Switching to Zeovit_170 l

[cherrybloss]

HI, I'd like to say hello. My name is Lucas and I have been dealing with marine aquaristics for over 4 years. I've been switching my system to Zeovit for a week now. Below some details aboute current tank:

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 170 liter
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - ~150 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 - occasionally
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - Nyos 160
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - undetectable (Milwaukee MW-13; Colombo NO3 test)
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels - 440; 7; ~1300 (Colombo)
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) - skimmer, 2 l Maxpects Biosphere, VSV
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2x Al Prime 16 HD + Radion XR15 G6 Blue
12. What corals do you keep - SPS and LPS
13. Tissue color (light or dark) - light
14. How long has the tank been running - over 2 years, but I repleced rock 3 months ago
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system - I like SPS look
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) - for now nothing
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - 10 kg
18. Any present problems - hair algae
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - brown hair algae after rock replacement
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) - Colombo + MW-13 (PO4) / weekly
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) - 100 ml zeolite / flow ~ 100l/h; zeoback 1 drop daily; zeostart 2 drops/daily, aminoacid 1 drop/2 days
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) - 35 ppt
23. Which salt brand do you use - Fauna Marine

[cherrybloss]

I’ve attached some pictures of my aquarium

[G.Alexander]

Hello Lucas and welcome to ZeoVit.com !

Bevor I can give you a dosing recommendation for the transfer to ZeoVit I need to be sure that you use a different carbon source at the moment (VSV). Can you please provide some more details in the context of your system ? Do you still dose use it ?

G.Alexander

[cherrybloss]

Hello Alexander, first of all, I am impressed the forum - there is a lot of concrete and available knowledge here. You have asked about more details about system. I had used VSV (Red Sea) before I started Zeovit. Actually I had dosed small quantity of VSV that time because my N and P was undetectable even I made a break with dosing. Core of filtration was skimmer and media (siporax, maxspect biosphere). I never used GFO. I do water changes every 2 weeks / 10 %.

Now, during 2 weeks I`m using 100 ml zeolite in temporary DIY reactor, 1 drop Zeoback and 2 drops Zerostart/daily. Flow is about 100 l/h. Additional I am dosing Amino concentrate 1 drop/2 days.

If you don't mind I would like to ask about 2 things:

1. Should I increase quantity of zeolite and when should be replaced ?

2. Should I start dosing Sponge power, Zeofood or other KZ products ?

Corals are fine, but since I started ZEO I have noticed Balling consumption decrease.

[G.Alexander]

Hello Lukas and thank you for the additional information.

I would recommend you to continue as follows:

1. Increase the ZeoVit quantity to 0.4 liters in your Zeo Reactor. Water flow around 150 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 0.15 liters 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 2 drops ZeoBac daily for the first 2 weeks, flowed by a 2 x weekly dosage of 2 drops. Dose 0.15 ml ZeoStart 2 x daily (morning & evening). Dose those in front of the Zeo reactor pump while it is switched on.

4. The additional dosage of SpongePower would be fine, you can add 2 drops every other day to your dosing regimen. Lets wait until using ZeoFood until the systems runs nutrient poor solid in a couple of weeks. Also skip dosing AminoAcids at the moment.

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.

As you already have reduced the carbon dosing you have used before (VSV) lets keep the dosage as it is and reduce the quantity slowly step by step in the next 6 weeks to zero. This would prevent you from a uncontrolled increase of nutrients while the transfer.

Basic water parameters looking good, try to 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.

UV is not compatible with the system so I do recommend to switch it off completely.

This is a start-up dosage which might have to be adjusted later.

G.Alexander

[cherrybloss]

Thx Alexander, I have one more question about the filter media - should I gradually get rid of them?

[jacky]

Hello cherrybloss, keep them for now, over time, if the nutrient depletion is good and stable, you can slowly and gradually remove it later