Thinking of ditching bio pellets for zeovit....

[hybridazn]

Am I crazy in thinking this? I've been running pellets now for about a year, and let's just say I'm not impressed with them. The only thing I'm noticing is more frequent cyano blooms. The pellet reactor currently feeds to my custom skimmer so taking the reactor offline will require some slight plumbing but nothing major.

As for running zeovit in a reactor, I'm all about my stuff matching so I would prefer a Geo's Reef reactor. Would one of their standard media reactors be good enough on my manifold? I know flow needs to be slow (<100gph)

Anything else I need to know about zeovit before I take the plunge? Anybody with success AND non successful stories with zeovit?

Pic of reactor I would like to use.

 

[Diesel]

You need to be able to tumble once or twice a day the zeolite stones.
Not sure if the GEO does that.
A good matching product is the AVAST Vibe as I used to run that with zeolite stones.

Or go completely Aqua Forrest style, it cheaper than zeo and a lot simpler as you can skip some dosing days and not to worry about it.
Those are my not just $0.02 but $0.04

 

[Tbabcock]

And you don't have to tumble the Zao from aquaforest.

 

[daelie]

Or go completely Aqua Forrest style, it cheaper than zeo and a lot simpler as you can skip some dosing days and not to worry about it.
Those are my not just $0.02 but $0.04

You can miss some zeovit days here and there as well and not have to worry about it. I miss them when I'm away for a few days and I know in the BRS videos, they mentioned that they don't shake the stones or dose on the weekends.

 

[hybridazn]

Yes shaking the stones with the Geo's reactor would be next to impossible unless I put a larger recirc pump in it (thinking 900gph min.) So not sure how to go about that.

I'm not too familiar with aquaforest, any info you care to share?

 

[Diesel]

Look at the vibe, I had a local thread going years ago in Houston and it was super popular as it was called "Vibrators and Reefing"
http://www.avastmarine.com/collections/avast-built/products/vibe

Here you can find enough info considered AF,
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/aquaforest.857/

 

[lou dog420]

I was considering going zeo on my next tank, but man all their products are so pricey

 

[sneub]

Yes Zeo is expensive at first, however you are only dosing a drop per 25 gallons of water with most of their items, so if you don't have a massive tank, the bottles last a while. The only bottles that you need to replace frequently is Zeobak due to it being bacteria. All you need to start out with Zeovit is the basic 4; Zeolites, Zeobak, Zeostart and spongpower. All other blue bottles are optional. You can mix-n-match with any other product if you choose, like Kent Marine series of trace elements for example. BRS is using Zeo in their 52 weeks of reefing series and Ryan explains that it takes a total of 45 seconds to perform the zeo task daily. As for a reactor, I purchased a inexpensive reactor from a vendor online, I paid a lot less for it in comparison to a KZ, Vertex and other name brand reactors.

 

[hybridazn]

Yes Zeo is expensive at first, however you are only dosing a drop per 25 gallons of water with most of their items, so if you don't have a massive tank, the bottles last a while. The only bottles that you need to replace frequently is Zeobak due to it being bacteria. All you need to start out with Zeovit is the basic 4; Zeolites, Zeobak, Zeostart and spongpower. All other blue bottles are optional. You can mix-n-match with any other product if you choose, like Kent Marine series of trace elements for example. BRS is using Zeo in their 52 weeks of reefing series and Ryan explains that it takes a total of 45 seconds to perform the zeo task daily. As for a reactor, I purchased a inexpensive reactor from a vendor online, I paid a lot less for it in comparison to a KZ, Vertex and other name brand reactors.

Thanks for the insight, the more I read the more I think I'm going to go with zeovit. As for a reactor I emailed Geo's Reef to see if they would be interested in making a reactor for me, if not I'll most likely go with the skimz 150 external reactor. Of course I'll have to adjust the colors slightly to match the theme of my sump area lol.

If I go with the skimz reactor I figure that I can get zeo off the ground for right around $300 (with the cost of the reactor) so all in all not a bad initial investment needed.

 

[sneub]

I use the basic 4 plus a few other items and starting to really like the system, it is not as difficult as folks make it out to be, and dare I say if you follow the guide that KZ provides (BRS has links to the pdf's on their Zeo product pages) it is actually straight forward. My tank is always clear, I clean the glass twice a week. Now I will stress that it can be challenging converting an existing tank. KZ has a forum with many users converting over from one method to Zeo. BRS has several videos on Zeo as well, I would check them out.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I started a zeo tank and personally I would tell you choose something else, (I actually am in the process of it). I love how the zeolite reactor functions, I don't like the build quality of any of the Korallen Zucht equipment I have. The skimmer is nice, the aquabee 5000 pump is hit or miss.

The mystery blue bottles are the deal killer. Plus the concentrations of some of the elements (particularly Potasium) is really pretty weak IMO. I personally found it ridiculous to try and decifer what I am supposed to add from bottles that won't even give me a hint of what is in them. All of which have a premium price attached to them. You can go to their forum and some random guru can tell you what to add though, he also probably can't tell you what's in the bottle that affects the change though, or why.

The kicker is to do all the daily work, follow all the rules, have all ideal numbers, and still have a mass bleaching event brought on by something as simple as changing their activated carbon (even after going through the religious like washing process).

Soon as I started running detectable nutrients and managing my system outside of "ideal" zeo parameters did I see any kind of true growth, or actual progress in my young ecosystem.

I think zeo works best if you are starting a brand new tank, and you want to drop $15,000 worth of colonies in the tank in 10 days. If you start out with little to no livestock, it will just delay the progress of your tank. You will systematically drive your nutrients into the ground.

Don't get me wrong, I have MAD respect for those who pull it off, because they work at least 10 times harder to make it look "so easy". I also have a lot of respect for Thomas Pohl, he is the reason I wanted to try his system. Unfortunately the proprietary nature of the whole deal, just kills it entirely for me. I enjoy the chemistry of reef keeping (in my limited understanding) squirting mystery liquid out of a blue bottle doesn't scratch that itch.

If I was going to subscribe to a "system" whole heartedly and without question, personally I would choose triton, at least all of their additives are clearly labelled and available as individual salt solutions so it at least makes logical sense. Plus coupled with ICP testing, there's really no competition. (Others are following suit, though I haven't done my homework on every system.).

I don't personally subscribe to the triton method ( but I may soon). That's just my $.02. It is really only worth what you paid for it! Don't feel like you're alone in this search. There are other's of us out there! Don't take any wooden nickles!

 

[FarmerTy]

Been running biopellets for 5 years now. Simple and effective. Never been interested in these "programs", seems like a whole lot of money for subtle improvements in color though I throw my hat to anybody who likes to tweak colors. The possibility of nuking thousands of dollars of acros in my system just playing with colors seems ill-advised for myself at least.

You can have pretty colors without all the gimmicks but that's my personal opinion. Here is my tank running the Fish Poop system. The containers are a lot prettier than the blue bottles but you have to feed them to get them to release the fish poop so there is that downside. [emoji12]

 

[Rick.45cal]

Been running biopellets for 5 years now. Simple and effective. Never been interested in these "programs", seems like a whole lot of money for subtle improvements in color though I throw my hat to anybody who likes to tweak colors. The possibility of nuking thousands of dollars of acros in my system just playing with colors seems ill-advised for myself at least.

You can have pretty colors without all the gimmicks but that's my personal opinion. Here is my tank running the Fish Poop system. The containers are a lot prettier than the blue bottles but you have to feed them to get them to release the fish poop so there is that downside. [emoji12]

Gorgeous tank!

 

[sneub]

Well like I said I use the basic 4, and a few other items. I use AF Component 1+, 2+, 3+ and that is it for cal, alk and mag with trace elements. Twice a week I does Zeobak, daily Zeostart, and 3 times a week Spongpower, these are the basic 4. As for the additional bottles are amino acid and coral vitalized and these are dosed twice a week. I dose when I feed my fish. Not sure what folks do to make it so involved and the KZ folks themselves tell you that all of the bottles are optional and these can be used on non zeo tanks and other brand foods and elements can be used on a zeo tank.
BTW your tank looks great and that is what's so great about this hobby, there are many ways and options to get to the point where you are satisfied.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Funny thing in this industry, people are always trying to sell you a bottle of proprietary ingredients at a premium price, and because there is no sort of regulation, we are forced to deal with it. Why waste your time studying some arbitrary program when you can get to the real "meat and potatoes" of the hobby and just do the chemistry. It's all aqueous solutions, and ionic salts. We even have a friendly local chemist here who is a reef aquariuam enthusiast. Learning the chemistry, mixing the solutions yourself actually teaches you a skill. Dribbling drops out of bottle because it tells you to teaches you nothing.

Just my take.

Do what you like! (That's another wonderful freedom we have in this hobby).

 

[sneub]

Yea, I am familiar with Randy, smart guy and most of us will not fully understand the chemistry like he does. I for one fully understand what this hobby can teach and I am all about that, but lets face it, I read guys stating that they want to know what they are dosing and if they really knew, they still would not have clue to as what it is, just an observation. I do read your post and your are one of the guys that get it when it comes to this hobby and has good info to share with others. I have ran tanks with GFO, bio pellets and so on, for this small tank, trying out zeovit as a learning experience. KZ does have many bottles that has me scratching my head, the basic 4 are bacteria, carbon source and food. I don't play with all of the other blue bottles because most seem silly.

 

[Rick.45cal]

One of the major limiting factors in a system like zeovit, or any proprietary system that won't give you a clue what the additives are quite simply is that if you come to a place like this forum looking for help because you are systematically starving your inhabitants, you are really limiting who can potentially help understand what is occuring in your system. Honestly the most poweful resource for an aquarist is forums like Reef2Reef, limiting yourself in anyway to being able to attain viable information is a serious downfall. It's why I honestly tell people how I feel when they ask if zeo is right for them. Some people can pull it off flawlessly!

I wanted to try it too! So I did. It's not for me.

Honestly it is one of the things that really attracts me to the triton system is that your only replacing what is being consumed and things are being measured in an analytical way.

The other half of me knows that you also don't need to go to that extreme either, simply managing detetable nutrients (no matter how you do it), and parameters, add light and magic happens.

 

[sneub]

Yep I agree
I am staying away from most of their items and sticking to the basic and combining with BRS, AF, red sea, Randy and what ever I feel I need to tamper with. I too have been looking at triton. Really I just want to run a tank with every possible method known to man but we know that it is impossible and I only have some much room and time.