New to ZeoVit - nutrients still not in control after 4 weeks

[vik2002]

Hi All, hoping to get some help here. I am about 4 weeks in the zeovit method and still am not seeing any reduction in nutrients. I went through a 2 week run of zeolites and replaced them after 2 weeks. Now am in the second week of second batch of zeolites but my phosphates and nitrates are still very high. Tank is heavily stocked with fish. Here are details about the tank.

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
US 250 gallons
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
US 200 gallons
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique
Dosing red sea Alk, Calc, magnesium
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.)
Yes, GFO reactor. I had an established refugium but I removed that before starting zeovit. Suing GFO to keep phosphates in control.
5. Are you using Ozone
No
6. Are you using UV
No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume)
Deltec TC250. probably rated for 400 gallons.
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels
Measured today. Phosphates: 0.11ppm, Nitrates: 0.33 ppm
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels
Alk: 7.3. Ca:540. Mg 1200
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.)
Clarisea roller filters.
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.)
Halides and T5 (Giesemann spectra) - Bulbs are due for replacement soon.
12. What corals do you keep
SPS/LPS
13. Tissue color (light or dark)
Dark
14. How long has the tank been running
Over one year
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system
Nutrient control
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)
Redsea Alk and Calc only for now.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.)
Started with dry rock. added live bacteria (ZeoBak and other brands when tank was started)
18. Any present problems
High nutrients.
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.)
Lost all my sps in the tank, possibly due to overdose of Lanthanum. So starting fresh with SPS. Still have clams, LPS and Zoa.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.)
Use a variety of test kits. Own alkatronics and mastertronics. Use Hannah, red sea and salifert test kits.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
Zeolite - 2000ml. running for 2 weeks, will replace in 2 weeks. Using PRS reactor. Flow rate - 200 gallons per hour. Shaking once per day for a minute.
ZeoBak - 8 drops per day.
ZeoStart - 1 ml per day. Dosed using a doser (with dilution)
Zeofood - 6 drops per day.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 78F
Water changes every week - 20%
Carbon in a bag
23. Which salt brand do you use
Tropic Marine Pro

[jacky]

Due to the level of nutrient concentration and the appearance of the coral (dark color), I recommend that you temporarily discontinue Zeo Food and use Zeo SpongePower @ 8 drops every other day. Zeo Start 0.8ml x2 every morning and night

Not sure if the amount of zeolite material and flow rate is correct, if it is as you described, then great, I also hope you can actually get the actual flow rate again

Adjust the skimmer to be moist for a while to make it more outlet

Also, before using the ZeoVit system, you used GFO and it looks like the nutrients were there, could you post more pictures of what's inside the filter tank

some bad carbon that seems to leach nutrients, what brand of carbon do you use

[G.Alexander]

Welcome to ZeoVit.com !

Beside what Jacky said your ZeoStart dosage is relative low, the right amount for your system size would be 0.8 ml 2 x per day so 1.6 ml totally per day.

The NO3 level is not really high, it will not have a negative impact to your corals while the PO4 level is to high. ZeoVit is a bacteria driven system so it does need some time before it is established processing nutrients effective. Do you already own additional products from the product line ?

You mention that you have a lot of fish, can you please post a list with the kind of fish and their sizes ?

The Ca level is high also so my recommendation would be to let the level drop keeping it solid in the range of 400 – 420 mg.

Additional I would recommend you to get a K+ (potassium) level for your system, especially later when the system is running solid the element is very important to keep your corals healthy. The level should be ~ 380 mg.

G.Alexander

[Bugger]

You say that your nitrate are at 0.33 ppm. That is not high. That is a totally exceptable amount. anything from 0.25 up to 5 is an okay amount.

[vik2002]

Correction on nitrates - it’s 33 ppm.

[vik2002]

Thank you Jackie and Alexander. I will make suggested changes to the dosing schedule. I have been dosing sponge power infrequently. CA has crept up slowly, I have stopped dosing Ca for now.

Fish wise, it is a tang heavy tank with wrasses. I have probably 6 medium to large tangs in there (the largest one is a Sailfin tang - probably 8 inches). There are a number of smaller fish in the tank but the bio load on those will be fairly small.

here is a picture of the sump area (very messy). sump is 60 inches. Flow is from right to left. Starting from the right, 2 clarisea filter rolls. A refugium chamber with has some rock in there. Then in the middle chamber, to the right, I have a varios pump feeding the external skimmer. Then I have a media reactor, currently using for GFO. Then next is the PRS Zeovit reactor. I can confirm that the flow is 200 as there is a flow connector attached. The last chamber is the return.

For carbon, I was using BRS (bill reef supply) branded ROX in low flow. I plan to switch to normal carbon once my supply depleted.

[Bugger]

What test are you using in your master tronic to test nitrate? Can you double check with another brand?

I would suggest stopping all Amino acids at the moment if you are dosing them.

[jacky]

Thanks for the pictures. I don't see anything wrong with "nutrition" from the pictures. ZeoVit is a bacteria-driven system, so it does take some time to process nutrients efficiently, so it is recommended to use the full ZeoVit method rather than a mix of others.

Zeo Bac 8 drops 2-3 times a week
Zeo Start 0.8ml x2 every morning and evening (1.6ml a day)
Zeo SpongePower 8 drops every other day
BioMate 16 drops every other day (optional)

Base water parameters - as stable as possible at NSW levels
Potassium - be sure to increase slowly to 380g

Zeo CoralSnow 8ml 2 times a week
Zeo CV 12 drops 2 times a week
Zeo Food 8 drops 2 times a week (optional)

I have no experience with the carbon brand you are using, KZ carbon is recommended and I got good results

High quality salt + water in a balanced way, change 10% weekly, remove mud siphon as much as possible

Not sure about your previous lighting, you have replaced (looks good spectrum). Maintaining the above plan will take some time, keeping a close eye on nutrient levels and coral health. Let's also slowly reduce GFO if nutrients have been slowly reduced, also remember - this process should not be aggressive or the coral will be extra stressed