[need advice] Change old system to Zeovit

[kttmvn]

I have the intention to change my 4 four months system to Zeovit. The old system dose by Microbacter 7 and bio fuel. Please give us your advice on what I should do. Detail of my tank as below:

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons/liter = 140 Lts
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons/liter =140 Lts
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique = No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) = GFO
5. Are you using Ozone = No
6. Are you using UV = No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) = Aqua excel 301
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels: PO4=1.36 and NO3=0.43
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk, and Mg levels: 440, 11, 1240
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.): Marine pure block (1brick), matrix (1l), Biohome marine (2l), Brightwell Nitrate (1l), Refugium
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) = AI prime 16HD
12. What corals do you keep = Soft, SPS, LPS
13. Tissue color (light or dark) both light and dark
14. How long has the tank been running = Approx 4 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system = low nutrients, simplicity
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.): All for reef
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) = dry rock only
18. Any present problems. PO4 is high.
19. Problem description
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) Hanna: Alkalinity, Calcium, PO4, and NO3
21. Present dosing, amounts, and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) Microbacter 7 once a week, Brightwell biofuel 3 times per week. I intend to use Zeobak, Zeostart, Zeo sponge, and Zeovit instead.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) 1.025, 26 deg C
23. Which salt brand do you use: Red Sea CORAL PRO SALT

[Bugger]

Hi! Do you have any zeovit product on hand? Is their fish in the tank? What are you feeding habits? Did you add anything to kick start the Nitrogen cycle? How long ago were the corals purchased.

I'd start adding ZEOVIT Start 3 immediately, twice a day. One half dosage morning night.

Phosphate is a tough one for zeovit users. Most people who struggle with high phosphate and zeovit have to many fish in the tank. How much phosphate material ferric oxide are you using. In what kind of Reactor and what is the flow rate.

[kttmvn]

I have ordered Zeobak, Zeostart, Zeovit, Zeo sponge. It will come in the next three days.
In our tank have 6 fish (feeding by Aquaforest protein power once per day). I added fish to the tank for about two months.
Coral: 6 soft, 7 LPS (feeding by Aquaforest power elixir twice per week). I added coral to the tank about two months.
I'm using Rowaphos 100g in the reactor with flow 100l/min.

What do you mean "Phosphate is a tough one for zeovit users. Most people who struggle with high phosphate and zeovit have to many fish in the tank". Run zeovit system, the phosphate will be too low or too high?
My old system meets a problem with phosphate being too high, and hard to reduce.

[G.Alexander]

Welcome to ZeoVit.com !

If it is not a typo 1.36 mg PO4 is really a lot and it might take a long time until you notice the level is dropping. It would be easy to give you a dosing regimen however I fear this alone will not male you happy as there are additional issues with the system. First I would try to get PO4 under control, therefore it would be necessary to find the reason for it.

6 fish is not rally a lot however it depends to the kind of fish and their sizes, please share some more information. Additional a sump and a full tank picture would be really helpful.

You have mention that you used dry rock, might the PO4 coming from those rocks, if this is the case the PO4 level should be high since the beginning or has the level started to increase over a longer period step by step ?

G.Alexander

[kttmvn]

Thank you, Alexander.

I confirm PO is 1.36. It is really high.
My fish is 3 Clown fish, Blue Green Chromis, Blue Tang, and Valentin sharpnose Puffer. All of them are small in size. 3 to 5 cm in length.
When I finish the first month of the cycle, the PO4 is 0.64.

I met a problem with PO4, and it was suggested that change to zeovit, which will deal with this problem better. Is that right?

[Bugger]

Your phosphate problems might also be because you are dosing that elixir from aqua forest. What dosage are you using. Products like that should not be used at full strength and its better to split up the and added daily. You fish are constantly urinating in the tank and feeding the Zooxanthellae in the corals tissue.
I use reef energy plus by red sea but my tank has no fish and only at the SPS recommendation. The ULNS recommendation I have found adds to much po4 and nitrate to the tank.

[jacky]

At first - I wasn't sure if the phosphate level you gave was correct, after all it was so high and I thought maybe it was just a measurement error. Yesterday I went online to check the information provided (biofilters/potions, etc.), and then I did not give you a program to switch to Zeo nutrition reduction, after all, it is really important to understand where the nutrition comes from.

I watched the pictures - I think

Those products you use - I'm not familiar with it to be honest, basically, the product bacteria and carbon sources work to reduce nutrients and need a strong and effective Skimmer.

1.Skimmer model I have no experience with, I think it should be enough for your system size. So - is it working fine? Focus/stack bubbles. Also - let's clean the collection cup clean, adjust to wet to make it more mud outlet (make sure to do this)

2. What is the brand of activated carbon? Some of the carbon appears to have the potential to leach nutrients. Can you take out some carbon, dip it in some R/DI water, 2 hours, see how it turns out, and post.

3. The slender material (looks like wood particles) I think there should be no possibility of leaching nutrients, but it may be accumulated in the material over time.

4. The Sump's circulating filtration does not look so good (of course this is not the main reason, but of course it would be better if it can be optimized) (for example: dry and wet separation of white cotton, mechanical filtration, etc.) instead of directly circulating the dirt in the Sump, This also leads to further absorption of materials and accumulation of nutrients.

5. The picture of the main display system, there is a square object on the background, what is it.

6. In the Sump, the blue partition, is there anything else inside?

7. What was the phosphate level like during the initial period of the tank?

8. What kind of content is sand that seems to be combined in different ways? what kind of sand are they

It's important to clarify/find out if there are additional sources of nutrients, it's also key (if there are), and ZeoVit base products certainly have the ability to reduce nutrients (balanced way/very powerful). Also - importantly, the process of reducing this should be done in a step-by-step fashion. If the "source" continues to exist, the two sides will be pulled, and the negative reaction of suffering will be reflected on the coral.

[jacky]

I hope I can help find the source, it looks like the problem is with the sand, different combinations of sand seem to have different color appearances. I can't give you an answer 100%. Try to answer those questions and let us know.

[kttmvn]

• Aquaforest elixir do 5ml, I dose twice per week. Then I reduce it to once.
• The PO4 I use hanna 774 (because it is higher than Hanna 774 range, So I have mixed 9ml RODI + 1ml tank water, then the result x10),. Then I recheck by redsea and salifert from the store and friend, the result similar to Hanna.
• The skimmer still works ok. It's designed to work for 300l tank.
• Carbon: I just add in the sump a week. (the PO4 is high before a month and a half). It is made from coconut shells.
• Mechanical filtration: I intend to change to filter sock.
• square object on the background is Green Star Polyp Coral. It does not bloom because of the puffer.
• the blue partition: I just add the chamber to separate the filter media. Because I add a lot:
  • 1l Matrix,
  • 1l aquaforest life bio fil,
  • 1 marine pure brick,
  • 2l bio home marine,
  • 2 bricks Maxspect,
  • 1l brightwell-aquatics-microbacter-lattice-nitratz,
  • 0,5l brightwell-aquatics-microbacter-lattice-medium.
  • 0.5l brightwell-aquatics-microbacter-lattice-large
• What was the phosphate level like during the initial period of the tank? 0.5
• Sand: 9kg FIJI WHITE SAND size L (white) and 5kg seachem grey coast (grey).

As your comments, I see that the most important point is the PO4 source. As your experience, where does it often come from? and how to check to ensure it is the reason. I will follow and step by step check each source.
I thinking about I may add each material (sand, rock piece, filtration media) to a single cup with RODI water, after 01 day, I will check PO4 each cup.

* My NO3 is too low, so I have to dose 2ml NO3 daily to reach the redfield CNP ratio to reduce phosphate. I think the NO3 is too low because I add too much filtration media, do you think so?

[jacky]

The two types of sand you mentioned, are they initially dry or wet? The initial tank phosphate is 0.5, is there already sand at this point?

Let's stop adding any NO3 boosters.
Nutrition is 0, and corals grow healthily without problems

Clean the mouth of the skimmer cup and adjust it to wet as much as possible

[Bugger]

You know the elixer it really has no effect on your corals if you add it all at once. Your skimmer will remove it and corals don't feed like that.
Which salt are you using and can you test you new mixed up salt to see what is going on with po4.
Zeovit products that target phosphate are start 3 and coral snow plus.
Yeah you have a lot of nitrifying material.
Po4 is a common problem for a lot of zeovit users and zeovit will take basically a few months to remove which is a lot safer to do then removing all at once.

[kttmvn]

• The sand is dry sand. I add the sand to the tank from the first day. I have just tested thewater after two weeks of the cycle. The Phosphate at that time is 0.5
• I add No3 to the tank because I have read some topics, which said that:
  • NO3 nearly zero will be good condition for cyano raising.
  • bacterial need NO3 and Carbon to consume PO4 (Redfield CNP ratio).
  • (Is that right?)
  • I will clean the skimmer today, I see that the air bubble is less than they were when I add it to the sump.
• I'm using Red Sea CORAL PRO SALT.
• My input water's TDS is 3.
• I also use a DIY refugium, I enclose the photo below.

[jacky]

Thank you for your update. Honestly, from the question asked, any of your materials seem to be fine (sand/biofilter material, etc.) I don't think they seem to have additional nutrients on their own. What about the dry rock part? What kind of material is it, and can there be an introduction to it?

TDS should be 0 to ensure good water

Make the skimmer as efficient/optimal as possible. I cleaned the skimmer from time to time to keep it clean, and sometimes after cleaning, the air bubbles in the reaction chamber would be low, but after a while, it gradually returned to normal.

As many outlets as possible, adjust to wet, if nutrition can be monitored on a daily basis, it stands to reason that nutrition should not be a constant rise.

You can siphon the silt in the sand and sump for a period of time while changing the water.

Keep this in mind, nutrient concentrations cannot be detected, no problem for coral health/growth

[kttmvn]

Hi, Jacky.
I use Coral skeleton dry rock. I boiled it at 100 degrees centigrade for 45 minutes to remove the unwanted creature before I put it in the tank.
About fish feeding. I often feed a little by little to ensure all the food pellet is eaten by the fish before it touches the sand bed.

[NZ-Nick]

Hi ya.

generally phosphate come from

food- froozen foods need rinsing help alot
rock - can leach phosphates in new tanks
water - 0 TDS
dirty filters- filter socks


Your bio filters
They generally have a alloy content in the that are not good for soft coral.

I use to use a marine pure block. Keep by skimmer outer in clean water. When they kick in the work too well. No no3 or pho4.
(1 big Bock in 600l tank)

And others can trap detritus if in low flow areas.

- generally dry rock are the most common phosphates leaching issues and be a time stabilised.

water changers will helps and use of gfo