New to the Game

[Sonny]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reefing for several years with moderate success. My career has caused me to move often but I’ve been stable for the last 6 yrs and have had my 110 gallon mixed reef set up the entire time (except when it leaked and I had to get a replacement.) A few months ago I noticed some of my corals, both SPS and LPS started losing color and stopped growing. Some completely died off. My water parameters weren’t pristine but they never really have been so I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. Thought maybe my lights were getting old so I purchased a hybrid set up but also decided to switch to the ZEOVIT system as I’ve been fighting nutrients basically my entire time in the hobby. I’m sure I will have multiple questions but to get me started:

-I know I have to disconnect my carbon. I assume I should disconnect my GFO as well?
-I have zeoback, zeofood, zeostart, zeospur and flatworm stop. Where do I go to find out the dosing amount and schedule for them?

Any start up advice/guidance you have is appreciated. Thanks.

[G.Alexander]

Hello Sonny and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

To give you a startup recommendation some more information would be necessary, please post some more details about your system:

https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/gener...bout-your-tank

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

Hi. Here’s my vital signs...

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter. **150 US gallons including sump
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter **app 110 US gallons including sump
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique**neptunes DOS
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)**Simplicity 240 DC 120-240 US gallons
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels ** PO4=0.13 (Hanna) and NO3=10 (salifert)
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels**Ca=410(Hanna), Alk=8.29(Hanna), Mg1350(salifert)
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.)**trigger 40 gallon refugium
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2 radion xr15 for over 5yrs. Just replaced with 2 radion g5 pro 1 month ago and adding T5 hybrid next week
12. What corals do you keep**lps and sps
13. Tissue color (light or dark)** light
14. How long has the tank been running**over 5 yrs minus about 4 weeks when it leaked. Put everything in a 40 gallon breeder until I got replacement tank
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system** healthier and vibrant tank. My corals are 50/50. Some grow slowly with dull colors others don’t make it longer than a month or two
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) **GFO and NO3 PO4 to fight high phosphates and nitrates
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.)** not really sure but probably about 1/3 of the tank volume. Has been in there since initial setup
18. Any present problems**outside of poor growth, poor color, and poor nutrient levels, I have bristle worms and vermetids... lots of both
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) **mainly poor color sps I have a GSP and star galaxy that we’re doing great. Then slowly started to disappear. GSP was isolated on a rock about 10inches but is now almost completely gone.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) **Hanna and salifert
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)just started 3 days ago
zeofood 24 drops/day for 1wk, then 8drops 3x/wk
zeostart .96ml/ day
zeospur 20ml/wk
Flatwormstop 4ml/day
zeobak 4drops twice a week
aquaforest alk=45 ml/day
aquaforest mag=30 ml/day
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) **salinity1.027 temp=78.9
23. Which salt brand do you use **instant ocean reef crystals

thanks.

[Sonny]

Oh yeah. I’m using 1bag of zeolites in KZ reactor since Sunday.

[G.Alexander]

Thank you for the additional details, I would recommend you to continue as follows:

1. Place 1 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 100 – 110 US gallons per hour. Connect the reactor pump to a clock timer and run the reactor pump with a 3 hour on / 3 hour off / 3 hour on interval. Please make sure the zeolite is not exposed to air while the pump is switched off. Clean the material daily. Leave the zeolite 4 weeks in the filter until you do the first change out. This is the first changing interval, others could be lengthen to 6 – 8 weeks.

2. Place 0.4 liters activated carbon in a filter sock and keep it in a passive water flow in your sump, changed every 30 days. Knead the carbon daily to keep the surface clean. Most users get perfect results with korallenzucht carbon.

3. Dose 4 drops ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 – 3 x weekly dosage of 4 drops. Dose 0.4 ml ZeoStart 2 x daily (morning & evening). Dose those in front of the Zeo reactor pump while it is switched on.

Later on you could use the additional products for coral coloration including ZeoFood. Adjust your skimmer to skim wet, keeping it clean to export as much as possible. Do a weekly water change of 5 – 10 % with a good salt.


With the system it is not recommended to use a PO4 absorber. I would recommend to remove 1/3 of the absorber if you start with zeovit, than reduce the rest over the next 6 – 8 weeks step by step to zero. If this is done keep a eye on the PO4 level which should not increase.

Basic water parameters looking good, try to keep them as stabile as possible close the NSW in the following ranges:

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

For a nutrient poor environment K+ (potassium) seems to be a important element. I would recommend you to get a test kit for this element also, posting your results.

This is a start-up dosage which might have to be adjusted later.

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

Thanks for the advice. I’m a little slow keeping up with the posts because I’m not use to it so my bad for the delay.

i completely stopped my GFO and carbon reactor the same day I started using ZEOVIT. Phosphates remained about the same today (.15) but I am starting to get some of the purple cyano on some of my rock. I’ll set up my reactor with the 3hr intervals and follow the other instructions too. I’ve been running the reactor constantly since I set it up. Hopefully I didn’t mess anything up. I’ve used reef crystals by instant ocean for years. I noticed you said to use a good salt. It’s not high end but has always seemed to match my goals and target parameters. Are you recommending I switch? Thanks.

[G.Alexander]

As long as your corals do not show any kind of issues lets keep the reactor flow as it is, just make sure the flow is not to high. The general recommendation is 100 us gallons for each 1 liter ZeoVit.

If the cyanos do improve in the next couple of days it might make sense to try dosing a mixture of CoralSnow and ZeoBac as a treatment which has helped many in the past to get rid of them but in some cases it has not fixed the problem there is not a 100% guaranty.

If the salt mix you use does have the basic water parameters close to NSW and if you are pleased with it you can continue to use it. Please also check the potassium level if the salt mix, it should be around 380 mg. If the level is lower you will have a constant leak of potassium in your system so you need to constant supplement it which might be expansive over the time compared to using a salt mix with a adequate concentration.

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

There’s a coral snow and coral snow plus. My problem isn’t too bad at this point but I really want to get ahead of it. Which one do you recommend? Also, the pump and reactor didn’t have a manual with it but it came as a system so I assume it’s rated at 100 gallons.

[G.Alexander]

Would recommend you CoralSnow Standard for the treatment. The size of the reactor does not matter, just add as much material as you need for your system. The reactor flow is important so you should measure it by collecting the water at the outlet for 30 seconds with a container, than multiply the volume with 120 and you will get the exact output per hour. In your case it should be ~ 110 US gallons.

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

So it’s been about 3.5 weeks and the purple slime algae is getting worse by the day. I started using the coral snow 4 days ago. The directions say twice a week but I was thinking about increasing that to every other day?

I saw a post about refrigerating to help keep the bottles longer. Is that necessary? I also saw something about zeozym. What are your thoughts on adding that to my regimen? Thanks.

[G.Alexander]

Lets dose 8 ml Coral Snow mixed with 4 drops ZeoBac daily for the next 10 days. While doing the treatment it is not necessary to dose additional ZeoBac.

Please also check the quality of your RO water with a accurate TDS meter which should give you a ZERO reading.

This is the recommendation from the manufacturer to store the products:

https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/gener...795#post274795

All other products should be stored at normal room temperature at a dark, dry palce.

If you already have ZeoZym which does improve basically the biology you can use it additional otherwise you might use it later once your system is running nutrient poor stabile.

G.Alexander

[G.Alexander]

Can you please post a good picture of the algae ?

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

[G.Alexander]

Thank you for the pictures but something is wrong, the pictures are not very clear so I can not see the stuff very well. Do you think those are cyanos or any kind different algae ? This is important to know as cyanos are bacteria which are totally different from algae also in their treatment.

Have you already checked the quality of your RO water with a accurate TDS meter and do you use a purest water resin as the last stage of your RO unit already ?

Can you please post a list of all products and quantities and dosing intervals you use at the moment ?

You have mention that you added some T5 4 weeks ago, was this the time when the stuff started to show up, have you had it before starting ZeoVit already ?

G.Alexander

[Sonny]

Sorry about the pics. I don’t have a really good camera but I’ll see if I can find one from someone. I don’t know the difference between the 2types. It’s purple and every 2-3 days I go in and remove what I can. I use a turkey baster to blow it off the rocks and try to capture it.

my tds normally is 0 but now is at .04. I ordered a media replacement kit to change everything out next week. I was going to wait until everything came in but I have some resin that I can swap out now.

I use aquaforest cal, alk, and mag. Before starting ZEOVIT I was running GFO and dosing nopo4 once a week.

cal as needed. I only need to dose this every 2-3 weeks at the most. 30cc at a time.
alk 30cc day via dosing machine
mag 15cc a day via dosing machine
i don’t dose any other trace elements.
zeofood 8drops 3x/wk
zeostart 0.9cc per day
zeospur 20cc per week
flatworm stop 2x/wk
zeobak 4drops 2x/wk
coral snow 4cc 3x/wk

I’ll switch to the 8cc of coral snow with 4drops of Zeobak today for the next 10days. Any other changes?

I’ve pretty much fought algae the whole time but never this type. I was always able to keep it “manageable “ until now. Unfortunately, I was excited about my new set up and started both ZEOVIT and my T5s at the same time which is also when I had this breakout so I can’t pinpoint which caused the issue. I thought if I’d stay on top of it I could manage everything when I first noticed the algae but that’s not the case. I was running my T5s for 8hrs a day but cut that down to 4hrs. I just made that adjustment 3days ago.

Thanks for all the help!