Who's tank is this

[OUinLA]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...ighlight=h%26s

I found this on Reef Central. It says the owner use to use ZEOvit. I wonder if any of you know about the history of this tank and why he no longer uses zeovit. thanks

[Orion76]

WOW that is a NICE tank!!

[Orion76]

This is a better link:
http://www.acquaportal.it/ARTICOLI/M...be/default.asp

[Mat]

Hi Orion,

I believe you are talking about a tank whose owner is called Alexalbe.

I know he used to have Zeovit and he then decided to use a different method based on stopping the use of the zeovit additives and zeolith and then use a source of food based on an hormone for growth.

It is interesting you have noticed this tank because it seems like it is marvellous if seen in person, even better than the pics.

He decided to quit Zeovit because of growth problems. His corals where not growing as quick as he would have liked but at least he was very satisfied with the colors.

Once he changed method he noticed better and faster growth.

This is what I know reading the Italian forums. I heard rumors though that the guy decided to swith back again to Zeovit because his very beautiful sps were loosing color. I asked him directly on an othe rforum but did not get an answer yet.

I will try to get in touch with him and invite him to partecipate to this discussion, maybe he will make us all undertand better what he is actually doing.

Cheers

Mat

[bluereef]

Alexalbe is member of zeovit com.You can contact him by pm.

[Aged Salt]

Thnx. Mat, his reef is out-of-this-world I'd love tp hear his experience with & without ZEOvitBob

[alexalbe]

Salve, volevo intanto ringraziare tutti per i complimenti. Ho visto che la vasca ha fatto scalpore un pò su tutti i forum di discussione. Visto che c'è un pò di confusione sul mio metodo di gestione vorrei far presente alcune cose. La vasca ha girato per 1 anno con metodica Zeovit. Il limite che ho riscontrato con lo Zeovit è una crescita stentata della maggior parte dei coralli ed uno stato un pò al limite di tutta la vasca. Il passaggio al metodo BC era proprio per cambiare questa situazione. Con tale metodica, che ho utilizzato per circa 3 mesi, ho avuto una esplosione di crescita di tutte le acropore (anche quelle a più lento sviluppo) ma un lento e progressivo inscurimento degli animali. Le foto della vosca presenti nell'articolo si riferiscono a circa 2 mesi dall'inizio del metodo BC. Io ritengo che il metodo BC sia validissimo. Nella mia vasca però è successo un pò quello che è successo a Donatello (Blureff) cioè innalzamento incontrollabile dei nutrienti. Questo perchè a differenza delle vasche romane gestite da anni col metodo di Maurizio, dove ci sono pochissimi pesci e poco alimentati, io ho più di 20 pesci che alimento abbondantemente. Da ciò le scurimento progressivo degli animali nonostante l'abbondante illuminazione. La decisione è stata quella di rinserire la zeolite per controllare l'ammonio e alimentare i batteri fosfoaccomulatori con zeostart. Però ho deciso di non rinpoverire troppo la vasca, mantenedo una alimentazione degli invertebrati col pappone di Maurizio, una volta alla settimana. In questo mese e mezzo di questo tipo di gestione ho riottenuto, anche se più lentamente di quanto avviene usando alla lettera il metodo zeovit, uno schiarimento degli animali mantenendo un range di crescita, secondo me, interessante. E' evidente che i tempi sono ancora brevi per qualsiasi considerazione ma credo che questa potrebbe essere una valida strada da seguire; vasche con generalmente pochi nutrienti, alimentazione abbondante ma sporadica, molti pesci ben alimentati, in pratica non affidarsi solo al bacteroplancton per l'alimentazione dei coralli.

[Mat]

For the benefit of our english speaking friends I will literally transalte what Alex reported:

Hi to everyone, I would like to thank everybody for the compliments. I have noticed that the tank hit many other acquarists in other forums as well. As it seems like there is a bit of confusion on my method I will try to clear it here. The tank has been managed for one year with the Zeovit method. The limit I faced with this method was a slow growth of the majority of my corals and a sort of "over the edge" limit in the general management. I passed to the BC method (t.note: the BC method is something like Eric Borneman's food recepie plus the GH hormone for human growth) exactly to change such a situation. With this method, which I used for 3 months, I registered an explosion in growth rates of all of my acropora corals (also the slow-grower ones) but contemporarly a slow but progressive darkening of the animals. The pictures of the tank which are inside the article were taken after two months of the BC method.
I believe the BC method is very good. In my tank, though, it happened what had happened in Blureff tank, an uncontrollable increase in nutrients. This happened because with difference from the roman tanks that have used the BC method for years, where there are a very few fishes scarcely fed, I have a lot of fishes and I feed them every day. From this I got the darkening of the corals even with my the strong illumination.

The decision has been to place the zeolith back in the tank to control ammonia and to feed the phosphorus accumulating bacterias with zeostart. Contemporarly I decided not to make the tank too poor in nutrients, keeping the feeding to the corals with the food recepie by Maurizio (t. note: he is the inventor of the BC method), once a week.

In this past month and a half with this new ibrid way of managing the tank I got back, even if slowler of what happens using the Zeovit method as prescribed, lighter colors but keeping also a growth rate that I find interesting.

Obviously time is still too short for any kind of consideration or conclusion, but I believe that this could be a good way to go; tanks with generally few nutrients, abundant but in long time interval nutritional food, lots of fishes well fed; in practice not to trust just bacterioplancton for the food needs of corals.

Alexalbe

-------
transalted by Mat

[Sysko]

Complimenti AlexAlbe, hai davvero una vasca fantastica!
E' anche molto interessante la tua considerazione sulla gestione accoppiata di ZEOvit e BC!
Speriamo poter approfondire meglio!

[Mat]

Vorrei approfittare di ALex per un'ultima domanda. Il pappone alla BC che hai dato alla vasca includeva anche l'ormone o era composto dalla ricetta consigliata ad esclusione dell'ormone?

Grazie mille per le informazioni, molto utili.

Ciao

Mat

[Orion76]

You are dosing HGH to your tank? That must be really really expensive

[Aged Salt]

Thnx. Alexalbe & Mat for the translation[plz. continue the translation for us, if you have time as this is a explosive thread. You can translate our English back to Italian if necessary. I've noted that at about the 9 mo time on ZEOvit, that my coral's color & growth also improved when I increased my fish-feedings from every other day to 2x's/day. Bob

[reefplayer]

Awesome tank.

Has been a talking point in our local forum.

Good work. So i have to work harder......

[Mat]

All right I will do my best. I talked to Alexalbe via pm, and he said he does not spend a loot of time on the internet, so it might take him a while before he can get back to us.

I believe that the topic is very interesting though. I have also asked Alex (G) if he can chat with us about this topic but I guess he is on vacation.

Anyhow feeding in a zeovit system tank is the msot chritical issue I believe.

AgedSalt you say it's your 9th month on Zoevit and since you started you have never fed the tank. Right?

Thanks

Matteo

Per gli italiani:

Aged Salt trova interessante la discussione e dice che in 9 mesi di utilizzo Zeovit ha notato un miglioramento nella crescita dei coralli e nella colorazione quando ha incrementato i dosaggi di alimentazione dei pesci, portandoli da 1 ogni due giorni a 2 al giorno.

Mat

[mesocosm]

Greetings All !

I just HAVE to rant a little about this ...

Let's not all be too surprised when the concept of "low-nutrient environment" evolves towards a richer understanding/inclusion of the relationship between "low nutrient" water chemistry, and sequestered ("low nutrient") chemical energy reserves ("food") in the form of living cells suspended in the water column.

Let's not all be too surprised when it turns out that while low-nutrient water chemistry is a necessary prerequisite for optimal SPS growth rates, the availability of sequestered chemical energy reserves suspended in the water column is a "trigger" of optimal SPS growth rates.

Let's not all be too surprised when it turns out that the importance of the role of bacterioplankton-microplankton in the biochemical pathways of coral growth has been vastly underestimated.

Let's not all be too surprised when a bacterioplankton "generator/reactor" ... whether it be a ZeoReactor, or not ... becomes widely acknowledged as a "standard component" in captive marine ecosystems which emphasize SPS culture and husbandry.

The decision has been to place the zeolith back in the tank to control ammonia and to feed the phosphorus accumulating bacterias with zeostart. Contemporarly I decided not to make the tank too poor in nutrients, keeping the feeding to the corals with the food recepie by Maurizio (t. note: he is the inventor of the BC method), once a week.

In this past month and a half with this new ibrid way of managing the tank I got back, even if slowler of what happens using the Zeovit method as prescribed, lighter colors but keeping also a growth rate that I find interesting.

Let's not all be too surprised when it turns out that Alexalbe ... and others ... have touched upon one of the major future strategies of captive SPS husbandry and propagation.

Is this whole "ZEOvit thing" cool, or what?

JMO ...