Zeovit discussion thread!
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ReefingwithO
Well-Known Member
I like the Red Sea tank.
I wish it had a Refugium area which is something they fixed in the Peninsula series.
There are users who modify them and companies that make baffles and any type of mod you want.
If I had one complaint I would say that the center overflow is a little large but I can make due with it. I can place the tank closer to the wall and in an apartment space is everything.
zsuzsu
Active Member
1stNoel
Well-Known Member
I tried to switch my tank from Red Sea to Zeovit, with catastrophic results. To be fair, I think I botched the switch so I'm not blaming them. I just didn't realize how good I had it with Red Sea until I switched.
That being said, since I'm a glutton for punishment and had already bought their products, I started a separate tank from scratch to give Zeovit a fair try.
Now I can do a head-2-head comparison of the two systems.
That being said, since I'm a glutton for punishment and had already bought their products, I started a separate tank from scratch to give Zeovit a fair try.
Now I can do a head-2-head comparison of the two systems.
cwk84
Active Member
Time for another round of "Rakie's Unpopular Opinions"
I don't like Zeovit. Here's why;
- Given time most Zeovit tanks pale
- To keep from paling corals, you must buy 50 little blue bottles
- Those blue bottles mostly replenish stuff that is done via ANY other product, Water Changes, or just plain having nutrients in the system
- When things go wrong for zeovit tanks they go wrong and people sometimes can't get it back on track
Q: So why do i think these things, and why do I believe they're connected to nutrients?
A: Oceanic currents push arctic nutrient rich cold water up through the southern, western, and eastern end of Australia (Aussie is a good example here) -- As the arctic ocean mixes with the warmer waters in the Tasmanian Sea.
Look at this --
See the numerous gyre's in the Tasmanian sea (bottom right quadrant)? That's the subtropical water, which is comprised of warmer aussie water mixing with polar water, this super nutrient rich water pushes up through the eastern GBR and New Zealand, in the Tasmanian Sea.
Those gyres are strong northern flows from the GBR (by way of equatorial Peruvian currents, also fed by the Antarctic currents) being pushed back by the same nutrient rich southern polar waters. Causing a strong gyre washing up against the southern GBR until the central area.
So basically, I'm saying the GBR is pounded by nutrient at astounding levels.
Q: But wait, why do we always hear the GBR has the lowest nutrients in the ocean if all that stuff is washing up there?
A: Because of two reasons;
1) How tests work -- Nutrient tests accurately determine the excess nutrients in the water -- meaning the nutrients which are not in use. A tank with literally zero nutrients will kill all corals. A fully stalked tank testing at "zero nutrients" does NOT have zero nutrients, because you're feeding fish which are excreting ammonia, and creating nitrite and nitrate, plus po4 by way of food/poop. So while you have no testable nutrients, you do have nutrients in your system.
2) The GBR itself is the largest biological filtration system on the planet. It literally sucks almost every single micron of marine snow (Food/Plankton/Poop/Death/Rot -- basically every source of organics in the ocean) out of the water. That's why the testable amount is so low, and that's why the water is so clear.
To reiterate #2 ---- This is how you should see the GBR itself
Q: But wait, how do the northern area's of western australians GBR get nutrients then? There's reefs there too !
A: There are reefs there too, and they get it nearly the same way. Southern Arctic waters run easterly, and near south america run up Peru towards the equator, there water from Northern South America meets, and the tides collide and push west at the/ near the equator. Those nutrient rich waters push north from southern america until the equator, in which it traverses the warm equatorial line towards Australia, meeting, meeting with other deep sea water moving south along the outside eastern Philippines region.
Q: So, what you're saying is --
A: Yes. Deep water = has a lot of nutrient, as nutrients settle they will settle into deeper waters. Ever see one of those deep sea documentaries? Notice how halfway down (before the bottom) there's a TON of marine snow? like, more than any other area you could see?
There's what I'm talking about. That's the good stuff.
Q: Should I buy marine snow?
A: Just don't use ULNS system, dose some kno3, or just leave it be.
A 2: Ever notice how the majority of TOTM from RC to R2R and everything in between either 1) Have a good amount of nutrients (5+ no3/ .03+ po4) OR dose a ton of little bottles?
Almost none of them EVER run ULNS and don't have a medicine cabinet full of fixer uppers.
The thing is though, many people who keep low nitrates and feed their corals get better coloration/growth than people with high nutrient tanks (I'm talking SPS). Why is that? When our testkits show 0, as you mentioned, it's not actually 0. I'd consider this to be a ULNS where No3 is close to zero, meaning 0.5-1ppm. The reason why people have more success with higher nitrates is not that ULNS don't work it's because people are notoriously lazy. Who wants to spot feed all their corals every day to simulate those nutrient-rich gyres?.
I've had high nitrates for months and it stunted growth. I managed to get it down to 10ppm and everything is doing better. I don't have any SPS though. I noticed that every time I feed my corals they perk up but I can't keep feeding them otherwise my nitrates will rise again. This is the exact problem and why you should have a ULNS in the first place. It doesn't make any sense to me to dose Kno3 because you cannot get the same coloration and growth as when dosing certain coral foods. I'd rather dose a crap load of coral foods to simulate those nutrient rich gyres than dose Kno3.
I am by no means an expert. In fact I'm a novice. I have a 125 that's been set up for 6 months now but previously to that I had a 75 set up for about 9 months. The only reason I wanted to go bigger was for tangs. Anyway, I had a slight algae issue, nothing too bad. But, with my new system I started with zeovit and things have been great. Maybe too good because my tank was fishless for almost 3 months and the nutrients we're really low and corals were turning pale and not growing much. My tank is a mixed reef with acros, various sps, lps and softies. Since the addition of my fish things have taken off. Colors have been brighter than I could have imagined, even with sb reef lights. The acros look dazzling and have the pastel look.
My total system volume is 150gal. I run 6 drops of sponge power and 1mL of zeostart daily. Then I do 0.5mL of selcon and a pinch of reef roids every other day. Lastly I do 6 drops each of zeobak and zeofood every 3 days. Plus I dose red sea color program 1mL every other day for A,B,C, and D. Acropower is dosed twice daily 2mL each time for a total of 4mLs. Plus brs 2 part 15mL of alk and 10mL of cal. I do that because my alk is consumed faster than the cal. I'd be interested to hear if that's common.
My total system volume is 150gal. I run 6 drops of sponge power and 1mL of zeostart daily. Then I do 0.5mL of selcon and a pinch of reef roids every other day. Lastly I do 6 drops each of zeobak and zeofood every 3 days. Plus I dose red sea color program 1mL every other day for A,B,C, and D. Acropower is dosed twice daily 2mL each time for a total of 4mLs. Plus brs 2 part 15mL of alk and 10mL of cal. I do that because my alk is consumed faster than the cal. I'd be interested to hear if that's common.
Oh my params are as follows:
Alk:8.2 red sea
Cal:460 red sea
Mag:1360 red sea
Nitrates:2.5 salifert
K:360 salifert
Iodine: low even with red sea dosage. I don't want to fiddle too much with it. Just test occasionally since everything appears fine. Salifert
I don't test phosphate/ ammonia/ nitrite/ iron
I can't remember, be nice, when I last did a water change, maybe 2 months ago. Excuses: I'm busy. I'm poor. Water takes awhile to make. I need the water I do make for topping off frag and dt.
Alk:8.2 red sea
Cal:460 red sea
Mag:1360 red sea
Nitrates:2.5 salifert
K:360 salifert
Iodine: low even with red sea dosage. I don't want to fiddle too much with it. Just test occasionally since everything appears fine. Salifert
I don't test phosphate/ ammonia/ nitrite/ iron
I can't remember, be nice, when I last did a water change, maybe 2 months ago. Excuses: I'm busy. I'm poor. Water takes awhile to make. I need the water I do make for topping off frag and dt.
cwk84
Active Member
Probably not enough to constitute a real bio load for the bacteria. As someone else said fish produce waste even if you have zero nitrates you actually have a little bit. I don’t know but I feel tempted to try this system myself. I keep talking about it and ranting about how it’s snake oil but I haven’t even tested it myself. I could start my Nano with the zeovit system.
cwk84
Active Member
Wait, why did you feed reed roidz? The Zeovit system provides several bottles you have to use. You're not supposed to use any other coral food. You dose bacteria, food for bacteria which is also coral food and when you shake off the Zeolites the mulm that comes off is food for the corals as well. Then you have supplements like amino acids and certain trace elements like Iron etc. you can dose for coloration. Maybe that is why your corals paled. I've checked the Zeovit forum and there are several pictures of people who started fishless and their tanks look stunningly colorful.
Oh, I think you misunderstood. My tank is thriving now. All the colors are coming out more and more everyday. Just in the beginning the colors paled out I'm assuming from basically 0 nutrients. I know the nutrients are added from food but I have a very large skimmer rated for 220 gallons and I run a refugium which I know is not recommended either. I guess I don't run a perfect zeo system but it's going well besides a little cyano right now.
cwk84
Active Member
I understood perfectly. Zeovit is based on a strong bacteria population that you keep feeding. The bacteria will process fish waste or any decaying matter you put in the tank and the waste product of this process is food for the corals. This is what the Zeovit system is based on. If you don't have bioload in your tank and keep feeding the bacteria with a carbon source + use a huge skimmer and refugium, OF COURSE, your corals will STARVE. Zeovit does not recommend a refugium for a reason! That said, if you don't have any fish in your tank you don't even need to run your skimmer. If you had turned off your skimmer, plus removed the cheato plus fed the tank EXCESSIVELY with the food the Zeovit system provides, you would have 'simulated' the bioload the fish now added to the system.
Any zeovit reef tank owner want to share your tank
www.reef2reef.com
Zeovit reef tanks of the world
Hi there I would like to start a thread for zeovit reef tank owner come to share their tank. It doesn't matter where you are from I would love to see your tank. And for those non zeovit user it's a chance to see a side of different approach to reef keeping. I would like to thank everyone who...
www.reef2reef.com
LisaMarie
Addicted to Reefing
Just started a new tank with zeovit three weeks ago. Hope to see more discussion (and pics) that are zeo related. I've been reefing for more years than I care to admit to but this is my first zeo tank.
Good luck you will love the end result
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