Issues 700L tank

[Jansenaqua]

Hi,

We want to start with the Zeovit system because of high nitrates and low phosphates. We have a 700L tank, which we started in June 2022.
We have a mixed reef with some sps and lots of lps and leathers. We have 5 different tangs, 2 foxfaces, 1 rabbitfish, 2 butterflyfish (biggest mistake of our lives), 3 pajama cardinal fish, 1 chromis, 1 salarias, 1 dwarf angel and 2 maiden goby's.

We feed 2 a day seaweeds and 1 a day 3 cubes of frozen food.

Can someone help us out with what en how much we should use of the zeovit system?

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
800 liter

2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
700 liter

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
Yes (24w)

7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume)
Maxspect jump sk400, 400-1000 liter

8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels
At the moment NO3 = 25.5 and PO4: 0
We dose PO4 0.08

9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels
Ca 410
Alk 8.456
Mg 1275

10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.)
We had a refugium (but the weeds didn't do anything, so we quit)
1 bag of chemipure blue (312gram)

11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.)
2x Reef Flare Pro (m), 160w, about 5 months old. Max amount of light is 48% (2x 55w)

12. What corals do you keep
Mixed reef. Mainly leathers and LPS

13. Tissue color (light or dark)
Dark at the moment

14. How long has the tank been running
9 months

15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system
To stabilize our water parameters. NO3 is way to high and we can't get it below 20

16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)
DSR EZ Trace
DSR EZ Calcium
DSR EZ Buffer
DSR Carbon
(We've tried DSR EZ Carbon, but that didn't work)

17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.)
Started with mostly dead rock (about 45 kg), about 5 kg live rock out of previous nano tank
Same age as tank, about 9 months.

18. Any present problems
Coral loss, we think due to high no3 and low po4.
We can't get our tank stable, no3 swings between 20 and 35.

19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.)
Corals turn brown, heads start to die. Lots of algea build up on corals.

20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.)
PO4 Hanna ulr phosphorus
NO3 Hanna hr
Hanna alkalinity
Salinity with D-D refractometer
rest of the tests is Salifert

21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
None

22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)
salinity 1.024
temp 25

23. Which salt brand do you use
AB reef salt Aqua Medic

[Bugger]

You would need 2 litres of zeovit at a flow rate of 200 gph. It would slowly decrease nitrate to normal levels. You need to wash the zeovit with RO water before putting it in your tank.

Do you have a reactor yet?

[jacky]

Hi Jansenaqua Welcome to ZeoVt.com!

I suggest you start as follows:

1. Put 1.75 liters of zeovit into the Zeo reactor. The water flow is about 700 liters per hour. Connect the reaction pump to a clock timer and run the reaction pump at 3 h on/3 h off/3 h on intervals. Make sure the zeolite is not exposed to air when the pump is off. Clean materials daily. Leave the zeolite in the filter for 4 weeks until your first replacement. This is the first replacement interval, others may extend to 6-8 weeks.

2. Place 0.7 liters of activated charcoal in the filter bag and keep it in passive water flow in the sink, changing every 30 days. Rub the carbon daily to keep the surface clean. With korallenzucht carbons, most users will achieve perfect results.

3. 7 drops of ZeoBac per day for the first 2 weeks, 7 drops each time 2-3 times a week. Take ZeoStart 0.7ml 2 times a day (morning and evening). Place those in front of the Zeo Reactor pump while the Zeo Reactor pump is on.

Adjust your skimmer to skim off the wet, keep it clean to get as much out as possible. Change the water 5-10% weekly with good quality salt.

Keep the algae refuge for now, which can be removed later once the algae starts to die/stop growing due to reduced nutrients.

UV is not compatible with the system, after giving Zeo base product, turn it off for 2 hours.

Your Dsr EZ product supplements do contain other trace elements, try to get pure supplements instead of containing other elements. Also stop/reduce seaweed and frozen foods now, some seaweed contains iodine which feeds algae growth.

When starting Zeo base products, remove 50% of the DSR Carbon dosage and watch for nutrient concentration. If you notice the beginning does reduce nutrients/stay at zero, gradually remove the rest up to 4 weeks. It is also not recommended to add additional ways to boost PO4.

Are any biological filter sponges and certain filter materials/mechanical equipment etc. included in the system.
Is this the concentration level of NO3 at the beginning of the tank?

The basic water parameters look good, try to keep them close to stable for NSW in the following ranges:

KH 6.5 – 7.5
Ca 400 – 420 mg
Mg 1250 – 1300mg
K+ ~ 380mg

For malnourished environments, K+ (potassium) appears to be an important element. I suggest you get a test suite for that element too, and post your results.

[NZ-Nick]

Welcome 🤗

Food. 3 frozen cubes day.
can you reduce this to one or half and try to get the fish on pellet food ?

To me seems like a lot of food for not a lot of fish. ( not including ur tangs as they eat algae in tank and noire-seaweed)

Also, you lighting seems to be very low for a large tank ?? Almost all corals need light to grow.

Can you get another reefer or fish shop to test your water. Having NO phosphates is strange. Especial with the amount of from food.

Please also test a batch of fresh salt mixed water for nitrates

[Jansenaqua]

Hi,

Thanks for the reactions so far.

To specify: the tangs also eat frozen food, the fish are about 15-20 cm. 3 cubes of frozen food weigh about 10 grams. We defrost the frozen food in a strainer and rinse it before putting it in the tank.

We are picking up the reactor (fauna marin zeomatic 2) and zeovit stuff tomorrow and hope to install it Saturday.

We already checked po4 in two of our lfs, but their readings where 0 aswell. And we tested fresh salt water there were no nitrates in it.

[Jansenaqua]

[Bugger]

The zeovit will help but get ready to have to wait month before you see nitrates under 5.

That nitrate is coming from all those fish and algae sheets that your feeding.

You could also consider selling some fish off.

Make sure you get the flow in the reactor is right and do the three hour on off cycle if you have any corals living in there. Raising a lowering nitrate needs to be done slowly so animals adjust properly without die off.

alexander he has 800 litres of water so shouldn't he have a full two bags of zeovit, or are we only counting display volume?

[G.Alexander]

Hello Jansenaqua and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

Basically the NO3 level is elevated but this is not the real reason for the issues with the corals so there must be something more.

I would recommend you to do a ICP water test first to see if any elements are elevated.

Jacky has posted a dosing recommendation for the start already so make sure to follow it. The chemipure blue product you use is something which I would start to remove additional but this must be done very slow step by step to prevent a increase of PO4. Remove 1/3 when you start with ZeoBVit and than continue to remove the rest in smaller steps over the next 2 month or so until everything is removed. While doing this keep a close eye on the PO4 level.

The lighting intensity is also to low as Nick said, keeping SPS corals with a maximum coloration will not really be possible with this setup.

It will be a longer process and some changes will be necessary so you need some patience before observing a turnaround.

G.Alexander

[G.Alexander]

alexander he has 800 litres of water so shouldn't he have a full two bags of zeovit, or are we only counting display volume?

The net water volume is the base of calculating the ZeoVit quantity and the dosing quantites so 2 bags would be a little bit to much but I would also not expect that it does cause any issues.

G.Alexander