High phosphates & low nitrates w/ Zeovit

[Wunderpus]

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 180 gallons
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - Estimated 150 gallons with rock work factored in
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique - No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) - No
6. Are you using UV - No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - Eshopps X-220 Axium
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - 0.29ppm P04 (Hanna ULN and ICP) No3 0-0.02 (Salifert, Nyos and Red Sea tests)
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels - 9.1dKH, 471 CA and 1290 Mag according to Trident and ICP tests (always stays the same)
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) Zeovit Reactor
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) Radion XR30s w/ Reefbrite Lumilites
12. What corals do you keep - only SPS
13. Tissue color- Light
14. How long has the tank been running - 1.5 Years
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system - Maintain nutrients and improve coloration
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) - Pohl's Xtra 5ml/day, KZ Aminos 6 drops daily, Coral Vitalizer 6 drops daily, Flatworm Stop 4ml/day, Coral Booster 3ml/day (50% dose), Acroglow 6 drops/day
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - It was all dry rock at the start
18. Any present problems - Pale coral tissue in about 30% of corals
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - Light color/creamy coloration
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) Listed in values above
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) Zeobak 6 drops 2x weekly, Zeofood 12 drops MWF and ZeoStart 0.7ml/day.

1.5l of ZeoVit media in auto-reactor, flushed 2x daily with (i believe) 100g/hr, changed every 6 weeks
Carbon 0.5L in bag in sump


HI there! I'm having issues with po4 and No3 imbalance, as well as paling corals (I am assuming from low no3). For some reason my levels are out of balance, however there is little to no nuisance algae growth or cyano... I'm not sure what to do as I don't want to add more product to remove phosphate levels as they all lower nitrates too, and nitrates are undetectable on 3 different brands of tests... There is no sign of tissue death, just very light tissue in some acroporas and creamy colors in other. The other 60-70% of the acropora appear to have normal coloration.

[G.Alexander]

Can you tell when you have started to use ZeoVit on the system and if you had issues with PO4 before starting to use ZeoVit ?

The reactor flow is to low, it should be ~ 150 US gallons per hour in your case.

While the elevated PO4 level your dosage of additional coloration elements for my taste is to high, I would recommend you to reduce them as follows:

Xtra – 2.5 ml 2 x weekly
AminoAcid – 3 drops once per week
CoralVitalizer – 12 drops 2 x weekly
FlatwormStop – 6 ml once per week
CoralBooster – 2.5 ml once per week
AcroGlow – 3 drops once per week

Before dosing those products with the new dosing regimen lets do a 2 week dosing break of them.

Continue dosing the basics as follows:

ZeoBac – 6 drops 3 x weekly
ZeoStart – 0.6 ml 2 x daily
ZeoFood – 6 drops 2 x weekly

Optional you can dose 12 drops BioMate every other day for some time, might be helpful to decrease PO4.

Ca and KH are both a litte bit to high, lets keep them solid within the following ranges:

Ca – 380 – 420 mg
KH – 6.5 – 7.5

Please also tell us something about the fish stocking level if your system and your feeding regimen.

For some time vacuum the sand regular while each water change to remove the sediments from the deeper sand layers.

G.Alexander

[Wunderpus]

Can you tell when you have started to use ZeoVit on the system and if you had issues with PO4 before starting to use ZeoVit ?

The reactor flow is to low, it should be ~ 150 US gallons per hour in your case.

While the elevated PO4 level your dosage of additional coloration elements for my taste is to high, I would recommend you to reduce them as follows:

Xtra – 2.5 ml 2 x weekly
AminoAcid – 3 drops once per week
CoralVitalizer – 12 drops 2 x weekly
FlatwormStop – 6 ml once per week
CoralBooster – 2.5 ml once per week
AcroGlow – 3 drops once per week

Before dosing those products with the new dosing regimen lets do a 2 week dosing break of them.

Continue dosing the basics as follows:

ZeoBac – 6 drops 3 x weekly
ZeoStart – 0.6 ml 2 x daily
ZeoFood – 6 drops 2 x weekly

Optional you can dose 12 drops BioMate every other day for some time, might be helpful to decrease PO4.

Ca and KH are both a litte bit to high, lets keep them solid within the following ranges:

Ca – 380 – 420 mg
KH – 6.5 – 7.5

Please also tell us something about the fish stocking level if your system and your feeding regimen.

For some time vacuum the sand regular while each water change to remove the sediments from the deeper sand layers.

G.Alexander

The tank has been Zeovit from day 1. Never had an issue before, no... Fish stocking is medium level, I would say. I'm just trying to understand why the bacteria are efficiently handling nitrates but not phosphates... With the stopping of the elements, how does that impact the coloration in a positive way? I assumed the pale colors were due to lack of nitrates/nutrients, so I was hoping the additives would assist with this...

[G.Alexander]

The pale colors have nothing to do with a to low nutrient concentration in your system, I expect the reason is a combination of the elevated PO4 level in conjunction with a overdosing elements.

G.Alexander