Need some help getting started

[Roellers]

Hi,

April 2021 I moved to a new house and started a brand new tank. I started balling and carbon dosing but I'm having problems keeping nutrients in check. That's why I chose zeovid becouse I like the way ZEOvit works. Unfortunatly a lot of coral has died during transport, therefore the uptake of Ca/ALK/Mg is very low. At the moment I'm not dosing Ca/ALK/Mg.( Alk is drifting down 0,4DKH a week)

Here is some infromation:

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
±1250 Liter
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
±1000 Liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique
Balling Alk/Ca/Mg + Trace
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)
Deltec 2000i + Auto neck cleaner (1500 to 2000 liter)
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels
Before Zeovit: PO4 = 0,10 NO3 = 15,3 (Both hanna checkers)
After starting 5 days: PO4 = 0,16 NO3 = 14,5 (Both hanna checkers)
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels
Ca = 532 Alk = 8,8 Mg = 1537
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.)
Using only a fleecefilter (theiling roller mat the big one)
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.)
Philips Coralcare Gen2
12. What corals do you keep
Soft corals, Montipora, Birdsnest, Goniopora
13. Tissue color (light or dark)
Overall darker color
14. How long has the tank been running
9 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system
The carbondosing methed used before was not effective, had to feed verry little and dose a lot to keep the parameters in check, I want to be able to feed a normal amout to my fish and coral.
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)
At the moment I only have ZEObak / ZEOstart / ZEOfood / Cyanoclean / KZ(Zeovit) Active carbon / Zeovit stones and Vertex reactor.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.)
I have about 200kg rock in my tank and ± 20% is liverock from Indonesia, No sand!
18. Any present problems
Some red bacterial film om the bottem and some spots are dark green.
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.)
Corals are doing oke
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.)
NO3 & PO4 Hanna, Alk/Ca/Mg Neptune Trident. I have a ICP test on hand to test as soon as all the parameters are where I want them.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
Tryed to look on the internet to find the best solution, Cyanoclean 20 drops/day , ZEObak 11 drops/day for 2 weeks, ZEOfood 20 drops every 3 days, ZEOstart 2ml/day (Neptune DOS), 1L(1bag) carbon passive in sump), 2L(2bags) ZEOvit in reactor (3h on 3h off cycle for the first 2 weeks)
I started ZEOvit 5 days ago.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)
25,3 Celcius, PH 8,1 (average), 35PPT
23. Which salt brand do you use
Red Sea blue bucket



I would like to have some dosing advise, At the moment I am feeding my fish every day the same amount of food and phosphate are going higher and higher. Perhaps it is becouse I use Cyanoclean?

Sorry for my bad English and thanks in advance for the replies.

[G.Alexander]

Hello and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

Thank you for posting all the details, the increase of nutrients is not unusual if you convert to ZeoVit if you stop the “method” of removing nutrients which was used before suddenly.

Can you please tell us more about the carbon dosing method you have used before ?

In the meantime I would recommend you to continue using ZeoVit as follows:

1. Place 2.5 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 1000 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 1 liter 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 10 drops ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 – 3 x weekly dosage of 10 drops. Dose 1 ml ZeoStart 2 x daily (morning & evening). Dose those in front of the Zeo reactor pump while it is switched on. CyanoClean does not have a impact to nutrients.

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 are not ideal, try slowly adopt them and 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

[Roellers]

Can you please tell us more about the carbon dosing method you have used before ?[/FONT]

Hi Alexander,

Thanks for te response, I’ve made the adjustments. Before I was dosing DSR(Dutch synthetic reefing) EZ-Carbon. (https://dsrreefing.com/ez-dsr/) I will buy and test for K+.

The only thing what makes me nervous is that my phosphates rise by 0,01 each day and they are already high. I am feeding very little to hopefully slow the phosphate build up. The tank is to large to preform over 10% weather changes.



greetings Roel

[G.Alexander]

Hello Roel, main reason for the increase of the PO4 level is that you have stopped the carbon dosing system you have used before completely when you have started to dose ZeoVit. ZeoVit is a bacterial driven system which needs some time until it starts processing nutrient effective plus we do not know if the carbon dosing you have done before has bound nutrients and kept them in the biomass which now is released again.

Please also measure if your ZeoVit reactor flow is correct and skim wet by cleaning the skimmer daily for a while. I would also recommend to vacuum the sand regular while each weekly water changes to remove sediments.

Additional if might be helpful to dose 20 drops BioMater every other day additional.

Please also put some fresh carbon in some RO water and let it soak for one hour. Than check if the RO water does contain PO4.

Also stop dosing the trace element supplement you use at the moment.

G.Alexander

[Roellers]

Hi Alexander,

Thanks for the information. The flow of the Zeovit reactor is correct and did what you suggested. I start dosing the Biomatter. Besides Zeovit I dose nothing.

My phosphates and nitrates are slowly but continues dropping!

Alk: 8,61(not dosing)
calcium: 547(not dosing)
Magnesium: 1521(dosing slowly to keep it steady to hopefully make calcium drop a bit..)
Phosphate: 0,16 (trending down from 0,2)
Nitrates: 13,6 (trending down from 14,6)
Potassium: 380 ppm
Iodine: <0,03 ppm
Iodide: 0,01 ppm
Strontium: 0- 3 ppm
Boron: 4,5ppm

I am happy to say that my phosphate and nitrates are trending down, hopefully the corals will consume more when these parameters are constant and in the correct range.
Cyanoclean is very effective! Biomatter I started a few days ago can’t comment on that.

Alk, Ca,Mg trident
phosphates and nitrates Hanna checker
the rest salifert.
I do have a ICP test on hand, waiting for all the parameters are in check to send it in for confirmation of my own results.

[jacky]

Looks like good news about nutrition shouldn't go up. Base water parameters are high, do you have a chance to check that the salinity level is correct

[G.Alexander]

Glad to hear nutrients are finally start to decrease slowly, lets keep the dosing regimen the same for the next 2 weeks. The main parameters Ca / Mg and KH are all relative high, I would suggest to cross check salinity with a different accurate instrument to rule out a issue with your actual instrument as those elevated levels are common if salinity is to high. Not sure if your ICP test does contain a salinity measurement also.

G.Alexander

[Roellers]

Looks like good news about nutrition shouldn't go up. Base water parameters are high, do you have a chance to check that the salinity level is correct

Hi Jack, thanks for your reaction.

I have tested salinity:
36ppt 1.027sg refractometer (calibrated before use)
35,0ppt Hanna salinity tester (calibrated before use)

At the start of setting up the tank I tested magnesium to low. I wanted to correct it to natural seawater but overshot a lot.. that is why my parameters are at this level now. On my trident I have seen a correlation between calcium and megnesium they move to the opposite sides of each other.(I will post a photo) that’s why I am now dosing magnesium slowly to get calcium in check..

[Roellers]

[G.Alexander]

Would recommend you to do some additional water changes with a well balanced salt, this should slowly bring back the levels which are recommended. Dosing Mg furthermore while the level is high again will cause issues sooner or later. Might there anything you dose add Ca additional or are there any kind of rocks etc. which could leach Ca ?

G.Alexander

[jacky]

Make sure the new water has a consistent salinity and refresh the elements in a balanced fashion by changing the water several times. It is recommended to obtain a test package such as Salifert, cross-referenced

[Roellers]

I have my nutrients under control for over a month, but the dyno/cyano will not go away. I would like to have some help on how to get rid of it becouse it is all over my aquarium however the corals are doing oke. Exept the ''red slime'' grows over plate corals.

Updated infromation:

System: 188cm*70cm*70cm with sump etc about 1250 liters.
Light: Coralcare Gen2
Flow: 2 x Gyre 350 and 4x aquamedic ecodrift 4.3

Temp: 25 Celcius
Salinity 35/36 ppt ( Hanna/refractometer)
pH 8.13 day / 8.03 night

Alk: 7.8 dKH (Trident)
Calcium: 430 ppm (Trident)
Mignesium: 1413 ppm (Trident)

Nitrate: 2.8 ppm (Hanna)
Phosphate 0.00 ppm (Hanna)

2,5L Zeovit (1000L flow) in a reactor/ 6weeks
1L activated carbon/ month
2ml ZeoStart/day
ZEObak 13 drops/ 2 times a week
Zeofood plus 25 drops/ 3 times a week
Amino Acid 1ml/day (I feed less becouse the small amount of coral)
CyanoClean 25 drops/ day (used this product from first signs of red slyme
Bio-Mate 20 drops every other day

I have about 9 corals from medium size in my aquarium, first want to fix the issue before buying more coral.
I dose small amount of kalkwasser it keeps up with demand. For over a month noting really changed manual removal has no inpact . I use all KZ products (exept kalkwasser) what can I change/ add to fight this bacteria?

[Bugger]

Just use the chemi clean and dos it twice you can even double dose it. Those zeovit products will not help much

[jacky]

The kalkwasser will bind PO4 from the water column and this compound will accumulate at the sand and rocks for example. Under several conditions the PO4 can be leached back in the water column, also algae for example can pick up the PO4 directly from the substrate. It can be typical for such systems to have no detectable PO4 in the water column which several kind of algae grow very well.

Use calcium reactor with medium (high purity material/without any trace elements), titration equipment (high purity/without any trace elements). This way we can make individual adjustments to the elements individually.

Since you have cyanos, I recommend you to use the mixture treatment C. The recent dosing regimen only uses foundation, have you tried sucking them out and brushing the affected area with a toothbrush? Will they grow back?

Please also check your RO water with an accurate TDS meter, which should read zero. If you don't already have it, I also recommend using the purest water resin as the final stage of your RO unit

[G.Alexander]

I do not have experience with chemiclean but some sources in the internet reported it does contain antibiotics which can be a problem to the biology. Korallenzucht has released some products to get rid of them but from the reports I can tell for some people they have not worked while others had great success with them to get rid of cyanos.

The products are:

Mixture of CoralSnow and ZeoBac – switch off skimmer for 2 hours while dosing
Mixture of CyanoClean and CoralSnow – switch off skimmer for 2 hours while dosing
A-Balance

While treating them stop dosing AminoAcid and ZeoFood and products which contain iodine (nori algae).

G.Alexander