Newbie to Zeovit

[Freshwater Researcher]

Hello,

I am seriously considering to switch to Zeovit system for my Red sea reefer 170. But I am not sure how I can safely and slowly switch. It will be great if someone can guide me throught this process and I really appreciate that!

I did some research for Zeovit reactor here in the US and feel the options are fairly limited for my small tank. Are there any suggestions for my tank volume described below? And another probably stupid question: I didn't valve for a lot of reactors (e.g. Bubble Magus Reactor, AquaMaxx Zeo Reactor), is it possible to adjust flow rate for these reactors and how to do that if possible?

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter Red Sea 170 (Display tank 130L, Sump 25L)
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter ~130L
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
5. Are you using Ozone no
6. Are you using UV no
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) Nyos 120
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels PO4 undetectable with Red Sea algae control test kit; NO3 5-6 ppm with Red Sea algae control test kit
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels Ca 405, Alk 7.7, Mg 1350
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) refugium with Chaeto
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 1 XR30 G5 pro
12. What corals do you keep sps dominate with some sps
13. Tissue color (light or dark) dark
14. How long has the tank been running 6 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system growth, color, replicable of success
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) Red sea AB+ 5 ml/day for coral
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) 30 ponds, half fresh live rock, half dry rock
18. Any present problems Yes
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) Tissue lossing tips before I lowered Ca 475 Alk 8.7 to current level. Things seems slow down but not major improvement yet.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) Alk hanna checker, Red sea test kit for NO3, PO4, Ca, Mg.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) No
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) Salinity 1.026, temp 25.4 C
23. Which salt brand do you use Red sea pro + Two little fish AccuraSAea1

Many thanks!

[Freshwater Researcher]

I meant: I didn't see valves for a lot of reactors (e.g. Bubble Magus Reactor, AquaMaxx Zeo Reactor), is it possible to adjust flow rate for these reactors and how to do that if possible?

[G.Alexander]

Hi and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

I would recommend you to start as follows:

1. Place 0.3 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 130 liters 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 0.13 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 2 drops ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 x weekly dosage of 2 drops. Dose 0.13 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. 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.

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.

I am not very familiar with the different reactor types however the volume of the reactor does not really play a role, it is more the flow which in your case should be ~ 130 liters per hour which can be adjusted with valve or the size of the pump. Another alternative is a DIY project, not really complicate. You can find some ideas over here:

https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/equipment-forums/reactors/148-diy-zeoreactors

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

G.Alexander

[Michal]

I meant: I didn't see valves for a lot of reactors (e.g. Bubble Magus Reactor, AquaMaxx Zeo Reactor), is it possible to adjust flow rate for these reactors and how to do that if possible?

What I did I bought an aquarium hose (for canister filters) and a valve, then I connected the pump to the reactor using this hose with valve fitted in the middle.

[Freshwater Researcher]

Hi and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

I would recommend you to start as follows:

1. Place 0.3 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 130 liters 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 0.13 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 2 drops ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 x weekly dosage of 2 drops. Dose 0.13 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. 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.

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.

I am not very familiar with the different reactor types however the volume of the reactor does not really play a role, it is more the flow which in your case should be ~ 130 liters per hour which can be adjusted with valve or the size of the pump. Another alternative is a DIY project, not really complicate. You can find some ideas over here:

https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/equipment-forums/reactors/148-diy-zeoreactors

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

G.Alexander

Great! Thank you. I will start this process slowly for my current tank and keep you posted where I go.

[Freshwater Researcher]

What I did I bought an aquarium hose (for canister filters) and a valve, then I connected the pump to the reactor using this hose with valve fitted in the middle.

This makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the explanation and photo!

[Freshwater Researcher]

Hi Alexander,
I made a reactor by myself and started dosing Zeobak and ZeoStart from this Monday. One question is should I still use Red sea AB+ for coral nutrition and feed fish as usual? Or reduce a little bit? Thank you!

[G.Alexander]

I would recommend to feed the fish as usual but stop dosing additional corals food.

G.Alexander

[Freshwater Researcher]

Will do that. Thank you.

[Freshwater Researcher]

Hi Alexander,

I accidentally experienced power outage for ~10h last week and lost 2 corals, thus I didn't dose on that day. Except that, I strictly followed what you suggested.

Now my NO3 is around 5-10 (slightly increased somehow but can't determine the exact number based on Redsea kit, maybe because I removed all live rocks in sump in order to have space for zeovit reactor?) and PO4 is still undectable.

Also, I have a bottle of zeovit sponge power in hand. Do you think it is better to start to dose from now? Or maybe wait until later?

Thank you for your advice!

[jacky]

Leave the zeolite in the filter for 4 weeks until you change it for the first time. The water flow is about 130 liters per hour, and the reaction pump is operated at intervals of 3 hours on / 3 hours on / 3 hours on.
1.（Through a small container, collect the zeolite reactor outlet for 30 seconds, the volume is x120, so that the hourly flow rate of the reactor can be obtained)
2.（How long has the zeolite material been used for now?)

The NO3 level does not seem to be a serious problem. Of course, if you remove live rock all at once, this seems to have a direct impact on biology. It is important to obtain and understand the phosphate level

If you already have Zeo Sponge Power, you can start adding it now. Dosage: 1 drop every other day

Try to make the basic water parameters approach the NSW level as much as possible, and let us get a potassium test kit to understand its level, K+~380g

[G.Alexander]

Sorry to hear about the looses, usually the most important thing if a power outage does happen is keeping the water moving. SpongePower does have a positive side effect to the biology so you can dose it additional like Jacky recommended.

G.Alexander

[Freshwater Researcher]

Thank you Jacky and Alexander!

1) I started zeovit on Mon 3/8/2020 with DIY reactor and time set at 3h interval. It has been 18 days so far. I will change zeolite and carbon after 30 days.

2) I checked K+ for a couple of times with salifert test kits and today's value was 360. Is this value too far away from recommendation range? Do I need to dose K+ separately?

3) Other parameters today were:
KH 6.7
Ca 395
Mg 1110 (Ca and Mg are low. I dose ESV B-Ionic two part so I set the dosing pump to dose more Component No.2 Calcium in order to increase Ca and Mg)
PO4 0
NO3 10
Salinity 1.024
There have been some green slime algae (Cyanobacteria?) covering some live rocks in the last two weeks. Maybe becasue I fed too much recently.

4) Also I started to dose Sponge Power as you suggested.

Thanks again!

[jacky]

1. In the future, if we encounter the replacement cycle of zeolite material and Zeo carbon, let us extend the carbon by one week so that the two will be separated by one week.

2. Slightly lower, let us gradually and slowly increase the potassium level to 380g

3. I am very happy that you have noticed that the basic water parameter levels, the same Ca and Mg levels are both low. Ca to 400-420, Mg 1250-1300. Keep changing the water 10% every week to refresh the elements in a balanced way.

4. With good support for biological side effects, good products, your choice is great.

5. If you can, you can add Zeo CoralSnow option to the dosing plan
Apart from Zeo products, are you still adding other products?

Usually, if it shows signs of green, it means that a certain product contains amino acids and other elements, excessive or other reasons, and the reaction of brown and light green film and other signs

An additional idea is that, based on your above problems, maybe we can do a few water changes, or increase the water change to 20%, and use a toothbrush to clean the affected area. If you have CoralSnow, it is better, 1ml corresponds to 25 US gallons, do 7 day. If you use sand, clean it by siphoning a vacuum. (Because of the system conversion, I think it is possible to do so, it will not affect the progress of the Zeo system). On the whole, it is the effect of bonus points.

[Freshwater Researcher]

Great. I will follow what you said and order Coralsnow.

Since switching to Zeovit, I only used Zeovit products and fed fish. I will monitor the nutrient level.