zeovit and how I dose it

[stephanjupillat]

Trying to lower nitrates. I have a 60 gallon, 6 months old. Lps and softy dominant. Nitrates are 10-15, phosphates .05.
.6liters of zeolite at about 60 gph
Currently running 3 hours on, 3 hours off

Dose
zeobak: 2 weeks at 2-3 drops every other day, then week 3 and 4 twice a week at 2-3 drops.

Zeostart: .5ml a day

zeofood: been overdosing so thinking half strength at 6 drops a day for 1st week, then 1 drop a day 2-3 times a week.

coral vitalizer: 4 drops 3 times a week

zeolife: 7ml every other day

biomate with coral snow: twice a week

I can’t seem to get rid of brown algae on sand. It’s the one that clears up every night. Too much zeo food made it a lot worse so going to try half strength.

I have been wanting to get my nitrates to 5-10 so I can maybe get some more sensitive sps. I’ve got stylo, lepto and a monti right now.

I have a lot of fish that are sized appropriately for this size tank. They will get bigger though. Essentially I wanted to do zeovit to be able to have a lot of coral and a lot of fish, and be able to feed a lot. Haha

question is how much does zeostart effect the nitrate? I have read that using too much, like the max dosage zeo recommends which is what I’m using, increases your nitrate. Would lowering zeostart to maybe 6 drops a day help lower nitrate? Am I overdosing at 10 drops? Possibly also clear up the sand bed?

I didn’t have any photos of my tank on my iPad so I took these quickly after lights off.

I also just added half the recommended amount of xport bio cubes and no3 cubes in sump hoping that may work. I was even thinking of using seachem de-nitrate in a bio reactor.

And should I start running zeo reactor full time? I read to do the 3 on 3 off if ur nitrates were too high. Been doing that for a month or so but I don’t think it’s helping

 

[stephanjupillat]

here's a video link. resolution gets better at about 10 seconds. Sill mostly small frags.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4q5TZJGWbjSYYHjz6

 

[stephanjupillat]

@ycnibrc

 

[Tom Stevens]

Trying to lower nitrates. I have a 60 gallon, 6 months old. Lps and softy dominant. Nitrates are 10-15, phosphates .05.
.6liters of zeolite at about 60 gph
Currently running 3 hours on, 3 hours off

Dose
zeobak: 2 weeks at 2-3 drops every other day, then week 3 and 4 twice a week at 2-3 drops.

Zeostart: .5ml a day

zeofood: been overdosing so thinking half strength at 6 drops a day for 1st week, then 1 drop a day 2-3 times a week.

coral vitalizer: 4 drops 3 times a week

zeolife: 7ml every other day

biomate with coral snow: twice a week

I can’t seem to get rid of brown algae on sand. It’s the one that clears up every night. Too much zeo food made it a lot worse so going to try half strength.

I have been wanting to get my nitrates to 5-10 so I can maybe get some more sensitive sps. I’ve got stylo, lepto and a monti right now.

I have a lot of fish that are sized appropriately for this size tank. They will get bigger though. Essentially I wanted to do zeovit to be able to have a lot of coral and a lot of fish, and be able to feed a lot. Haha

question is how much does zeostart effect the nitrate? I have read that using too much, like the max dosage zeo recommends which is what I’m using, increases your nitrate. Would lowering zeostart to maybe 6 drops a day help lower nitrate? Am I overdosing at 10 drops? Possibly also clear up the sand bed?

I didn’t have any photos of my tank on my iPad so I took these quickly after lights off.

I also just added half the recommended amount of xport bio cubes and no3 cubes in sump hoping that may work. I was even thinking of using seachem de-nitrate in a bio reactor.

And should I start running zeo reactor full time? I read to do the 3 on 3 off if ur nitrates were too high. Been doing that for a month or so but I don’t think it’s helping

Hi,
ZeoStart is a carbon source. It feeds the bacteria which usually lowers nitrates. Overdosing ZeoStart can cause bacteria blooms, and excessive brown film algae on the glass from my experience. The dosing on the bottle is just a suggestion. In my situation I dose less then the recommendation as my system is close to 0 Ph and <1 nitrates.

Regarding the algae on your sand bed, from your description it sounds like it could be Dynos especially if they go away at night. They can be hard to get rid of. Lots of opinions on why you get dynos and how to git rid of them.

How long have you been running the Zeovit system? Since Zeovit is bacteria driven, it can take a little time for your tank to adjust. The reason for running your Zeovit reactor 3 hours on / off is to reduce the impact and slow the lowering of nitrates and phosphates. Base on how your tank is doing, you can try slowly lengthening the time on have the reactor on.

The best advice though is to go slow, limit the number of changes at any one time and observe what happens. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

 

[stephanjupillat]

Hi,
ZeoStart is a carbon source. It feeds the bacteria which usually lowers nitrates. Overdosing ZeoStart can cause bacteria blooms, and excessive brown film algae on the glass from my experience. The dosing on the bottle is just a suggestion. In my situation I dose less then the recommendation as my system is close to 0 Ph and <1 nitrates.

Regarding the algae on your sand bed, from your description it sounds like it could be Dynos especially if they go away at night. They can be hard to get rid of. Lots of opinions on why you get dynos and how to git rid of them.

How long have you been running the Zeovit system? Since Zeovit is bacteria driven, it can take a little time for your tank to adjust. The reason for running your Zeovit reactor 3 hours on / off is to reduce the impact and slow the lowering of nitrates and phosphates. Base on how your tank is doing, you can try slowly lengthening the time on have the reactor on.

The best advice though is to go slow, limit the number of changes at any one time and observe what happens. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

Yeah I hear ya. Thanks! I’ve been testing nitrate 3 times a week for a while to find the issue. Tank is barely 6 months old so understandably it’s gonna take a while. I’ve since cut zeostart in half to 5 drops a day, spread over morning and evening. stopped zeo food. Changed reactor to always on. Did a water change last Saturday. Sunday nitrates were 9.6. Wednesday 9.3. Today 9.1. So it’s finally going down!!!! Haha. Usually it kept going up.

I’ve read a lot of forums online and browsed kz’s forum for high nitrates. Think I‘ve determined zeostart has nitrate in it to balance the bacterial consumption rate. Oceans are 16 to 1, no3 to po4. Home tanks are usually 10 to 1. And to dose zeostart based on your phosphate reading, not nitrate. It’s a carbon source but not like the stuff redsea sells. Least I think I read everything correctly but please let me know if I am wrong. Just a newbie that reads everything to find solutions. Haha.

so hoping numbers don’t crash too low as I have mostly LPS and softies. Phosphates went from .05 last Sunday to .04 today so gonna have to watch that if it keeps dropping.

Any advise on dosing kz’s 2 iodine bottles? I have both and dose each once a week, 3 drops. 60 gallons total. They tell you not to dose iodine the same day as zeobak, but after changing zeolite media you dose zeobak for 10 days straight. So am I waiting until after 10 days to dose either? my ICP numbers were pretty low when I was dosing 2 drops of each a week so I upped them to 3 drops. Haven’t done another ICP test lately as iv been doing large water changes for nitrate. Read somewhere I think the non organic one can be dosed more often. Not the organic. Will have to look later. Long week... having a Manhattan now. So my bad if I’m rambling…. Haha

 

[iLMaRiO]

Hi guys.
I'm planning to start a zeovit tank (just have to find a cheap reactor).

Some questions from a newbie:
1. zeovit tanks are "famous" to crash in a couple of days, with no reason. Corals start to RTN and they are gone. Is that true?

2. which products could be safely dosed with a dosing pump ? On zeovit forum, they say only zeostart (after adding ro water)

tnx

 

[ycnibrc]

Hi guys.
I'm planning to start a zeovit tank (just have to find a cheap reactor).

Some questions from a newbie:
1. zeovit tanks are "famous" to crash in a couple of days, with no reason. Corals start to RTN and they are gone. Is that true?

2. which products could be safely dosed with a dosing pump ? On zeovit forum, they say only zeostart (after adding ro water)

tnx

Nothing good happen fast so u really need to let your tank mature before you add corals.
zeovit claimed that u can start putting corals in after 14 days but in reality its not. As far as dosing with doser u need to get a quality doser like GHL which can dose drops with accuracy then u can dose any additives from zeovit.

 

[ycnibrc]

Yeah I hear ya. Thanks! I’ve been testing nitrate 3 times a week for a while to find the issue. Tank is barely 6 months old so understandably it’s gonna take a while. I’ve since cut zeostart in half to 5 drops a day, spread over morning and evening. stopped zeo food. Changed reactor to always on. Did a water change last Saturday. Sunday nitrates were 9.6. Wednesday 9.3. Today 9.1. So it’s finally going down!!!! Haha. Usually it kept going up.

I’ve read a lot of forums online and browsed kz’s forum for high nitrates. Think I‘ve determined zeostart has nitrate in it to balance the bacterial consumption rate. Oceans are 16 to 1, no3 to po4. Home tanks are usually 10 to 1. And to dose zeostart based on your phosphate reading, not nitrate. It’s a carbon source but not like the stuff redsea sells. Least I think I read everything correctly but please let me know if I am wrong. Just a newbie that reads everything to find solutions. Haha.

so hoping numbers don’t crash too low as I have mostly LPS and softies. Phosphates went from .05 last Sunday to .04 today so gonna have to watch that if it keeps dropping.

Any advise on dosing kz’s 2 iodine bottles? I have both and dose each once a week, 3 drops. 60 gallons total. They tell you not to dose iodine the same day as zeobak, but after changing zeolite media you dose zeobak for 10 days straight. So am I waiting until after 10 days to dose either? my ICP numbers were pretty low when I was dosing 2 drops of each a week so I upped them to 3 drops. Haven’t done another ICP test lately as iv been doing large water changes for nitrate. Read somewhere I think the non organic one can be dosed more often. Not the organic. Will have to look later. Long week... having a Manhattan now. So my bad if I’m rambling…. Haha

Do you use zeolite rock in your system? Zeolite absorb amonia therefore indirectly reduce nitrate.

 

[iLMaRiO]

Guys do you have a planner/software/spreadsheet to use as scheduler for zeovit ?
Something able to automatically plan the dosage day by day, in example: 0.4ml zeostart twice a day and it should add two dosage each day, every day and so on.

Actually I'm using Google Calendar, but it's totally manual

 

[iLMaRiO]

anyone doing full zeovit but without water changes? (or with monthly changes)

 

[DxMarinefish]

Hi @ycnibrc , I am not sure whether is has been covered here or not, but would you know approximately how many "drops" makes up 1ml.
I am trying to Automate, but the KZ_guide_easy_reefing just mentions dosage in drops.

 

[ycnibrc]

Hi @ycnibrc , I am not sure whether is has been covered here or not, but would you know approximately how many "drops" makes up 1ml.
I am trying to Automate, but the KZ_guide_easy_reefing just mentions dosage in drops.

20 drops per 1ml

 

[DxMarinefish]

20 drops per 1ml

Thank you.

 

[ReefHog]

I started my new tank in September of 2021. I made full switch to Zeovit in December. The tank took about 6-8 weeks but was then looking awesome. No algae and corals were growing steady and nice coloring. I had a medical situation that got me away from my tank maintenance for about a month. My dosing regiment was not affected but water changes were stopped for four weeks, I didn't do any testing and I was late replacing my Zeo Stones. My algae free tank started getting the brown algae dusting on the sand bed and rocks, a small amount of GHA popped up here and there and most importantly, some of my corals started declining. Especially the plating montipora which started turning grey and one was overtaken by the brown diatom type algae. It's been four months since starting Zeovit System and I have been relying solely on water changes for trace elements. I tested my K and got 380. I've been maintaining it at 400/420 since the start. Depending on the test kit accuracy (Salifert), it could be lower. I sent out an ICP test which I am waiting for results. I've started adding K-Balance at 6 drops daily and testing daily. I am up to a reading of 400 now and the Montis are finally starting to show some slow recovery. One is still in bad shape. Most of the other sps while not as colorful as they were do not appear to be in bad decline. Tips on the bubble gum digi are white, not green, Walt Disney is more brownish with a slight amount of pink instead of the yellow/pink/green etc. There are three small colonies that are in trouble. the green slimer is bleaching at the top and another smooth skin is the same. My largest and fastest growing unknown keeps getting the brown algae all over the outside. I blow it off and it's back hours later. I'm quite new to sps so I'm not sure what I should do next. Normally, I just leave things alone and get water parameters back in range and let corals recover on their own. I have done a series of 15% water changes every other day for the last week. I have Flatworm Stop which I've heard is good for recovery. I have a batch of sps frags I was planning on adding this weekend after quaranting them for the 45 days, but thinking I should wait now. No3 is 8.9, Po4 is 0.04, alk is 7.7 (typically 7.4), Salinity is 33.0. The alk did shoot up to 8.3 during that period. Guessing because corals slowed growing. Should I cut off the bad parts of the sps or leave them alone?

Tank: IM 150 Lagoon
Salt: Red Sea Blue Bucket
Lights: Kessil AP700, ATI Blue Plus (2), ATI Super Actinic (2)
Return Pump: Jaebo DC8000 with RFG
Circulation: Tunze 6055 (2) Tunze 6043 (1)
Substrate: 1.5" Carbsea Aragonite
Caribsea Life Rock (60 lb)
Live Gulf Rock (35 lb)

Zeovit System:
1.5L Zeo Stones replaced monthly
Flow through reactor: 150 +/- gph
6 drops Zeobak M-W-F (daily after Stone change 10 days)
6ml Zeo Start daily split morning & afternoon
6 drope Sponge Power M-W-F
Coral Snow 1 or 2 X weekly
15% Water Change weekly

22/04/2022:
Salinity: 33
Temp: 78
Ph: 8.15
No3: 8.9
Po4: 0.04
ALK: 7.7
K: 400
Calcium: 380
Mag: 1400

 

[ycnibrc]

I started my new tank in September of 2021. I made full switch to Zeovit in December. The tank took about 6-8 weeks but was then looking awesome. No algae and corals were growing steady and nice coloring. I had a medical situation that got me away from my tank maintenance for about a month. My dosing regiment was not affected but water changes were stopped for four weeks, I didn't do any testing and I was late replacing my Zeo Stones. My algae free tank started getting the brown algae dusting on the sand bed and rocks, a small amount of GHA popped up here and there and most importantly, some of my corals started declining. Especially the plating montipora which started turning grey and one was overtaken by the brown diatom type algae. It's been four months since starting Zeovit System and I have been relying solely on water changes for trace elements. I tested my K and got 380. I've been maintaining it at 400/420 since the start. Depending on the test kit accuracy (Salifert), it could be lower. I sent out an ICP test which I am waiting for results. I've started adding K-Balance at 6 drops daily and testing daily. I am up to a reading of 400 now and the Montis are finally starting to show some slow recovery. One is still in bad shape. Most of the other sps while not as colorful as they were do not appear to be in bad decline. Tips on the bubble gum digi are white, not green, Walt Disney is more brownish with a slight amount of pink instead of the yellow/pink/green etc. There are three small colonies that are in trouble. the green slimer is bleaching at the top and another smooth skin is the same. My largest and fastest growing unknown keeps getting the brown algae all over the outside. I blow it off and it's back hours later. I'm quite new to sps so I'm not sure what I should do next. Normally, I just leave things alone and get water parameters back in range and let corals recover on their own. I have done a series of 15% water changes every other day for the last week. I have Flatworm Stop which I've heard is good for recovery. I have a batch of sps frags I was planning on adding this weekend after quaranting them for the 45 days, but thinking I should wait now. No3 is 8.9, Po4 is 0.04, alk is 7.7 (typically 7.4), Salinity is 33.0. The alk did shoot up to 8.3 during that period. Guessing because corals slowed growing. Should I cut off the bad parts of the sps or leave them alone?

Tank: IM 150 Lagoon
Salt: Red Sea Blue Bucket
Lights: Kessil AP700, ATI Blue Plus (2), ATI Super Actinic (2)
Return Pump: Jaebo DC8000 with RFG
Circulation: Tunze 6055 (2) Tunze 6043 (1)
Substrate: 1.5" Carbsea Aragonite
Caribsea Life Rock (60 lb)
Live Gulf Rock (35 lb)

Zeovit System:
1.5L Zeo Stones replaced monthly
Flow through reactor: 150 +/- gph
6 drops Zeobak M-W-F (daily after Stone change 10 days)
6ml Zeo Start daily split morning & afternoon
6 drope Sponge Power M-W-F
Coral Snow 1 or 2 X weekly
15% Water Change weekly

22/04/2022:
Salinity: 33
Temp: 78
Ph: 8.15
No3: 8.9
Po4: 0.04
ALK: 7.7
K: 400
Calcium: 380
Mag: 1400

It will be better if u can frag the dead parts off and frag the colony and mount it separately from the main colony just in case the whole colony spread and rtn. If your tank is in the recovery mode stop dosing zeo and try to stabilize the alk, ca , mag, nitrate and phosphate. When u see your corals colors up and your tank is normal then start the zeo.

 

[Jessefishes]

((( zeovit system start 27/1/2020 )))
po4 : 0.592 ppm with HANNA
NH3/NH4 : zero
NO2 : 0.2 ppm
NO3 :60ppm
i feed two time a day frozen food and pellets

My tank: 85 g

My dosing
Zeolight : 750 g skimz reactor 360L/H

Zeostart3 everyday : 0.6 mL

Zeobak: twice a week (3 drop)

sponge power twice a week ( 3 drop )

Coral snow every other day ( 3 mL)
--------------------------------------------------------
Total :14 fish
1 rabbit fish add 8/2/2020 size 4 inch
1 zebra drat fish 8/2/2020 size small
2 maron 17/2/2020 size small
2 clown 25/2/2020 size small
1 triger 16/3/2020 size 2 inch
2 tang 26/3/2020 size 2 inch
4 pajama 15/4 size small
1 clean wrasse 15/4 size small

can i but coral with this high po4 and no2 ?

Too many fish for 85g system is why nitrates are high.

 

[David Cher]

Got a baby cooler to store some of those drop bottle from zeovit. Now I can hook up my ghl doser and dose amino, acroglow and sponge power.

how you modify the bottle for start3?

 

[carpetlayer719]

Well I have a lot of inquire lately regarding zeovit and there is not much info on the forum on this topic so I decide to do a brief write up explaining my experience with zeo. First and foremost Im not affiliate with zeo therefore anything I say are just base on my experience with the system. A quick over view of my system it is 600g with 360g display 2 x 100g frag tank and a sump. The tank has been running since Feb 2017 and I start zeo since the beginning. I feel like my system is doing well base on grow and color. If you want more info on the system please check out the build thread.
Now let's get to the main part what is zeovit and how to dose it?
Zeovit is a bacteria base system which base on getting close to natural seawater parameters. Their philosophy is ultra low nutrients however they dose a lot of different additive and coral food to feed the corals. So basically they lower the nutrients aka phosphate and nitrate so they can dose more amino and coral food to feed the corals at the same time don't dirty the tank too much for the algae to start. I divide zeo to 4 different category
1) Bacteria
2) Food
3) Color enhancement
4) Trouble shoot

Bateria
For me bacteria is important since nowadays most of us start our reef tank with 100% dry rock. I have read so many thread regarding tank crash or sps dying with perfect parameter such as Alk, Cal, Mag, Temp, Salinity ect.... the only factor was most tank start with dry rock and the owner don't dose any type of bacteria source since cycle. The nitrogen cycle has a group of bacteria so reduce amonia, nitrite but I believe there are more bacteria need it to make the tank healthy. Years ago we got live rock which has multiple strain of bacteria so there were much less tank crash report than now. The only different between mature tank and a new tank is bacteria population.
For zeovit bacteria they have Zeobak and Zeostart3. Most of their dosage base on drop per 25g except for zeostart3 is ml per 1000l. I always divide the dosage to 7 days and start out with 50% for the first 3 months then increase 10% each month until reaching full dose.

Food
Corals feed all the time in the wild. They absorb bacteria, food and other stuffs including light all day. If you look at those diving video the water in the ocean is not crystal clear like our aquarium. They are full of particle and stuffs and turbid. Our fear of algae is the main cause for under feed for our corals in the tank. Remember algae can make your tank look ugly but it cant crash your tank. Most of the time my corals look best when I have more algae in the tank :). Zeo do provide a lot of different food to dose for your corals but coral vitalizer and amino acid are the 2 best. Since I want to feed the tank all day I divide the dosage to multiple time and dose it. I also dose acropower to supplement the corals.

Color enhancement
Zeovit is the only system that I know which can alter the zooxanthellae algae inside the coral skelleton to give more contrast to the coral. What cause coral to brown out? When lack of light the zooxanthellae start to increase to get more chance to photosynthesis to provide food for the coral unfortunately the color of the algae is brown therefore it make the coral look brown. Zeo has a couple additive which can reduce the algae and at the same time make the coral look lighter and create more contrast. Zeospur, B balance and A balance are specialize in changing color contrast. I always start with 50% and increase 10% monthly until satisfaction.

Troubleshoot
Well all tank has problem from algae to flatworm or pest. Zeovit has a few specific additive to combat each situation. Flatwormstop, coralsnow plus, bio-mate and zeozyme. I use flatwormstop which make the coral slim more and increase health at the base of the coral. Also I dose bio-mate which help to clean the live rock with mum and algae. Coral snow plus help to clear the water and reduce phosphate by binding it so the skimmer can remove it.

Zeovit is a hand on system and require you to pay attention and adjust your dosage to provide the ultimate environment for your tank. Its harder than most system because there is no dosage which fit every tank. You need to figure out what best for your tank. The system react slow because it take time to establish and come up with a correct dosage however if you commit to it then it will reward you with excellent grow and amazing color.

Thanks

Do you dose a 2 part or equivalent?