Zeovit discussion thread!

[Hammer100]

I started my tank new with Zeo and its doing well...have some nice frags growing. its only been 5 months. My only problem has been not changing my Zeolites out(went a couple weeks to long i guess) and caused some coral losses. Thats the only change i made and some of the frags i thought were toast turned around started growing.
It seems to devastate certain SPS immediately and others look unaffected. I had this happen twice. Since my tank was new an adding corals over the time I am learning which seem to be more sensitive.
I am now going to change them every 4 weeks to be safe.

I also started using the automatic elements

 

[hybridazn]

I started my tank new with Zeo and its doing well...have some nice frags growing. its only been 5 months. My only problem has been not changing my Zeolites out(went a couple weeks to long i guess) and caused some coral losses. Thats the only change i made and some of the frags i thought were toast turned around started growing.
It seems to devastate certain SPS immediately and others look unaffected. I had this happen twice. Since my tank was new an adding corals over the time I am learning which seem to be more sensitive.
I am now going to change them every 4 weeks to be safe.

Has it been 5 months with zeovit or 5 months with the tank overall?

 

[Hammer100]

Has it been 5 months with zeovit or 5 months with the tank overall?

It's been a little longer for both (can't believe it's May already). It seemed toke take a long time for my tank to cycle but I only had 50% of cured live rock overall.

 

[.AcroKiller.]

I started my tank new with Zeo and its doing well...have some nice frags growing. its only been 5 months. My only problem has been not changing my Zeolites out(went a couple weeks to long i guess) and caused some coral losses. Thats the only change i made and some of the frags i thought were toast turned around started growing.
It seems to devastate certain SPS immediately and others look unaffected. I had this happen twice. Since my tank was new an adding corals over the time I am learning which seem to be more sensitive.
I am now going to change them every 4 weeks to be safe.

Changing zeolite every 4 weeks it's really bad. The problem you had was not due to not changing the zeolite the problem was due to changing to much and not adjusting flow.

Try to only change 20% of the media every 7 to 8 weeks and evrytime you change your media slow adjust your flow.

Flow adjustments
Fill a 16 oz cup in 13 seconds for the Initial starting flow

Then every week lower adjust the flow dropping 1 second until you get to 7 seconds
Then change the media and restart the flow process again

 

[ramabama]

Changing zeolite every 4 weeks it's really bad. The problem you had was not due to not changing the zeolite the problem was due to changing to much and not adjusting flow.

Try to only change 20% of the media every 7 to 8 weeks and evrytime you change your media slow adjust your flow.

Flow adjustments
Fill a 16 oz cup in 13 seconds for the Initial starting flow

Then every week lower adjust the flow dropping 1 second until you get to 7 seconds
Then change the media and restart the flow process again

Is this your own personal suggestion or is this how the instructions say to do it? It is my understanding flow is determined by total volume of water in system/amount of zeolites used. I just started a new system and am just looking for some clarification as I will be needed to change my media in a couple weeks.

 

[reeftilldie]

Changing zeolite every 4 weeks it's really bad. The problem you had was not due to not changing the zeolite the problem was due to changing to much and not adjusting flow.

Try to only change 20% of the media every 7 to 8 weeks and evrytime you change your media slow adjust your flow.

Flow adjustments
Fill a 16 oz cup in 13 seconds for the Initial starting flow

Then every week lower adjust the flow dropping 1 second until you get to 7 seconds
Then change the media and restart the flow process again

So 16oz in 13 second is for how much gallon per hour? sorry im not good at math lol

 

[Anirban]

So 16oz in 13 second is for how much gallon per hour? sorry im not good at math lol

I think it will be approximately 0.6gallon a minute...

 

[reeftilldie]

I think it will be approximately 0.6gallon a minute...

So its only 36 gph, mine run 90 gph . Zeovit recommend 50 to 100 gph?
am i running into issues here?

 

[.AcroKiller.]

So its only 36 gph, mine run 90 gph . Zeovit recommend 50 to 100 gph?
am i running into issues here?

The problem with zeolite is that it is really aggressive when it comes to stripping your tank out of nutrients. Doing it the way I posted is less aggressive.

Also using the amount of zeolite as per the guide it's the max amount of zeolite. In reality not much zeolite is needed to strip a tank out of nutrients.

For example the guide tells you to use 1000L per 100gallons and I only use 800ml

The guide tells you to change 90 percent of the media and I only change 20%

Te guide is just a guide and each tank is diferente. Even Thomas phol runs less zeolite that the guide on his tanks.

 

[Bugger]

I only use zeostart 3 and some of the brown coral I recieved turned out. I don't really think the other products zeovit comes up with are neccassary

 

[hybridazn]

I only use zeostart 3 and some of the brown coral I recieved turned out. I don't really think the other products zeovit comes up with are neccassary

Nice, how long have you been doing it this way? I assume this is also with the stones as well? Do you feed heavily to compensate?

 

[Tphill]

Looks like it's going to be a while before I can get the ATS I wanted, maybe over 7 months, so I'll be doing zeovit till then, at least. I'll probably be fish only with live rock, so I'll only be using the stones, zeobak, zeostart, and sponge power. I currently have 2 tanks running. One is 120 gallon with a skimmer and zeovit, the other is 75 gallon with a skimmer and refugium. The 120 has 2 clowns and a pj cardinal, the 75 has 1 clown and a bangii cardinal. Last weekend I cleaned both tanks and did 20 gallon water change on 120 and 10 gallon water change on 75. I also changed the stones in the 120 and started dosing zeobac (5 drops daily), sponge power (5 drops daily) and zeostart (.5 mL 2xdaily), and added fresh carbon (rox 0.8). Got a fresh batch of cheato from the fish store for the 75. All this after around 7 months of neglect, only feeding once/week and no water changes. Just got through testing for NO3 & PO4. 120 showed 40 on nitrates using API kit, and 45 ppb (0.138) on phosphates using Hanna ULR. 75 gallon showed 5 on nitrates using the API test and 7 ppb (0.021) phosphates using the Hanna ULR. I do have a reactor on the 75 with GFO that hasn't been changed in over 7 months. Another issue I have that isn't related to the zeovit is that salinity in the 120 was down to 1.020 and in the 75 was at 1.017. Today they are at 1.023 in the 120 and 1.021 in the 75. Both should be up to 1.025 by next weekend, just added higher salinity top off water instead of the regular ATO.

 

[Bugger]

No I don't feed my corals with other food. My tank is kept pretty clean although I do feed my acans
ITS been going on for maybe a year like this

 

[ReefingwithO]

I've been running zeovit for a couple of months now. Here is a shot of my tank.

https://goo.gl/photos/Es5pswybJjniw8Xk9

I have a 75 gallon heavily stocked tanked (16 or 17 fish). I use the zeolites, zeobak, zeostart and the trace elements tablets.

I do a 20 gallon water change once a month. I run my ROX carbon in a bag, but I run about half the recommended amount.

I was vinegar dosing before and had low nutrients but this zeovit system has my colors popping. I bought some of the others stuff but I'm going to return it to BRS.

 

[hybridazn]

I've been running zeovit for a couple of months now. Here is a shot of my tank.

https://goo.gl/photos/Es5pswybJjniw8Xk9

I have a 75 gallon heavily stocked tanked (16 or 17 fish). I use the zeolites, zeobak, zeostart and the trace elements tablets.

I do a 20 gallon water change once a month. I run my ROX carbon in a bag, but I run about half the recommended amount.

I was vinegar dosing before and had low nutrients but this zeovit system has my colors popping. I bought some of the others stuff but I'm going to return it to BRS.

Thank you for sharing! Nice looking tank!

 

[reeftilldie]

So i have to chime in ur started thread here lol, any particular reason why u stopped Zeo system? Can u share with us?

 

[ReefingwithO]

I stopped doing ZEO because I was looking for an easier tank to care for and I think that ZEOvit is a very involved process. I started the Triton method 2 months ago and it's progressing well so far.

 

[zsuzsu]

no intention to siderail this topic but... im a zeo reefer and have been for 2.5 years. the system works quite well, there is however a somewhat confusing learning curve. ie, i followed recommended dosing schedules and amounts of additives to a tee,... that did not work. then i kept same schedule but cut amounts in half... it took awhile but the reef improved. the learning curve with zeo is" really" inspecting your corals and adjusting from there. it took pretty close to a year to really do this right. with all that said it is a nice reef but there was some hiccups and heartache along the way. now that i have it figured out i have another reef and decided to try the red sea carbon dosing recipe. i watched their videos and liked that they explain what and why you are dosing. pretty straight forward and easy to understand. so i gave it a whirl. i have to say in my experience the red sea system is far superior in all aspects, growth, stability,general health, and overall ease of care and visual appeal of the tank (ie. virtually no cyano issues). all in all i will continue with the zeo tank because after the year of getting it right, i'm too hard headed to stop. but... imo the red sea system is far easier with much less guesswork and heartache. good luck n stuff...zsu

 

[hybridazn]

So i have to chime in ur started thread here lol, any particular reason why u stopped Zeo system? Can u share with us?

I decided to switch back to dosing nopox and keeping my system simpler for me to operate.

 

[ReefingwithO]

no intention to siderail this topic but... im a zeo reefer and have been for 2.5 years. the system works quite well, there is however a somewhat confusing learning curve. ie, i followed recommended dosing schedules and amounts of additives to a tee,... that did not work. then i kept same schedule but cut amounts in half... it took awhile but the reef improved. the learning curve with zeo is" really" inspecting your corals and adjusting from there. it took pretty close to a year to really do this right. with all that said it is a nice reef but there was some hiccups and heartache along the way. now that i have it figured out i have another reef and decided to try the red sea carbon dosing recipe. i watched their videos and liked that they explain what and why you are dosing. pretty straight forward and easy to understand. so i gave it a whirl. i have to say in my experience the red sea system is far superior in all aspects, growth, stability,general health, and overall ease of care and visual appeal of the tank (ie. virtually no cyano issues). all in all i will continue with the zeo tank because after the year of getting it right, i'm too hard headed to stop. but... imo the red sea system is far easier with much less guesswork and heartache. good luck n stuff...zsu

I believe that ZEOvit works. My tank has never looked better than when I was on ZEO. But I need my wife to take care of the tank while I start a new venture and she didn't like the ZEO system at all. I went out of town once and she misdosed some stuff so that's when I started to look at something else.

The Triton System works. The tank might not be as pretty and pastel but it fits my lifestyle. Maybe when I have time I'll look at ZEOvit again in another tank.

Also I didn't purchase a good reactor. I went with Skimz which was hard to pump and maintain.