Aubrey’s Acros

[Reefdom]

Test results after the 20% WC
Alk - 8.3
Calcium - 415
Magnesium - 1350
Potassium - 400
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 11 ppb (0.03)

I am now thinking about what other KZ additives i can include, if any would work well at this stage.

Also noticed my Trochus snails spawning this morning. The tank is very milky but the chromis seem to be finding something to pick out of the water.

With the removal of a handful of corals i am keeping a close eye on my KH level and will work to slowly bring this down over the next month.

Whilst corals look ok, polyp extension could be better and i wouldnt mind growth speeding up a little

The turban snails are already doing a great job on any algae in the tank.

[Reefdom]

My ICP has come back and shows elevated Tin in my source water and tank. I believe the Tin in the tank is from source water as no other metals are elevated in the tank but where could it be coming from.

My ICP from May had zero Tin and was perfect so I am a little confused where this is coming from. The level is quite high but the tank seems to be fine considering I use 10% a week for water changes and about the same again in weekly freshwater top off.

I am considering a testing error or contamination but ATI seem convinced my RO unit is bad and upgrading it is required. They suggested 1litre of resin for each 10 litres per hour my unit produces, which means 2litres of resin, or about 3x DI pods.

I will leave things a month and test again and if no improvement I will have a further look into this.

[Reefdom]

WC done with an element of nervousness due to the high Tin in my RO. Although still not convinced its a genuine reading I cant help but hold my breath. Normally a WC would be the best solution but the issue is in my RO lol.


The tank didn't crash after the WC and infact, everything continues to look fine. fresh ATO water has been in for 3 days now to no effect so i'll be waiting to retest via ICP in a month of so.

For the past 3 weeks I have been running an almost full dose of Zeostart but I am not convinced this is best for my tank. I've seen no reduction in Phosphate, although nitrates stay low. I do get a fair amount of brown mulm/film on rocks and green fil on glass. I waited a few weeks with the higher dose to see what may happen but I I have a feeling my tank does not need a dose that high. I've turned it down from 0.4ml a day to 0.3ml a day spread over 2 doses. This is a smidge over what I was running previously to good effect so I am going to give this a few weeks to settle and see if it helps whilst monitoring phosphate.


I am quite happy to hold off adding anything further as the tank does not look like it wants for anything.

With the ICP showing that Potassium was higher than my test kit, even after calibration from a reference solution I have reduced the dose slightly. (Test kit 400, ICP 420) I will allow it to fall slowly to 380 on my test kit as I believe Potassium can be food for algae too (NPK were the main additives in my old planted tank).


The Nero 5s were given a good clean again and all glass sides scraped again. My goal of keeping these wave makers clean as much as possible is already getting boring. If only I had enough for 4x MP40s lol.

Colours are slowly coming back

Pre water test results

Alk - 8.3
Calcium - 420
Magnesium - 1335
Nitrate - 0.2
Phosphate - 9 ppb (0.03)

More waiting, more patience. At least the tomini tang is actually grazing now lol.

[Reefdom]

The tank is improving but still not where it was.

The reduced Zeostart dose seems to be keeping nutrients down. I tested a water sample fro the tank with 1 drop of zeostart added and found a fairly high nitrate reading. Whether the nitrogen in the test kit is infact nitrate or some other nitrogen source it certainly helps me understand how to best use this.
I feel the zeostart dose should be used to control phosphate, as odd as it sounds. By including nitrogen with the carbon source, it supports phosphate removal. Higher phosphate, (with low nitrogen), build up to a higher dose of zeostart. Phospahte bottomed out, reduce zeostart dose. THis is my theory and i will be trying to manage nutrients with this approach.

I have also noticed that with my reactor flow at 180lph I did not get any mulm released when shaking the zeolites, even if they were only shaken once a day. Since lowering the flow back to 120lph (just over half the recommended flow rate) I now get the mulm released. We will se if my tank runs better on lower reactor flow and lower dose of zeostart.

Colours are coming back after the h2o2 episode.

Unfortunately my A. Florida RTN'd. It has struggled since i got it and after a tiny dose of A-Balance, i woke up the next day to a white frag. This is the second time i have dosed A-Balance and a coral has started to strip. It may be coincidence as other things were changed in the week(s) leading up to it, it may be a number of factors that add up to this outcome or it could be elements in A-Balance that some corals dont like.
For the record the dose was 3 drops (0.15ml) the dose for my tank is about 3.5ml. I need to find out what trace elements are in this. It is not compatible with the KZ coral colour 1-4 so i assume this is due to overlap with some trace, but which ones, who knows.

I had a closer look at Zeofood Plus. If you look closely you can see tiny specs of something in the solution. I wonder what it is.

Currently dosing:

Zeolite - 500ml @ 120lph
Zeostart - 0.1ml twice a day
ZeoBak - 2 drops in coral snow every other day (to help get rid of cyano and reduce po4)
Biomate - 4 drops in coral snow every other day (to help get rid of cyano and reduce po4)

This weeks post WC numbers:
Alk - 8.3
Nitrate - 0.2
Phosphate - 4 ppb (0.01)

[Reefdom]

No idea whats going wrong. I think I have dino and although all corals look fine, are growing and PE is ok,the tank looks a mess, dirty, and slimy.

I have removed the filter socks, added some copepods to try and allow diversity to increase and circulate throughout the system without removing them through filter socks. I will use the socks during water changes or blowing off the rocks and then remove once the water has cleared.

Only dosing zeostart, 0.3ml a day (split between 2 doses), zeobac and biomate.

Other this I am just going to leave it alone, blow off rocks periodically and let the system do its thing.

[Reefdom]

No one else seems to update any build threads. What a shame as I enjoy reading them. Not sure if anyone even reads this but if it helps one person that i'll carry on.

I decided to remove the zeolites as I did not think they did much to help and I was not keen on the change every 6-8 weeks and its impact on stability.

I recently stopped dosing zeostart3 due to the growth of undesirables everywhere and allowed the tank to settle itself.

Things appear to be levelling out. At present the tank is running just filter socks and skimmer. No reactors, carbon dose, gfo. Nitrate slowly rose to 1ppm, and phosphate is sitting between 0.02 and 0.05.
I also increased feeding to 4 cubes a day and a pinch of flak or pellets.

Corals are improving and growing well.

I am still going to run zeo products (mostly) using zeostart 3, zeobak and biomate, zeofood, coral vitalizer and amino acids. Trace elements will be via tropic marins a & k, and Iodine for ease and based on good results from fellow reefers.

In a few days I will slowly add zeostart back in at a quarter dose. It will be diluted with distilled water this time to avoid contamination. I think my tank requires very little organic carbon to control nutrients so starting low will allow me to more easily fine tune the dose.

I have some egg crate and live rock pieces as well as Maxspect biospheres that will be placed in the sump after a baffle so water can overflow into it. This will be a place where sponges, bacteria and microfauna can colonise. At the moment the rock pieces are in the sump (5-6 golf ball sized pieces) and the bio-spheres are currently soaking in some salt water with zeobak and zeostart to prepare them for adding to the sump.
Filter socks will continue to be used and changed 2-3 times a week.

I am currently using Fauna Marin Balling Light and will most likely continue with this as my Calcium and Carbonate Supplement although I have considered ATI Essentials Pro.

I'll get some pics up over the weekend as I do my WC and clean out the sump before adding in the egg crate basket.

[sandor888]

i like to read your thread, good luck!

[sandor888]

There is a new zeovit dosing guide, did you read it?
https://cms.korallen-zucht.de/files/...efing_engl.pdf

[G.Alexander]

Hello Aubrey, I read every post in your tank diary thread and I really enjoy it and like to thank you for keeping it actual. The thread has already about 700 views so there must be some others following it to 👍

I would also love to see more such threads as they would really improve our community to help people !

G.Alexander

[Reefdom]

There is a new zeovit dosing guide, did you read it?
https://cms.korallen-zucht.de/files/...efing_engl.pdf

Yes, this is the one that I follow, well, I started to follow. I am finding that for a tank full of frags, many doses are too high and should be reduced.

Thank you to those that do read. I always struggle to find long term experience using zeovit so hopefully my log can help some people looking for information. I just need to be better with patience and consistency.

I will say that zeostart is a very good carbon source and works amazing well on its own to control nutrients and bring out colours as well as control phosphate.
SInce stopping zeostart for 2 weeks, the brown growth has reduced so I will slowly re-introduce it today.
Just to be safe I rinsed the bottle I use for zeostart 3 twice with boiling ro. Then filled with distilled water I purchased before mixing the zeostart in. I also ran hot ro through the dosing lines to clean them out.

I did some reading yesterday and found fluorine is used in calcification and in a similar fashion to iodine so I may replace my Iodine source with the KZ Potassium IodineFlour (or Jod Komplex) to cover both bases but I will wait to see how the tank develops as I add zeostart back in first. Flourine is used in the aragonite structure of corals and contributes to their hardness. I will check my ICP tests to monitor as it can be toxic at higher levels.

Thank you G,Sandor, it is nice to know my posts are of interest to people.

I hope over time more people document their Zeovit journey as more info and experience helps.

I will try to get more pics to give something to look at.

[Reefdom]

A full tank shot view from today’s work location.

also, a tiny fragment of Acropora Efflorescens that remained on the rock when a larger piece was removed has survived and has begun to grow. It was less than 1mm. I hope it grows back as it is an impressive coral once it establishes some size.





Also, does anyone rinse or drain the water from their frozen food. I have shifted from doing it and not and I get the feeling the tank stays cleaner when not. Many say the addition of waste/nutrients is minimal but I find the tank in general looks ever so slightly murkier if I don't drain the water.
I am curious to see what others are doing.

[Reefdom]

The tank is doing well, corals are growing well and colours are quite good, although can certainly be improved on. For now I am happy with things and will work to slowly make changes and asses the response.

Current dosing is just Zeostart 3. For the past 2 week it was 0.1ml 2x a day. This has just been increased to 0.15ml 2x a day. I have also added my first dose of Sponge Power. This is a single drop (half dose). I will keep this at half dose for at least a week, perhaps 2 weeks to see the effects.

Nothing else is added other than feeding fish 3x a day, 1x flake, 1x pellet and 1x frozen.

Bryopsis is growing very fast and as much as I didn't want to manually remove it and risk it spreading, I had no choice. I expect to see it all over the tank in a few weeks. At this point I will need to run a course of fluconazole to knock it back.

The plan is to allow the corals to establish themelves further and gain strength so they are less impacted by the treatment.

Other than this I have been making a real effort to not put hands in the tank and I would like to think its working.

Pictures shortly

[Reefdom]

Just over two weeks of the Bryopsis treatment has seen most of it disappear and a fair few chunks of GHA dissipate too. There is one particular spot with a decent size tuft of Bryopsis which remains so I may initiate a follow up treatment in a few weeks. I am reluctant to manually remove it as doing this before just seems to spread the bryopsis everywhere.

I did resume the skimmer running after 3 days of treatment as I was more concerned with protecting the corals (by stabilising PH and limiting organics build up) so maybe this reduced the efficacy of the treatment, although I have not been able to confirm whether the skimmer is actually able to remove Fluconazole from the water column.

Another option is to leave the tank until is see Bryopsis pop up in multiple locations and treat again (before it gets to plague proportions as it did last time). I accept Fluconazole, at least for me, is not a definitive treatment so it will be used periodically if/when Bryopsis takes a foot hold. My goal now is to maintain a balance in the tank that prevents Bryopsis, Cyano and GHA from becoming dominant and support coral growth as the dominant species in the tank.

Throughout the treatment corals have done well, with no impacts. Alk consumption has been stable as has the value (8-8.4). I did trial baking my bicarbonate in an attempt to increase ph a little but I will say this had minimal to no impact. While it did raise ph 0.02 points after dosing, ph dropped back down to normal levels within 20 minutes, well in advance of the next hourly dose and too soon to realise a cumulative benefit on ph. I have now cone back to standard FM Balling concentrations.

Sponge power use on the other hand has had a positive impact. Growth tips on some corals have blued slightly, particularly on A.Tortuosa, A.Desalwii and what was sold as A.Selago (although I am doubting this now. Two other Acropora species have developed more blue on their tips. Sponge growth in the sump has increased too so I will continue with Sponge Power use.

The next addition is trace elements. Although running mostly Zeovit, there are some Tropic Marin products I will be using due to ease and simplicity.

Reef Actif has been used for a while now and will continue. Trace A- and K+ has been started now. The reason for this over Zeo traces is two fold. TM trace is just two products that covers what is viewed as the known trace elements that corals consume vs Zeovit and which has wide array of bottles of which some contain trace and other elements and some with a lack of clarity on what exactly they contain. Iron, Flourine, Boron, Iodine can all be identified in zeo products but others that are in TM A&K cannot. Plus, i already had Tropic Marin A&K bottles so there was no cost.

I have added the TM trace to dropper bottles to allow easy dosing. Guidance has a full dose for my tank at 2.3ml daily, however I have started with 0.15ml every other day for the first week to gauge a response. I will increase this to daily next week if all looks ok and take it from there.

Certain corals are going to have to go soon as space begins to come limited. I think I will have a hard time picking which. Maybe just let nature take its course?

A refresh of inverts is on the cards too, maybe a couple of Emerald crabs to increase life/actvity

[Reefdom]

I have also added an Aqua Medic defroster to allow easier defrosting of frozen food and reduce waste entering the tank. I have noticed there is a fair amount of small particulate I then waste water which I am not convinced is of use to the tank unless i had a large coral bioload to make use of it.

[Reefdom]

First WC in 4 weeks after dosing fluconazole. Most if not all bryopsis has gone. I expect it will be back at some point however so i'll enjoy it for now.

Other algaes are slow receeding and although cyano has made an appearance, I will not be reacting drastically. Instead I have lowered the zeostart dose further. Its now at about a quarter of the zeovit recommended.




Two weeks ago I started dosing trace elements via Tropic Marin A & K. Dosing is 0.25ml, about a 9th of a dose. This was done every other day 3x a week. Starting today I will try dosing the same amount daily.
For those that don't know, these two products are a mix of the "supposedly" essential trace elements that all corals use, although to varying degree. Trace elements are split across the two bottles to avoid precipitation of opposing charged ions.
I went this route for ease and reduced complexity and will update with progress.



So far I cant say I have seen much change, perhaps my alveopora has opened up and is extending a lot more and the large stylo at the back looks fluffier but it may be the placebo effect.

I have started dosin sponge power daily, but at half the recommended amount so overall its the same weekly quantity. Its just easier to remember to do it everyday and I hope less impactful if I miss a day.


A few acro pieces on the sand bed were removed to free up some space and the tank looks better for it, less crowded. Im sure the fish will appreciate a little more room.


Will get some pics soon.

Waiting to be used are Coral Vitalizer, Zeofood Plus and Amino Acid HC, although i dont know which i will try first. I will give the trace elements a little more time to gauge an effect first.