Dosing Recommendations

[gstaiano95]

Tell us about your tank.
Please give us answers to the following questions in order to get more accurate dosing recommendations.

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter: 32 gallons
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter: 25.6 gallons
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): Tunze 9001 rated for 5.3 to 37 gallons
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels: PO4 is at 0.03ppm and NO3 is at 11ppm
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels: Ca: 481, Alk:7.4, and MG: 1215
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.): Deep sand bed
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.): AI Prime 16
12. What corals do you keep: None at the moment
13. Tissue color (light or dark): N/A
14. How long has the tank been running: 9 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system: It's effective
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.): I will be eventually dosing Tropic Marin All For Reef
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.): 30 pounds, 9 months old
18. Any present problems: Yes
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) I have a dwindling cyano problem, and very small dino issue
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.): Salifert for Mg, Red Sea for Ammonia, Hanna Checker for everything else.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.): Have not started.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) Salinity is 1.025, Temp is 81.1. Ammonia is at 0, nitrite is at 0.013, PH is 8.6
23. Which salt brand do you use: Instant Ocean, but will be slowly transitioning to Tropic Marin Pro Reef

[jacky]

If there are no animals in the tank at all, follow the Zeo 14-day plan and stop adding Tropic Marin All For Reef. If it is me, I do not recommend using a deep sand bed, because the sand system has been around for a while, the combination of bacteria/wet sand, and Zeo system may lead to a combination of cyano/algae. If it were me, I would use dry sand (shallow sand bed) + some high-quality Live rock, and then implement the Zeo 14-day plan.

Of course, the deep sand bed/currently wet sand can also use the Zeo system. This process will take more time, or you may encounter problems such as the signs mentioned above. In comparison, this is my thought/suggestion, especially since there are no animals in the tank (advantage)

[G.Alexander]

First start with the basics products to decrease nutrients:

1. Place 0.2 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 25 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 0.1 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 1 drop ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 – 3 x weekly dosage of 1 drop each. Dose 0.1 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, except the Ca level which is a little bit high, 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.

The TM product seems to contain additional trace elements which should not be used in a nutrient poor system as small quantities of such elements can darken the corals tissue. I would recommend you to use a “clean” supplement for KH and Ca if necessary additional for Mg which usually can be balanced easy by the regular water changes.

As Jacky mention the Deep Sand Bed is also not optimal, but at the moment I would not change it, keep it is it is it can be removed later once the system is running solid.

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

G.Alexander

[gstaiano95]

What would you recommend for a "clean supplement"?

[G.Alexander]

I am not really familiar with the available products as I personally preferred to use CaCO2 reactors, however I would recommend to use supplements without additional trace elements which just supplement Ca and / or KH.

If you like to mix your own supplements use chemicals with the grade purest as a minimum.

Korallenzucht does offer a couple of products for example but others would be fine also.

G.Alexander