Zeovit discussion thread!

iiluisii · May 10, 2017

ws6kid said:
Well here is my thought after using Zeovit on my last setup prior to moving and tear down. The system can work. It is overly reliant on adding stuff and shaking the stones, ect. So if you end up being away more frequently, they system breaks down quickly and you will strip everything from your tank.

That being said, the number 1 lesson I learned from Zeovit is:

Spend 5 minutes with your tank every day. Not for pleasure or playing with some setting, but really looking at each animal. Learn to understand what they need when they don't look like they did the day before. If you hold to the zeovit system, the biggest thing that improves the tank is your new regiment for better husbandry than you had in the past. It forces you to spend time every day knowing your tank and how to care for it. I thought it was worth the cost because it taught me that just a few minutes every day improved the quality of life in my tank 10 fold.

I do not use Zeovit any longer and will not. I take too many work trips these days and the nutrients would be consumed and bottom out in my aquarium before I could get them back to healthy levels. I do spend about 10 minutes every day intently looking at each coral, each fish, each piece of equipment.

Not arguing here but if you have a reef tank you spent more than 5 minutes per day just looking at the tank.

ws6kid · May 10, 2017

iiluisii said:
Not arguing here but if you have a reef tank you spent more than 5 minutes per day just looking at the tank.

Looking for enjoyment or while sitting in the room with it is different than what I am talking about.

All I am saying is that reactive husbandy and proactive husbandry are different. Zeovit forces you to work with your tank every day and this creates a level of proactive habits that are good for any tank.

zsuzsu · May 10, 2017

I'm a zeo guy, I have pretty much all their products, I dose zs,zb,sp per instructions, I use coral vitalizer twice per week with reef roids, I occasionally use xtra going by look of the animals, b balance rarely, my tank doesn't seem to like it, aahc maybe twice a month at half dosage again going by the look of the corals, I use rox passively. I also use coral snow,and fws occasionally with coral booster at half dosage. The only rules I break are I keep nitrate around 5, and po4 .02. And run alk 8.2 to 8.5, when I go lower I get to much ph swing. All in all I really like the system but the dosage recommendations are really too high unless your reef is just jam packed with coral.

iiluisii · May 10, 2017

ws6kid said:
Looking for enjoyment or while sitting in the room with it is different than what I am talking about.

All I am saying is that reactive husbandy and proactive husbandry are different. Zeovit forces you to work with your tank every day and this creates a level of proactive habits that are good for any tank.

There is many ways to fix the constant dosing and here is the way I do it now with good results I got this way from one of Thomas Phols last post on the zeovit site. this will leave you with not having to do anything manually Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Reactor:
get an avast vibe which will take away having to shake the media manually daily.

Zeostart3: you can dose it with a doser daily.

The rest of the elements:
zeofood 1 day per week (Monday)
amino hc 1 day per week (Monday)
phol xtra 1 day per week (Monday)
coral vitalizer 1 day per week (Monday)
FWS/Coral booster 2 days per week (Monday and Friday)
B Balance/PIF/Sponge power 3 days per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
K balance 2 days per week (Monday and Friday)
Zeoback 2 days per week (Monday and Friday)
Coral snow 1 day per week (Sunday)
zeozym 1 day per week (Wednesday) and 1 time per month
A Balance every 10 days
Biomate 2 days per week (Wednesday and sunday)
Zeospur macro elements every 1 month
zeospur2 every 10 days

daelie · May 10, 2017

I run zeovit on my current system. Here are a few pics:

iiluisii · May 10, 2017

daelie said:
I run zeovit on my current system. Here are a few pics:

any pictures of the sump area and share your dosing schedule I like this thread we should have more zeo folks sharing their success.

daelie · May 10, 2017

iiluisii said:
any pictures of the sump area and share your dosing schedule I like this thread we should have more zeo folks sharing their success.

Ooo! I haven't taken a picture of my sump area for a very long time and before I even put a doser under there among other things, so this is the "newest" picture I have of my sump, but the empty space on the right is taken up by dosing containers and reactor at this point but the rest has largely not changed at all.

Dosing Schedule is:

Monday: Zeostart3, Pohls Xtra, Zeobak, Coral Snow, K-Balance
Tuesday: Zeostart3, CV, AA HC, SP, PIF, Zeofood
Wednesday: Zeostart3, Pohl's Xtra
Thursday: Same as Tuesday minus Zeofood
Friday: Same as Monday with B-Balance
Saturday: Same as Thursday
Sunday: Zeo3, Zeofood

For me, whenever I'm going to feed my fish, I just grab some tank water, add all my Zeo stuff for that day and put that in when the fish get fed.

ksfulk · May 10, 2017

ws6kid said:
That being said, the number 1 lesson I learned from Zeovit is:

Spend 5 minutes with your tank every day. Not for pleasure or playing with some setting, but really looking at each animal. Learn to understand what they need when they don't look like they did the day before. If you hold to the zeovit system, the biggest thing that improves the tank is your new regiment for better husbandry than you had in the past. It forces you to spend time every day knowing your tank and how to care for it. I thought it was worth the cost because it taught me that just a few minutes every day improved the quality of life in my tank 10 fold.

^^^ This

I think one of the main reasons I went with Zeo on this tank build is 1.) I've gotten complacent and lazy in other tanks and the results have clearly suffered as a consequence. Forcing me to watch daily and look for trends, rather than react once something has gotten out of control is a plus in my book. 2.) Im curious about new systems and how they work. Granted my system has only been up about 8 months now, but my experience has been positive thus far - Im not dosing "a million tiny blue bottles" and Im seeing net positive results in growth and health of the system inhabitants. I think that some of the daily "hands on" stuff gets blown out of proportion. I spend less time than it takes to do my daily Alkalinity test on Zeo related activities. Ive left the system for multiple 7-10 day periods without adding blue bottles or shaking the reactor. No real detrimental effects. I havent had issues with carbon changes or ZeoLite exchanges. I tested my nitrates for the first time since October last week just to see what my numbers were. I think I have a phosphate result from my Triton test I found a few months ago.

I dont see any corals in the tank as "pastel" or super light colored. My red planet is a dark red color, and my bonsai has the deep rich purple I expect from that coral. Im not sure if its my flippant attitude toward the system, or the buffer from performing weekly scheduled maintenace with a meticulousness that I didnt have in other systems, but I have nothing negative to say about the system at this time. Ive been told that LPS wouldnt be keepable in a Zeo system, and that a mixed reef is close to impossible - but I havent had any issues with it thus far. And to those that are angry about the unknown materials - I get it, I do. But I dont care whats in the containers, as long as I get the perscribed results - in the end, thats what Im paying for. All of the additional stuff is great too, but as a chemist by trade, I try not to add something that Im not testing for when it comes to chemicals - so K/B Balance isnt in the cards for me. I dont dose aminos, I dont dose spur. I wouldnt know to dose those either unless it states specifically to test for "potassium at levels of X - Y" or whatever. I think people get carried away just scooping up all of the blue bottles and dosing everything that is available.

All Im doing is attempting to establish a stable system - good quality imputs that I can control (salt, 2 part, etc) and maintain a nutrient export system that can keep up with the large number of fish that I keep.

iiluisii · May 10, 2017

ksfulk said:
^^^ This

I think one of the main reasons I went with Zeo on this tank build is 1.) I've gotten complacent and lazy in other tanks and the results have clearly suffered as a consequence. Forcing me to watch daily and look for trends, rather than react once something has gotten out of control is a plus in my book. 2.) Im curious about new systems and how they work. Granted my system has only been up about 8 months now, but my experience has been positive thus far - Im not dosing "a million tiny blue bottles" and Im seeing net positive results in growth and health of the system inhabitants. I think that some of the daily "hands on" stuff gets blown out of proportion. I spend less time than it takes to do my daily Alkalinity test on Zeo related activities. Ive left the system for multiple 7-10 day periods without adding blue bottles or shaking the reactor. No real detrimental effects. I havent had issues with carbon changes or ZeoLite exchanges. I tested my nitrates for the first time since October last week just to see what my numbers were. I think I have a phosphate result from my Triton test I found a few months ago.

I dont see any corals in the tank as "pastel" or super light colored. My red planet is a dark red color, and my bonsai has the deep rich purple I expect from that coral. Im not sure if its my flippant attitude toward the system, or the buffer from performing weekly scheduled maintenace with a meticulousness that I didnt have in other systems, but I have nothing negative to say about the system at this time. Ive been told that LPS wouldnt be keepable in a Zeo system, and that a mixed reef is close to impossible - but I havent had any issues with it thus far. And to those that are angry about the unknown materials - I get it, I do. But I dont care whats in the containers, as long as I get the perscribed results - in the end, thats what Im paying for. All of the additional stuff is great too, but as a chemist by trade, I try not to add something that Im not testing for when it comes to chemicals - so K/B Balance isnt in the cards for me. I dont dose aminos, I dont dose spur. I wouldnt know to dose those either unless it states specifically to test for "potassium at levels of X - Y" or whatever. I think people get carried away just scooping up all of the blue bottles and dosing everything that is available.

All Im doing is attempting to establish a stable system - good quality imputs that I can control (salt, 2 part, etc) and maintain a nutrient export system that can keep up with the large number of fish that I keep.

Post your schedule if you don't mind.

ksfulk · May 10, 2017

Here's my current routine:

Monday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Tuesday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Wednesday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, 12 drops ZeoBak, 5 drops ZeoFood (if I didnt dose on Saturday), Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~2 minutes
Thursday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Friday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Saturday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, 10 drops ZeoBak, 5 drops ZeoFood (if I didnt dose on Wednesday), 10-20% water change/sand vacuum, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~15-20 minutes
Sunday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute

Total time spent in a week: less than 30 minutes

hybridazn · May 10, 2017

ws6kid said:
Well here is my thought after using Zeovit on my last setup prior to moving and tear down. The system can work. It is overly reliant on adding stuff and shaking the stones, ect. So if you end up being away more frequently, they system breaks down quickly and you will strip everything from your tank.

That being said, the number 1 lesson I learned from Zeovit is:

Spend 5 minutes with your tank every day. Not for pleasure or playing with some setting, but really looking at each animal. Learn to understand what they need when they don't look like they did the day before. If you hold to the zeovit system, the biggest thing that improves the tank is your new regiment for better husbandry than you had in the past. It forces you to spend time every day knowing your tank and how to care for it. I thought it was worth the cost because it taught me that just a few minutes every day improved the quality of life in my tank 10 fold.

I do not use Zeovit any longer and will not. I take too many work trips these days and the nutrients would be consumed and bottom out in my aquarium before I could get them back to healthy levels. I do spend about 10 minutes every day intently looking at each coral, each fish, each piece of equipment.

Great points, and some of those are why I've decided to give this a whirl. I'm always fiddling with the tank every night so adding another 5-10 minutes to add a couple drops of something or shake some stones isn't a big deal.

So to aid in keeping alk low in a zeovit system, what salt is everyone using. I'm switching to this from RSCP

Aquaforest reef salt. Alk is between 7.8-8.2

ksfulk · May 10, 2017

Ive used IO since the start of the tank, but I recently have been going with Red Sea blue bucket, since the parameters are more in line with what Im attempting to keep. Plus, since Im not QTing a bunch of fish anymore, Im not going through 120lbs of salt a month now

hybridazn · May 10, 2017

ksfulk said:
Ive used IO since the start of the tank, but I recently have been going with Red Sea blue bucket, since the parameters are more in line with what Im attempting to keep. Plus, since Im not QTing a bunch of fish anymore, Im not going through 120lbs of salt a month now

Nice, I thought about the blue bucket lime I said but the price of the blue bucket is more than the box of aquaforest from BED. The blue bucket costs more locally as well, the Same as RSCP

hybridazn · May 10, 2017

Whoa I missed s bunch of posts, stupid work lol. I'll reply to the others here when I can lol

iiluisii · May 10, 2017

hybridazn said:
Great points, and some of those are why I've decided to give this a whirl. I'm always fiddling with the tank every night so adding another 5-10 minutes to add a couple drops of something or shake some stones isn't a big deal.

So to aid in keeping alk low in a zeovit system, what salt is everyone using. I'm switching to this from RSCP

Aquaforest reef salt. Alk is between 7.8-8.2

Great I'm ordering mine this weekend.

hybridazn · May 10, 2017

zsuzsu said:
I'm a zeo guy, I have pretty much all their products, I dose zs,zb,sp per instructions, I use coral vitalizer twice per week with reef roids, I occasionally use xtra going by look of the animals, b balance rarely, my tank doesn't seem to like it, aahc maybe twice a month at half dosage again going by the look of the corals, I use rox passively. I also use coral snow,and fws occasionally with coral booster at half dosage. The only rules I break are I keep nitrate around 5, and po4 .02. And run alk 8.2 to 8.5, when I go lower I get to much ph swing. All in all I really like the system but the dosage recommendations are really too high unless your reef is just jam packed with coral.

Thanks for sharing. How long have you been using zeo?

daelie said:
I run zeovit on my current system. Here are a few pics:

daelie said:
Ooo! I haven't taken a picture of my sump area for a very long time and before I even put a doser under there among other things, so this is the "newest" picture I have of my sump, but the empty space on the right is taken up by dosing containers and reactor at this point but the rest has largely not changed at all.

Dosing Schedule is:

Monday: Zeostart3, Pohls Xtra, Zeobak, Coral Snow, K-Balance
Tuesday: Zeostart3, CV, AA HC, SP, PIF, Zeofood
Wednesday: Zeostart3, Pohl's Xtra
Thursday: Same as Tuesday minus Zeofood
Friday: Same as Monday with B-Balance
Saturday: Same as Thursday
Sunday: Zeo3, Zeofood

For me, whenever I'm going to feed my fish, I just grab some tank water, add all my Zeo stuff for that day and put that in when the fish get fed.

Beautiful pics! That's what comes to mind when I think of a zeovit tank and what I am striving for!

What is your total water volume?

ksfulk said:
^^^ This

I think one of the main reasons I went with Zeo on this tank build is 1.) I've gotten complacent and lazy in other tanks and the results have clearly suffered as a consequence. Forcing me to watch daily and look for trends, rather than react once something has gotten out of control is a plus in my book. 2.) Im curious about new systems and how they work. Granted my system has only been up about 8 months now, but my experience has been positive thus far - Im not dosing "a million tiny blue bottles" and Im seeing net positive results in growth and health of the system inhabitants. I think that some of the daily "hands on" stuff gets blown out of proportion. I spend less time than it takes to do my daily Alkalinity test on Zeo related activities. Ive left the system for multiple 7-10 day periods without adding blue bottles or shaking the reactor. No real detrimental effects. I havent had issues with carbon changes or ZeoLite exchanges. I tested my nitrates for the first time since October last week just to see what my numbers were. I think I have a phosphate result from my Triton test I found a few months ago.

I dont see any corals in the tank as "pastel" or super light colored. My red planet is a dark red color, and my bonsai has the deep rich purple I expect from that coral. Im not sure if its my flippant attitude toward the system, or the buffer from performing weekly scheduled maintenace with a meticulousness that I didnt have in other systems, but I have nothing negative to say about the system at this time. Ive been told that LPS wouldnt be keepable in a Zeo system, and that a mixed reef is close to impossible - but I havent had any issues with it thus far. And to those that are angry about the unknown materials - I get it, I do. But I dont care whats in the containers, as long as I get the perscribed results - in the end, thats what Im paying for. All of the additional stuff is great too, but as a chemist by trade, I try not to add something that Im not testing for when it comes to chemicals - so K/B Balance isnt in the cards for me. I dont dose aminos, I dont dose spur. I wouldnt know to dose those either unless it states specifically to test for "potassium at levels of X - Y" or whatever. I think people get carried away just scooping up all of the blue bottles and dosing everything that is available.

All Im doing is attempting to establish a stable system - good quality imputs that I can control (salt, 2 part, etc) and maintain a nutrient export system that can keep up with the large number of fish that I keep.

ksfulk said:
Here's my current routine:

Monday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Tuesday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Wednesday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, 12 drops ZeoBak, 5 drops ZeoFood (if I didnt dose on Saturday), Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~2 minutes
Thursday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Friday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute
Saturday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, 10 drops ZeoBak, 5 drops ZeoFood (if I didnt dose on Wednesday), 10-20% water change/sand vacuum, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~15-20 minutes
Sunday: 1ml ZeoStart, 8 drops SpongePower, Pump the ZeoVit Reactor 10-12 times: Time spent ~1 minute

Total time spent in a week: less than 30 minutes

Like you I too want to be more "hands on" and be aware of things daily as opposed to waiting for something to go wrong to be active about it. I feel zeovit will keep me on my toes more so to speak.

Thank you for sharing your schedule. I would love to see some pics if you have any to share.