Totally stole it from a guy I know! :wink:

Can't be, or everything in Rich's tank would be dead too!

In regards to QT, so much to consider... regrouping as of now.

Never knew about that, interesting. Something else to consider. Thanks Rosko!

You do have an extra skimmer kicking around...

Last fish dead... just now. Fallow tank day 1. :sad:

Well maybe that's a good thing - maybe ?
It'll give you time to remove some more phosphate from your rock, and use the zeo to possibly build up more bacteria?

Yeah it sucks, but it's the best thing for the tank. Not too worried about PO4 @ .03, corals don't mind. 3 months of no fish does give me the opportunity to add some more live rock, remove an inch of substrate, finish the stand, mount the frags and the Apex, and on and on. Lots to keep me busy.

Sucks to hear bro. At least now fallow starts you'll know the new fish 3 months later will/can all be healthy. Something to look forward to!

I've never heard that, and according to a study I found, not really valid.

"The effects of dissolved oxygen on tomont development were examined. Tomonts were incubated in hyperoxic (141%), oxic (100%), hypoxic (24%) and anoxic (0%) conditions. Under the hypoxic and hyperoxic conditions, tomont development was suppressed. Under the anoxic condition, tomonts died. However, when tomonts were transferred into an oxic condition after 2 or 4- week incubation in the hypoxic condition, development resumed, showing a rapid increase in theront excystment rates 10 to 11 days after the transfer."

Thanks Brian.

Thanks for doing the research Brad. I was going to get around to it... within the next 3 months, lol.

I phrased that wrong. I should have said low dissolved oxygen is stressful for fish and stress makes the fish more prone to parasites. Higher DO would help the fish be less stressed.

That I would agree with.

I am very sorry for the fish losses... losing fish/coral is the worst thing ever and its extremely discouraging...

Alright I did about 20 min of skimming through the thread and I could not find the following information:

Net water in the system
Flow through the zeovit reactor
Dosing schedule

Now the bad part which is most likely causing your corals to stn/rtn...

1. I didn't notice a change of salt, however the salt you started with is not recomended in a zeo system... high alk works very well outside of ULNS... Might want to change salts to KZ reef crystals (on sale for another month, but pricy regardless) or going with the Red Sea blue bucket.. tough to get in Vancouver (aquariums west carries it)

2. it is recommended against using a uv reactor with zeovit as it will interfere with the zeovit bacteria... i think you have a constant battle and most likely that's also affecting the sps... think of it this way, you add zeobak which you supposed to do every 3 days, however the uv reactor kills the bacteria and cant properly colonize the rocks; then zeostart floats around the system.. then you add zeobak and there is too much food due to the suspended start in the system and so on...

Basically I think the balance of bak vs start is never achieved and the swings are really high due to the UV doing its job.

This is not documented, just my conclusion from all the readings I've done.

Now you can use a UV, however you need to shut off the UV when dosing bak and turn back on once the cycle is complete, recommended 3 hours if I recall (I don't think anyone can say for sure whats the exact timing of the zeostart vs zeobak is and that's most likely why it is recommended against using a UV reactor with zeovit). Also every tank is different and the timing will be different from tank to tank and that's most likely why they recommend against using UV with zeo.

I know this is tough due to fish losses, however I can tell you will be very pleased once the zeovit balance is met...

Also forgot to add but whats your potassium at?
Potassium tends to be very important with Zeovit as it is easily skimmed by needle-wheel skimmers :(

It is recommended by the zeoheads to use a venturi skimmer which I believe doesn't remove potassium... I'm trying to get a Life Reef skimmer but they are very rare in Canada and they instantly sell on Reef Central...

Ginu, I will try to answer all your questions from this thread, your PM and the other thread here.

System gross is about 80 gallons/303 litres. Net is unknown, but dosing based on 75 gals.

Start .3ml X2 daily
Bak 3 drops twice a week
SP 3 drops three times a week

All Zeo additives are in date and Start smells like vinegar. Bak is stored in the fridge and can only be described as smelling like 'garbage'.

Reactor flow is just under 300 litres per hour. 750ml of stones.

Just recently learned that Start is a source of NO3, so I'm thinking of dropping my dosage to .2ml X2 daily.

Jesse (wheelman76) provided me with this link :http://www.zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30236

Very interesting and thinking of giving it a try.

Accepted the fact that it could take a year to reach ULNS, lucky I'm somewhat patient.

Just realized I didn't put this in my build thread, but I only ran the UV for a couple weeks, it's been offline for ages now. My bad.

Only had one coral hit with RTN. Had to remove ALL the water from the tank to catch some fish. Removed the frag rack to the holding tub as well. Reused the drained water and then proceeded with a regularly scheduled 25% w/c. Pretty sure this was the reason for the RTN event. All corals currently look fabulous now that I've tweaked my lighting schedule and intensity.

I have dipped my frags religiously several times.

Don't have a Potassium test kit yet. J&L is out of stock on Saliferts and apparently Salifert has discontinued it, and is developing a new kit. Don't feel like paying $10 shipping on a $20 kit.

I've run out of time, wife is calling, lol.

Just got myself caught up on this thread. Sorry to hear of your losses Warren ! Been there, done that, got the wet t-shirt :-( But we keep on reefin on right? :biggrin:

Thanks Kien.. what else would we do with our free time?

Probably something more sane and rational, but this isn't the place for that kind of crazy talk!

Agreed!

I have an Elos potassium test kit and I'll be at Rich's tonight after 4:30

Edit: Hmm, just pulled it out. Best before date is 2 years ago :surprise:

Dust it off, see you after 4:30.

Lol, thanks Greg! I wonder if Rich has a POT kit? We could test it against his. Or is expired, expired?

I might have one, let me dust that one off too.

Maybe he does ya. I'd love to test against one.

As far as expired goes - I just opened a jar of Great Value mayo we found in the back of the cupboard. BB Apr 2014. Ate a sandwich for lunch yesterday and I'm still here :wink:

Hmmmm... wondering if expired mayo is a good way to add bacteria to a tank?

I think you need to check the salinity of the mayo first, Greg. Just to be safe, you know? :wink:

Well, tank is 6 months old.

Summer heat is killing me, but the tank has levelled out at 80*C. Decent.

Tank has been fish free for almost a month, NO3 dropped to zero, what a surprise. The Doc's Eco Matter seems to have worked wonders, pods and bugs everywhere, also finally getting some coralline here and there.

Started to get some decent encrusting happening, so I figured its time to start mounting.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/371/18...ca0c31f5_o.jpg

Followed the Bblinks method of mounting and just started plopping plugs everywhere, lol. Still a few left to do, ran out of putty.

Also need to create a Monti island on the bottom right.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/449/18...396fcdea_o.jpg

Had a slight problem with the ro/di. After filling the ato, the unit shut itself off and water proceeded to spill out all over the kitchen floor. Traced the water back to the high pressure switch.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/284/19...7f93f039_o.jpg

Got in touch with Jeff at J&L and he spoke to the local Vertex rep. She suspects too much pressure after the booster pump. House pressure is about 40 psi and the gauge after the booster pump reads around 105 psi. Part will take a few days to come in and then I will swap it out, measuring pressure after, and make adjustments if need be.

J&L are amazing!

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/385/19...f339b701_o.jpg

Drip, drip, drip. Happy reefing!

Looking good Warren that should fill in nicely. What are you dossing to keep those corals fed while your tank is fishless ??

Thanks Ian. Just dosing BRS alk, mag and Ca. Still just using Zeo start, Bak, sponge power and 2 drops of ZeoFood weekly. Haven't got around to getting any amino acids or the such yet. Which is too bad, as the Zeo sale ends tomorrow. The wife would kill me if I dropped a few hundred on supliments right now, lol.

Oh, and I still feed Tims Pacifica Plankton twice a week.

Time for a small update.

After mounting all the frags, the only thing left on the frag rack were the Rastas, which were quickly getting out of hand...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/523/2...c1d44abe_o.jpg

... they were even growing on the stem of the plug.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/285/2...1bf2dea9_o.jpg

Then, one evening, the RBTA was looking a bit weird. After a couple of hours, it split...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/282/2...3046112b_o.jpg

... and decided to go for a little walk. No harm done, whew!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/542/2...4a6c413c_o.jpg

Most folks seem to hate coralline, but I am welcoming it. Now it just needs to start growing more on the rocks.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5766/...c239c189_o.jpg

Went to Cancun for a week and came home to a messy tank.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5741/...e636c8b7_o.jpg

PO4 dropped from .03 to .006. Manually removed as much algae as I could, and added a sock to the sump.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5718/...a8c4519b_o.jpg

Spent the last 2 days cleaning and doing a w/c. More work planned for the next couple days as well.

Not quite sure how to safely remove the algae from the snails.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/590/2...81d44373_o.jpg

Got these weird bubbly things everywhere (dead centre of pic). At first I thought it was bubble algae, but they are more tear drop shaped, and not dark green like bubble algae. Perhaps Trochus snail eggs?

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/683/2...6b540d04_o.jpg

Picked up an Emerald, but he's not interested in them. #freeloader. I actually think the SOB is flipping me the bird in this pic.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5739/...757348b4_o.jpg

8 months running my first salt tank and I think I'm doing ok. Already wanting to upgrade (Rich... not one word from you!)!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/681/2...02739bc7_o.jpg

Thanks for looking.

Lol for my snails I picked them out and placed them in a plastic container with tank water in it. Then I floated the container in my tank with multiple snails in it. Lol they cleaned each other off :)

Lol, good idea! I see them hitchhiking all the time, but not for very long.

And forgot to mention the tank is looking great!!

Time to upgrade! :multi::multi::multi::multi::multi::multi::multi:: multi::multi::multi::multi:

Every day I think about an upgrade!

Lots of additions to report. My fallow period ended the first week of August and I had a pair of clowns in the 20 for a few weeks of observation. Once I was happy that they were relatively healthy, I moved them over.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5784/...12a867dd_o.jpg

Then Rich and I headed out to Ryanericksons for one of our little coral adventures and shopping spree's.

Tri-coloured Nana

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/705/2...ca9bc4eb_c.jpg

Blue/green Cyphastria

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5647/...042a08e8_c.jpg

Sunset Monti

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5727/...21860ffc_c.jpg

In the above pic you can see the RR Wolverine at the top. Encrustation is good, however I have been having a hard time getting all the corals to colour up.
Knowing that I needed to start dosing Amino's, I thought I'd start with the cheapest products, so I picked up some RedSea Energy and dosed for a couple weeks.
Didn't really notice any change. In the end, once the bottles ran out, I bought some Zeo AA.
Under the AA you can see my fancy dosing schedule. Still a huge learning curve for me. Considering adding some T5's.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5657/...e6646f40_c.jpg https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5645/...4d8667b0_c.jpg

Picked up a wicked Rainbow Monti from CanuckGod604.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5766/...e2774d25_c.jpg https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5740/...0aac61ff_c.jpg

Once again, cell photos do no justice. I'll finish off with a side FTS.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/725/2...bfbbec87_o.jpg

Thanks for looking.

Looks awesome man.

Tank's looking good Warren! That suspected Bubble Algae is Bubble Algae - it comes in several different varieties. Not all Emeralds will eat it ime. If you want small fish, make sure you buy female Emeralds. Just the males get the big pincers, and they will catch small fish.

Get a spray bottle and some hydrogen perxoide from the dollar store and spray down the snail wait five minutes and put it back in the tank. that Amino acid should not be used if you have GHA it will just unlease a beast of algae on the tank.

Looks good Warren .
Looks like my tank - got a bunch of small sticks & waiting for stuff to grow & become colonies

Thanks, getting there.

Mindy, good to know. I'm thinking of picking up a couple more Emeralds as the bubble algae is starting to get out of hand and the one dude isn't making a dent. I'll make sure to flip the crabs and check their sex, as I am only interested in adding small fish at this point and maybe a Copperband, as the centrepiece.

Surprisingly the GHA hasn't returned in a few weeks. The Trocus snails are breeding rapidly and keeping it in check. Either way, good info, thanks!