, & corals become darker. This is due to "pooled-reserves" still remaining available.

Phase 3[5-10months] is characterized by stable nutrients & color appearance of the corals, ie. if the zeo's are not dosed for many days, the N03's/P04's do not increase & coral colors remain fast. In this phase, the stored nutrients are exhausted, as evidenced by the low quantites of Bak/Food7/Start used, with coral color intensive

http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10354 is a godsend for those who have not seen it.

 

[slin1977]

Cheers nOrk,

The power in these drops is amazing... A slight tweak in the program has yielded huge results, I realised that I have been underdosing the tank a little, after making a slight change, I am talking about 1 drop extra of bac and feeding the correct amount of start, my phosphate is on 0,06 today
I never got round to that promised water change, thats on the cards for tomorrow. Will be interesting to see the test after the water change.
Ben as we near 0.00 will I need to change the daily doses to alternating days? Whats your advice?

 

[n0rk]

Not alternating days, just reduce the rates slightly when you can see that your nutrient reserves are being consumed. For instance, if your maintenance dose during stage 1 is 1mL of start3 with 9 drops of bak, drop it back to 0.8mL and 8 drops and see if you can carry the same rate of reduction.

 

[slin1977]

Tanks been running at 0.00 now for three to four weeks now.
Even after having a week off due to holidays the tank maintained the 0.00 reading.
Really happy with how things are going, not chasing those colours in coral just yet, still need to stock my tank with SPS and learn more through observation and spending time maintaining water parameters.

Current water parameters are in line with zeo guidelines.

 

[Luke]

Nice work mate,
It sees to be working well for me as well
Nitrate is 0 Not sure about Phosphate , very low using the Salferts test kits , But i will get a Hanna soon

 

[MTG]

Luke are you running a zeovit system?

 

[Luke]

Yeah , pretty happy so far
its seems to be working better for me than probidio

 

[MTG]

What do you run Luke? The full zeolite stones?

 

[Luke]

All the basics

 

[slin1977]

Ok, so my tank was running at 0.00 for 6 weeks. Thought I would let the ball bounce back up again. My dosage is 2 drops bac every second day and 0.2ml start3 daily. The aquarium water is crystal clear and has been sitting on 0.03 (phos hanna)for two weeks.

 

[Luke]

Nice work mate :)
How many liters is your tank ?
I think Zeovit has actually saved me money , No need for Rowaphos anymore :)

 

[slin1977]

Hi Luke ,

I would say my tank and sump is about 270 liters.
I am currently dosing about 1/4 the amount of drops from when the tank first started.

I use 500 g of zeolites now, that will be exchanged every 10 to 12 weeks . I use 200 grams of carbon change that every 4 to 6 weeks.

 

[Luke]

Im not far away from lowering my doses as well ,
Atm im using 2 L of zeolites , 8 drops ZeoBak every three days , 1ml Zeostart night and morning ,
I also have Zeofood and some sponge food from Brightwell , Overdose that stuff and you get a good crop of algae for a week or two ;)
I started off with carbon , But im not using it atm

 

[thepubenator]

Im not far away from lowering my doses as well ,
Atm im using 2 L of zeolites , 8 drops ZeoBak every three days , 1ml Zeostart night and morning ,
I also have Zeofood and some sponge food from Brightwell , Overdose that stuff and you get a good crop of algae for a week or two ;)
I started off with carbon , But im not using it atm

how many litres is your tank?
IME one of the critical factors in running zeo is the actual zeolites, inclusing qty, flow rate etc. This is the best way to get success. You will also achieve better reults in changing the zeolites every 8 weeks not 10-12 weeks as mentioned by slin1977 and carbon every 3-4 weeks. If your flow rate thru the rx is too slow the system runs ineffeient and if too much you will get STN base up as it strips too much.
my tank is 500L total volume but i run 1.4L of zeolites with 600LPH flow thru it to maintain zerop nutrients i dose 0.1ml x 2 start3 daily only now.

 

[slin1977]

how many litres is your tank?
IME one of the critical factors in running zeo is the actual zeolites, inclusing qty, flow rate etc. This is the best way to get success. You will also achieve better reults in changing the zeolites every 8 weeks not 10-12 weeks as mentioned by slin1977 and carbon every 3-4 weeks. If your flow rate thru the rx is too slow the system runs ineffeient and if too much you will get STN base up as it strips too much.
my tank is 500L total volume but i run 1.4L of zeolites with 600LPH flow thru it to maintain zerop nutrients i dose 0.1ml x 2 start3 daily only now.

Cheers for the tips you mentioned. I will keep them in mind.
I had noticed a bit of STN on one of my SPS base since changing the zeolites last week.