Hey guys, wanted to share this outside my build thread!
This is my 300G Reef tank when it was 10months old and it's happy as it can be so far but I had to do or better liked to perform a switch to a Zeolith reactor and a slightly different approach as the classic Zeovit method people used to do. Tank is now in the 13th month of it's life.
Long story short, I was using a Vibe reactor with (very costly) non tumbling pellets in the past but these were discontinued in Europe and I tried the newer AIO pellets which I ditched after a few weeks since I felt it did not manage the nutrients not in my desired interest.
However, I used again Vodka temporarily and prepared everything for a Zeolith based nutrient export method which I was always curious about to utilize, but did not like the pastel colors it usually result in. But since I do a very specific method of controlled trace elements, I was feeling pretty confident that with some adaptions to the classic Zeo method I can avoid pastel colors and keep nice deep bold colors on my SPS as well keep the Zoas, Shrooms and Torches happy and thriving ;-)
So I was only interested in the capability of the Zeolith to reduce Po4 and hosting the required bacteria to perform this part of the nutrient reduction, wasn't sure how badly the No3 reduction is since I never tried Zeo before. However, I associated the heavy No3 reduction to the method to the fact that Zeo absorbs ammonia and usually requires replacement every few week. Well, I don't do that! I simply keep the media in the reactor with no replacement which should on the longer run then avoiding these extreme No3 reductions while Po4 is nicely low. So far the thoughts.
Concerning trace elements depletion as known to be a problem on the long run, I do a monthly ICP anyways and do individual corrections as needed, so this should not become a problem, also thinking that the media over time should become less of an absorber if not replaced. Also I could not find sufficient evidence how much trace elements and which elements are going to be absorbed over time.
Here a picture after the latest modification I did since the amount of Zeolith used I increased over the last weeks to get the main control variable which is Po4 into the lower levels.
So I do use 2ml Zeostart injected into the Reactor inlet throughout the day via a DOS system. Also do the Zeobac twice a week as instructed on the bottle. The reactor shakes in the night for a minute to keep the media free of bacteria slime.
The latest modification was an increase of the Vibe 4L to an extended upgrade to a 6L via use of a Vibe 2L on top of the existing reactor. More pictures and details are in my built thread ;-)
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...-sps-reeftank-up-within-a-week.339591/page-55
So going forward, the plan is to avoid GFO at all in future, and manage Po4 within lower levels around 0.02-0.04ppm. I'm around 0,08 right now, but had an issue with the reagents and should receive new reagents today. Nitrate are going toward zero but slowly so every few days I dose just a bit to keep it around 1ppm. So far the method works very nicely, I do see via the ICP's which elements are affected by the Zeolith the most. Water is very clear and not much bacteria is floating around keeping the tank very crisp, as expected the work by the bacteria is done inside the reactor and not in the DT ;-)
So far so good ;-)
