Zeovit transition not going to plan

[Duffer]

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 1450 liter
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - 1160 liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique Balling Triton
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) no
5. Are you using Ozone no
6. Are you using UV no
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) deltec 1500i
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels 0.16 and 25 ppm
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels 490 ca, alk 8.5 and Mg 1300ppm
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) Zeovit zeolite 3 litres at 1200 l/hr flow
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) T5 hybrid
12. What corals do you keep sps / lps
13. Tissue color (light or dark) dark
14. How long has the tank been running 1.5 years, 3 months on Zeovit
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system proven system for acropora
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) zeozym weekly,
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) yes 200kg established rock
18. Any present problems - cyano ongoing from before Zeovit,
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) tissue browning on tips, tissue loss (Stn on some)
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) Hanna for alk, calcium / Red Sea for phosphate/ mg/ Salifert for nitrate
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) Zeovit 3 bags @ 1200 L; zeobak daily 12 drops, zeo start 1.2 mls twice daily, zeozym weekly, coral Zeosponge 12 drops every 2nd day, have zeo food, coral booster and other available but not open
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) salinity 1.025, temp 24.5 def c
23. Which salt brand do you use Red Sea blue bucket


I think I may have transferred too abruptly by completely stopping vodka and gfo to transfer to Zeovit. My corals are very pissed off. Ramped up slowly to current settings on Zeovit. Nitrates peaked at 25ppm and phosphate at 0.16. Both being maintained at this level. Running Zeovit carbon. T5 bulbs were changed in accordance with schedule during this time too. Any advice to subside this would be much appreciated.

[G.Alexander]

Welcome to ZeoVit.com !

I do see two problems of your transfer to ZeoVit.com.

First is you removed all the PO4 absorber at once and also stopped dosing the alcohol you used before at the same time completely. ZeoVit is a bacteria driven system which does process nutrients but this takes some time until those processes start to work effective. In both cases it would be better to slowly reduce the alcohol dosage and the quantity of the PO4 absorber over a couple of weeks but this is something you can not change anymore.

I would recommend you to continue dosing as follows:

ZeoBac – 12 drops 3 x weekly
ZeoStart – 1.2 ml 2 x daily (morning / evening)
SpongePower – 12 drops every other day

Run 3 liters Zeovit with a constant water flow of ~ 1200 liters per hour through the reactor, replace the material every 6 weeks. Also run 1 liter activated carbon passively flown in the sump, replace it every 4 weeks on alternate days to the ZeoVit material.

If you already own BioMate dose 24 drops every other day for 2 weeks, might be helpful for the elevated PO4 level. ZeoZym can be dosed 2 x weekly also.

Vacuum the sand regular while each water change to remove the sediments from the deeper sand layers and adjust your skimmer to skim more wet while cleaning it daily to remove as much as possible.

Basic water parameters are not ideal, I would recommend to slowly adjust the to the following ranges:

KH 6.5 – 7.5
Ca 400 – 420 mg
Mg 1250 – 1300 mg
K+ ~ 380 mg

G.Alexander

[Duffer]

Hi G Alexander, thank you for the reply. I have only been fully ramped up on the Zeovit for the last week and I’m skimming wet. Would there be a typical timeline anticipated to reduce the nutrients to acceptable levels?
thanks

[Duffer]

Also one more question- is it worthwhile to increase the amount of zeolite in the reactor to help with the nutrients?

[G.Alexander]

If you have started with ZeoVit one week ago I would recommend to run the ZeoVit reactor with a 3 hour on / off interval on a timer to slow down changes a little bit. This is what I recommend if a existing system is migrated to ZeoVit. Usually about 2 weeks after the first ZeoVit exchange and if everything is fine you can switch back the reactor to continuous flow. Please make sure the material is not exposed to air if the reactor pump is switched off.

In your case I would expect it will take some time before you notice a decrease of nutrients. Keep a close eye on them and please report back if they increase furthermore. Some patience is necessary as this can take up to a couple of month depending to the quantity of PO4 which is already accumulated in the system.

I would not recommend to use more ZeoVit material than recommended, theoretically this will process nutrients quicker but corals will suffer if to much material or to much flow for the reactor is used.

G.Alexander

[Duffer]

I started 8 weeks ago but slowly ramped up to full speed last week. Zeovit was comfortably holding the nitrate at 25ppm and .16 ppm phosphate at a low flow. I was limited as I started with a borrowed reactor too small for my tank. Before this my numbers were much lower. I was expecting the higher flow to have a fast reduction but not to be. Patience 😊 needed. Didn’t expect my corals to react so negative to the change but I am confident once I achieve steady state at the right parameters I will see a recovery. And as you state, I should have transitioned more slowly. It’s a great hobby but unfortunately not forgiving to silly errors. Thanks for your advice
Duffer

[G.Alexander]

I agree if you use the system since 8 weeks already you do not need to switch the reactor to the interval.

G.Alexander

[Duffer]

Hi G Alexander,
so my aquarium is settling down and PO4 has now dropped from 0.16 to 0.08 in the last week but nitrates remain at 25ppm. Should I leave it to drop in due course or could I carbon dose with vodka to get them down to < 2ppm with the anticipation that zeolite will then maintain by removing ammonia direct ?
thanks

[G.Alexander]

Basically it is a good sign that PO4 starts to decrease, do not care to much about the NO3 level, it will come down over the time. I would not recommend to dose alcohol additional this will just cause more issues at the moment.

G.Alexander