Going Zeovit ishhh

[Blitheran]

Hello all! I am normally a reef2reef user so still new to using this forum. Why do I want to go zeovit? I have been struggling immensely with my nutrients. I can’t seem to figure it out. I have algae problems left and right. Primarily cyano and brown algae. I have been dosing nitrates and phosphates to keep nutrients up. I try feeding more but all that does it create more algae so all in all it is just a giant mess for me and I am so confused and struggling. Makes me want to quit. Cal, alk, mag are easy. I find getting a balance in my nutrients to be insane. I weekly go in my tank with a tooth brush and clean all the algae off the back glass bottom and turkey bast the rocks. If I don’t feed heavy and dose nitrate and phosphate I essentially bottom out my nutrients. It’s just hard lol. Only filtration I am running is carbon, skimmer, and filter floss. That is it. The tank is a red sea reefer 170 with 3 fish. The tank is SPS only reef. The corals are doing O.K. but nutrients are wayy out of wack which has been keeping them under a lot of stress. I have talked to a reefer who runs a 360 gallon zeovit reef and I currently have zeoBak and zeo sponge. He mentioned that I don’t need zeolite rock or reactor since I struggle to keep nutrients up. Zeo reactor is only needed to reduce nutrients. My question to everyone is I need help and this is what has lead me to go zeovit.

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter - 40 gallons
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / 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 - no
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - bubble magus rated above
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - kno3 (10-12 dosing to keep up) po4 is 0 struggling to keep it up
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels 8, 435, 1400
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) - none
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2x xr-15 and 2x ati blue + t5
12. What corals do you keep - sps
13. Tissue color (light or dark) - mixed
14. How long has the tank been running - 6/7 months
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system - nutrient/ algae struggle
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) - esv bionic, acro power weekly, reef roids, microbacter7, waste away, oyster feast
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) 6/7 months
18. Any present problems - algae and nutrient struggle
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - yes corals are stressed, tons of brown algae, little cyano
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) trident, hanna, salifert
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) - no
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) -1.025, 78
23. Which salt brand do you use - tropic marine pro

 

[lilchris_357]

The Cyano and brown algae is a sign of over dosing ZeoFood. You stated you're using ReefRoids, AcroPower and Oyster Feast and feeding heavy, you combine that in with ZeoFood, you're going to have issues. I recommend you stop all Zeovit dosing. Especially ZeoFood, just chuck that in the trash. I also noticed you're using ZeoBak and Microbacter 7, Why? Get back to basics of reefing. Start with some water changes. If you follow the Zeovit protocol, they recommend doing 3, 30% water changes to reset your system. Then see where you are as far as nutrients go. If you are struggling to keep your nutrients up, I would not go the Zeovit route. You can choose between dosing NO3 & Po4 or using Acropower/reefroids and oyster feast. I would not combine them, pick 1. The biggest thing to take away from this is, Zeovit is an all in type of system. Its design to strip all nutrients out and then the user manually add specific nutrients to feed the corals. Honestly, I would scrap the whole Zeovit idea for now and learn reefing. I'm not trying to put you down or anything but Zeovit is a complex system. I ran it for 2 years and stepped away from it. Just wanted to try something else. Zeo WORKS if and only if you are willing to do it by the book. None of this half butt zeovitish stuff. But keep it simple and your SPS corals will thrive in no time.

 

[Silent]

Your corals might benefit you using zeovit flatworm stop. It helps sps in low nutrient systems to recover and thicken the tissue as well as help color them up. Be sure to check potassium levels as these are very important in zeovit and add strontium complex.
They claim the zeolite rocks mulm will help feed your coral so if you go zeovit I think you should use them and small amounts of carbon.