How to get the “Zeovit” look?

[Miami Reef]

I’ve loved the pastel zeovit look since forever, but my tank is not running any zeovit products.

I want my acros to look like this one day:

[Miami Reef]

I will post my about my system right now. Give me a second.

[Miami Reef]

2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter 260 gallons
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique: sodium hydroxide, calcium chloride, and balling part c
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: yes
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume): Reef octopus 250INT
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels: po4: 0.02ppm, nitrates 8ppm
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels: alk 8, ca 420, mg 1350
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.): skimmer, filter socks, carbon in media bag
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.): 2x 8x48watt. 1
1:1 coral plus : blue plus. 8 hours no ramp
12. What corals do you keep: acropora and tridacna maxima
13. Tissue color (light or dark): medium
14. How long has the tank been running: 6 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system: I like the pastel look
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) cheato gro 30mL once a week for trace elements. Vodka/vinegar to lower nitrates.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.): 15 pounds KP rocks, rest dry.
18. Any present problems: no
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.): n/a
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.): Red Sea and hanna.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)Temp: 79-79, pH 8.1-8.4, 35ppt
23. Which salt brand do you use: Instant Ocean purple. 15% once a week.

The brownish acro frags towards the left are new. I got them like that.

[Miami Reef]

Here’s my tank:

[G.Alexander]

I would recommend you to start as follows:

1. Place 2.5 liter zeovit in a Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 260 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 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.

Later on you could use the additional products for coral coloration, also ZeoFood if necessary. 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.

ZeoVit is not compatible to UV so I would recommend you to switch if off when you start.

When you start reduce the Vinegar/Vodka dosage to 1/3 and reduce the rest slowly step by step to zero over the next 3 – 4 weeks, a also stop dosing the trace element product you already use. You can keep the algae in your sump as long as they do grow, if they stop to grow or if you notice partial die off remove them later.

Basic water parameters looking good, try to keep them as solid 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

[Miami Reef]

Edit

[Miami Reef]

edit

[Miami Reef]

Can I keep my alkalinity at 8dKH?

[G.Alexander]

My recommendation is to keep the KH at a maximum of 8 however personally I kept mine around 7. Higher KH does cause issues with SPS corals in a nutrient poor system and it does not increases growth or makes anything better. I have personally not seen a difference in growth in the range of 6.5 – 7.5 and corals growth in my systems was massive.

Please also keep in mind that our hobby test kits are not 100% accurate so it will be difficult to be sure that a test result of 8 is not 8.5 in reality.

If you like to keep the KH higher I would not go above 7.5

G.Alexander

[Miami Reef]

I understand. I will keep it at 7 in that case.

Do you have a picture of your tank?

[G.Alexander]

You can see pictures and read the story of my systems in those two threads:

https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/pictu...-photo-session
https://forum.zeovit.com/forum/pictu...and-running

G.Alexander

[Miami Reef]

Absolutely amazing.

One thing that I noticed with the zeovit “pastel look” is that the tanks that produce those colors have very few fish.

My tank has a medium to high load. Do you think I need to rehome some fish if my goal is the pastel look?

https://youtu.be/4rVb1Ezfk_Y

[jacky]

Very beautiful coral reefs, I like it very much. I think if it were me, I wouldn't change the amount of fish for a while, as long as the nutrients were kept solid and barren and stable, then I don't think it would be a problem.

The soft and colorful appearance of beautiful corals depends on many "conditions". I can't explain many of them at once, but poor nutrition and good fixation are one of the conditions.

[Bugger]

You need colorfull corals and Zeovit stones. Those corals are pushed to the limit and it's not really that healthy for them. I had my entire tank crash because my corals had no nutrients in the water. Sure they looked great but its not something I would do again.
I still keep no fish but I add reef energy plus by redsea continuously threw out the day to keep corals fed. I no longer use the stones

Corals kept healthy are much more interesting then just a starved pastel reef to me.

If you want to run things pastel I would still consider keeping at least one Tang and other fish in the tank at all times.

[Miami Reef]

Thank you Bugger,

I have a lot of fish and I will feed them very well + I’ll keep a detectable amount of phosphate at all times.