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**jacky** · 02-12-2021, 08:40 PM

To ensure that the quality of RO/di water is the best, it is good to use resin material as the last channel of the filter.

Get a more precise phosphate test kit, PO4 is 0.02, coral tissue looks light.

Reduce feeding, this is definitely something to do

High-quality live rock brings positive help to the rapid growth of biology. Artificial materials are used in the tank, which prolongs the time of biology, especially when you add a lot of artificial materials, plus feeding, and the number of fish. When systems biology has not yet grown steadily, it brings difficulty in reducing the formation of nutrients.

Certain artificial materials, certain biological filtrations, and certain undesirable carbon may cause nutrient leaching, which is possible

When the nutrient salt has not reached the standard (unmeasured), when the coral tissue has not become lighter and the growth conditions, iron, molybdenum, and other elements are not currently necessary additives. Some laver contains iodine, which may also have cyanos effects. Combined with biological conditions and artificial materials, it may also lead to the growth of algae

It is recommended to try, Zeo Start 0.3ml x2, to ensure the correct quantity, twice a day. Add at the entrance through the zeolite reactor, pulling the material twice a day.

Use a small container to collect the zeolite reactor outlet for 30 seconds, volume x120, and publish the actual level

**NZ-Nick** · 02-12-2021, 09:32 PM

Hello Aquajan.

Im very new to the ZEOvit system, only started ZEOvit just before Xmas after been reefing for 12 + years.

I have gone away from frozen cubes. Messy and not much nutritional value.

I use to rinse two - three cubes in RO water, and that would last 4 - 5 days of feeding fish.

Now I use aqua forest liquid Artemis, or rotifer, mysis.
its a lot cleaner and easier than frozen cubes.
Two three drops each night for dinner,
I do feed my tangs (3) nori daily 3 inch x 3inch
and pellets once a day.

I think I feed too much,

Maybe cut back on frozen cubes

Regards
Nick

**G.Alexander** · 02-12-2021, 11:49 PM

Difficult to say if the fish are the reason without know their sizes, can you describe them a little bit more ?

Does the refugium contain a substrate, if how deep is it ? Please also post a picture of your sump.

I have not found much of information about the skimmer you use but in one article it was described that the skimmer does handle a 300 liter system which is heavy stocked. Not sure what the manufacturer mean with heavy stocked but the skimmer might be not effective enough for the bioload you keep at the moment ?

Otherwise your dosing regimen is fine.

G.Alexander

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 05:47 AM

Hi all, thanks for the reply.

My RO unit has 1x sediment 1 micron 2x carbon block 1x membrane 1x silicate filter and 1x DI filter on that order.
Tds out of membrane is 2 and after last filter is 0.

The Po4 test kit I use is the Hanna phosphorus checker whith fairly new regents.
I take good care of making the vials clean, take the exact same amount of water for every test and I use a timer for mixing and since recent a mini stirrer.
I do this with all tests.

The use of artificial rock is indeed increasing the time a tank matures substantially.
But that rock is wet for 18 months now and i dosed bottled bacteria of difrent brands to create biodiversity and I add 3 Kg of live rock witch seeds all other rock.
I think after all this time my rock is just as live as good live rock out of the ocean.
On top of that every time I bring in a coral frag I get a bit of the live that was in the system the coral came from.

I don't think the rock is leaching nitrate..
Although I can't know for sure..
I cycled for 4 months without any fish and ghost feed a bit for the bottled bacteria and the nitrate did not rise very mutch.
On my fist tank started with lr the nitrate went to the roof during the cycle.
Also the after I added the fish from my old tank i used nopox to control No3 and it was low 1/0 during that time.
Since I use zeovit it creeps up slowly and comes down a bit based on my feeding.
But at my current fish load I don't think feeding less than I do now is giving the more finicky fish enough food.

The iron and molybdenum I dose is for the refugium witch do uptake these elements rapidly.
I stick to the low side of dosing.
And I forgot to mention that I also dose iodine daily.
I do not have any visable algae growth in the dt only in the refugium.

I do not currently dose the zeostart in the reactor and I will look for a way to implement this.
I ame pretty confident that the zeostart amount is right as it is diluted 20x and my doser can accurately dose 0.1ml so dosing 4x 3 ml should be very accurate.
And dosing the carbon sourse multiple times a day to keep the values in the water as constant as possible is a good thing as far as I know.

I did measure the output from the reactor and calculated it to be around 300 liters per hour although it was a while ago.. I will check if it is still good.

I was indeed thinking of cutting back on the frozen food as the frozen food has alot of nitrate compared to phosfate.
I have the nyos gold pods but my fish do not like them.
I do think those bottled foods are a bit expensive on the long run..

As fas as fish sizes I can only make my best estemation.

2x tang 2x10cm
2x clown 1x 5/6 cm 1x4/5cm
5x wrasse 2x 10cm 1x 8cm 1x 6cm 1x 4cm
1x brasslet 4cm
1x salarias 8cm
3x chromis 1x6 1x5 1x4 cm

So that would add up to about 95 cm of fish.

The refugium is a 30 liter jerrycan 29x32x44cm with the water level at 34 cm.
There is about 6 Kg of rock on the bottom of the fuge (3kg lr) and a layer of 20cm think cheatomorpha.
The turnover is about 1200lph and I have a small pump on the bottom for some extra flow and to keep particles in suspension.

The skimmer is on the light side I think but the other filtration needs to be taken in consideration when sising a skimmer.
A fleecefilter takes away a lot of bigger waste out of the water befor it brakes down to skimmeble protine.
Royal exclusive even reccomends to get a smaller skimmer when a fleecefilter is used.

My skimmer only produces a watery waste with a tea color.
An undersized skimmer should always produce a thick dark waste but it just can not pull out enough to keep nutrients in check.
An oversized skimmer only pulls out watery foam or nothing at all.
The fact that my Skimmer does not produces a dark skimmate it would seem that there is just not alot to skim.
The tea colored waste is probably the bacteria produced by the carbon dosing combined with protine and some other impurities.

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 06:39 AM

Here some pics of the sump, the bucket of sand is to cycle some sand to replace the sand the wrasse kock out of their little sandbed container.

I also forgot to mention that I have 2 Kg of maxpect spheres in the sump (under the fleece filter).
It is the same principle as marine pure but another material.

Attached Files

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 06:40 AM

The co2 scrubber is not currently hooked to the Skimmer btw.

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 06:42 AM

Here is a picture of the tank with a filter.

Attached Files

**jacky** · 02-13-2021, 08:02 AM

Usually Zeovit system, in sump, skimmer, zeolite reactor, KZ carbon, white cotton filter, some fresh and high-quality live rock, structured in a simple form, this is enough.

Do you now have the opportunity to take the water in the white bucket (deep in the sand) for a nutrient test. To see if it is much higher. (Using a syringe to inject into the sand layer, take water)

**jacky** · 02-13-2021, 10:18 AM

Another thing I noticed is the artificial cornerstone in the main display system. It looks weird. I can’t tell you what kind of artificial material it is. I just think it’s strange.

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 12:46 PM

I just meshured the flow of true the reactor and it is 176lph! the pump not even pushes more than 200lph wen i let it run without the reactor.
So I gotta replace it to make the flow 300lph again.

I tested the nitrate in the sand (of the wrasse bed) and it was the same at about 25ppm.
The white container (refugium) does not have sand but just to be shure I meshured the water on the bottom and it is 25ppm too.

All the rock in the display is arteficial rock from aquaforest.
The rock work in the tank is all cemented together.

Here a picture of the af rock.

I also did a Po4 test witch I did not do in two weeks as it never changes mutch and instead of 0.02 it is 0.08!
I did feed a bit more herbivore food so thats probably the couse or atleast part of it but still it had never been so high in a long time.

Attached Files

**NZ-Nick** · 02-13-2021, 04:22 PM

Hi ya.

I get about 3-4 months out of a bottle AF liquid foods, if that any help regarding expense.

the max speed bioballs, how old are they ??
these sorts of media can hold a lot of detritus.

Whe you do a water change pull them out and give the a rinse ,dunking in some clean water removed from the tank from ur water change and see how detritus come out.

Ur old ZEOvit stones might be a better option there.

Just a thought,
I’m sure other(s) more experienced will add there experience.

Regards,
Nick b

**Aquajan** · 02-13-2021, 07:21 PM

Oh 3 months is not bad at all

The balls are in from the beginning so 18 months.
It is been a while since I gave them a good rince.
I will try that too.

I was thinking of removing them out of the system but removing such a large surface area in a bare bottom tank can turn out quite bad.
I read about people who made an esteblisd tank bare bottom and removed their sandbed had big instability events including algae, cyano, and dinos outbreaks.
Bulk reef supply did this too with their brs 160 tank and they wouldn't do it again.
And while the spheres do not have as big of a surface as a whole sandbed it is still quite substantial.

So as for now I will clean the spheres well and I just fixed the flow on the reactor and it is 300 lph now.

**jacky** · 02-13-2021, 10:48 PM

Make sure that your ZeoVit reactor flow is not to low by measuring it. Additional you can adjust your skimmer to skim wet cleaning it daily for some time to export as much as possible.

**G.Alexander** · 02-13-2021, 11:30 PM

Thank you for the additional details. The rocks are to long in the system so I think they will not leach PO4 anyways they will never be the same as live rock as they have a completely different structure.

Can not comment on the skimmer but I do not see a link between the color of the skimmate and the “power” of a skimmer as this all depends to how high you bring the water level in the skimmer. Even with a really small skimmer you can adjust it to skim light skimmate.

I have used BioBalls (plastic) 30 yeas ago and I came to the conclusion that they not have really be helped with the biology, NO3 was a problem at this time also. I would try to remove them step by step using some kind of a different material as biological filtration material like some of the old ZeoVit material. This need to be done very slow in smaller steps over a couple of weeks. Those where BioBalls which are still available those days:

https://www.tetra.net/de-de/produkte...rystal-box-300

In conjunction with optimizing fish feeding and bringing up the flow through the reactor NO3 should slowly start to decrease.

G.Alexander

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