Jason, since my troubles began over christmas I have been considering going with zeovit but before I started using rowaphos my phosphate levels according to elos have never been above .05, after running phosphate removers for the last 4 month my phosphate levels are still between .01 and .05. My nitrates have also never been detectable using a salifert test kit.
I know my nutrient levels are high because of the algae and hydroids in my system but would zeovit be that much more of a benefit for me considering the growth and health of my corals for the last year.

Unfortunately I think I might of narrowed my recent problems down to the new 35lb bottle of co2. When calcium demand dropped so low I turned off the reactor, the corals stopped stning and the demand picked up again, I turned the reactor back on and problems started all over. It took me 3 months of doing this before I realized it might be the co2 :rolleyes:


Oh and I think the purple acro in the pic I posted (it really is that colour to the naked eye, canadian :mrgreen:) is exactly the same coral as the purple one (seventh pic) that jason posted.

[quote=Canadian;318056]Hey, here's what I KNOW:
2) The people who posted pics of their SPS to show off how much color they have without ZEO cheated and photoshopped their pics - that's a fact!quote]
Perhaps you've been drinking too much of your user name.:razz:
I mentioned in my post the picture doesn't do justice.
Anyway my point was about coral genetics and although not previously stated recticulate evolution plays a role as is obvious in the pictures from Marie & Jason of their same A.valida/nana.

BTW---Jason your tank looks great! Thanks for posting.

Yes thanks for posting Jason, I still haven't ruled out using zeovit but first I think I'll see what using a better skimmer can do.

Oh and thank you Snappy for identifying the coral...not that I'll ever remember it in the future :redface:

Yup, it's supposed to be. My impression so far is that there are no pics, so I'm not sure I can justify spending the money.

The reason I'm interested is that yes, although I think I cna do the same without Zeo (my previous tanks have been not-too-bad), I would like to feed my fish a bit more than normal and I have used sand this time around. If I can add more and Zeovit helps me manage it better (since I cna't get my skimmer to actually work very well), then I'd be intersted in setting this up. I'm not talking about adding the supplements, just the base reactor with zeofood, zeostart, zeobak and media. Ok, maybe dose some K, but that's it.

Do we have any pics?? Anyone?

I'll take some pics tonight, I've been neglegent due to the fact that I still can't figure out how to take decent underwater pictures.

Regarding cost, it's really only the startup that hits your pocketbook :

Reactor (1.5L) ~$230
ZeoStart ~$30
ZeoFood ~$15
ZeoBac ~$15
Zeolites ~$15

.. So initially you are looking to spend around $300.00.

Once you get going it should average out to around $20 (as noted by Albert in a thread a ways back)

Thanks Jason, this is what I was looking for. I don't want to argue about whether it works or cures cancer, I want to see pics that will help me justify spending the money.

I don't really have any before or after pictures, sorry.

To be honest the water zapped itself into this amazing clarity I couldn't even imagine, so quickly, that it literally caught me off guard. Like, I turned on the reactor one night, thought "I should get some pictures to do a before and after.. ah, it's late, I'll do it tomorrow." But "tomorrow" was too late. I was sitting there looking at my tank wondering what was wrong with my lights because they were noticeably brighter. Like they were suddenly being overdriven or something. Then I noticed my carpet tank had the same effect going on (it's a refugium style or satellite style tank run on the same sump). I finally realized, it wasn't the lights, it was the water.

I can show you some pictures of the frags I've got but without a context of a before and after, they don't really have a lot meaning to the spirit of this thread.

To be honest, to me the colours are just a happy bonus. Colours come from having nice pieces and reasonably well managed water quality, so colours will come anyhow. But having pieces grow because they are feeding on the bacteria that reduced the PO4 and NO3 .. that has a certain appeal to me. I feed my fish generously and wish to continue to do so as I feel that they are healthier that way, and this allows me to do more so. I mean I'm not going overboard, but it gives me a comfort margin. I have a CBB, for example, who only eats mysis, and grocery store bought food clams (mussels, Manilla, oysters, etc.). If I don't feed him what he eats, he doesn't eat. (He's already cleaned the tank of aiptasia.) I don't want to see him go without food, so I feed him a little mysis every day. Running Zeo allows me to do this without my NO3 and PO4 getting away on me.

I guess I'm gonna need to get some corals to really test this out, eh??

The coral can always come later :) In some ways it seems better to start zeo on a new or understocked tank so you can get really agressive with the dosing from the start of zeo to snap things into order early on without the fear of hurting your coral - Bleaching/RTN

I have a pocy high up in the tank before I started zeo under MH but with the swtich to T5 and zeovit I had to drop it down to the bottom of the tank as it bleached in a day.. I've mood it back up now as the colour is starting to return.


For the recod I was much like you.. I just didn't think I could justify the expense but when I started seeing tanks with zeo and what they have done I decided to give it a shot. The changes I saw in clarity much like Tony were amazing, and instant change!

Which is the direction I'm going. I like to feed mysis at least once a day, and need a buffer...

i've got some pretty good color in my sps and i'm not using ANY supplements.

Sorry, the pics didn't show up...

Adding corals
 

I do not use zeovit, but I am wondering how does one add corals to this system without cuasing rtn?
Some local fish stores have browned out corals cheap, so is their a distinct way of introducing them to a system?

Thankyou

There is no disbute that Zeo works, the real question is how much money and time do you want to invest? And is the result that much better? The beauty that it brings out of the corals is very subjective. Some may like the wash-out look, and some may not. If you're OK with spending some extra money and time every day dosing, then it's ideal, however to gain true success from it requires long time commitment. I ran Zeo for about 5 months two and a half years ago and saw what it was capable of. I also experienced how demanding the whole process was and quit shortly after. Taking what I learnt about Zeo, I've developed a way of reef keeping that I am very happy with today, and it may even rival the Zeo.

One of the most enjoyable aspect about this hobby is having to maintain the tank as least as possible. Zeo doesn't fall in that category, it requires a lot of nurturing. A high maintenance tank will tend to drive people away from the hobby in long run, it just doesn't last. Keep it low-tech and low maintenance and you will reep the rewards for a long time.

For those who are interested in using Zeo to color up your corals and to manage nuisance algae and the likes, go for it, it works, but beware of the commitments invovled. I'll post some coral pictures of my non-zeo method.

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi....hoeksemai.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...ali%20Tort.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...seng%20cap.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wicked/m.confusa.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...eta%20stag.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...oisetteae).jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...ry%20monti.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...20digitata.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...e%20millie.jpg



http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...ve%20stylo.jpg


http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...y%20millie.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ruwilling1/wi...an%20monit.jpg

Very nice corals :)

You are right, zeo is a commitement, but I personally have not found it to troublesome, I'm at my tank atleast once a day feeding, so taking the few extra seconds to pump the reactor and add a few drops from a couple bottles does not take up that much time. As for zeo scaring people of reefkeeping, I'm not so sure.. I wouldn't think that many first timers would go with zeo from the start unless they were really well read.. for the most part people fumble through the same trial errors and mistakes we all have.


Anyhow so I cannot be accused of not posting pictures... out of about 150 I tried to take this was the only one that actually turned out decent... and it's not even SPS :p


Us Calgary guys need to have a photo lunch and learn session like the BC guys did.


http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...Tank/Brain.jpg

wow
 

Gee, Willito, what's your secret. Low maintenance and brilliant colour. Sounds like a good combo to me!!

I'd like to hear the long term benefits and drawbacks of the system. Most of the stories seem to focus on short term sucess, but what is the rate of success after many months or years with it. Does it start to wane in efectiveness over time? That seems to be the case I'm experiencing with the Reefresh system, all was great at first, but now it seems to be ineffective in keeping the film algae at bay, and my sps are just not doing great at all.

I've been using Zeo for 2 years with no redused effectiveness. In actuallity over time you use less and less Zeo until you are at very little dosing.
As Willito says, if your not willing to perform daily dosing it will be difficult to be successful.


J

If you don't want to use it, don't?

I mean, seriously, why would people be so enthusiastic about a product that doesn't work? When is the last time you saw someone going off about what a great product their Skilter was?

"OMG, SUCH AN UBER SKIMMER AT ONE TENTH THE COST! I GOT RID OF MY BUBBLEKING SINCE IT WAS SUCH JUNK COMPARED TO THIS! YOU ALL MUST BUY!"

Thanks Albert :)

You were the one that sold me on zeo and I am so glad you did.

There are sevearl reasons, one of which would be high pressure sales like this! I'm asking to see how it works from people that have been using it. I see lots of threads on the zeovit site where people are not seeing the results, and the replies are "just keep waiting". If it works as claimed, and lots of people use it, then there should be lots of pics, right?

Your comment sounds like an infommercial without any blingy props. I've asked to see pics, not to debate it's effectiveness.
Does anyone else have pics?

Brad, I wonder if any of the LFS's in Victoria (are there any decent ones?) that might have zeo running on a display tank? That was one of the things that sold me on zeo was to see it up and running with my own two eyes.

I had also seen it in a super sweet zeo tank here in town, its a massive 300+Gallon tank in an office. The tank is heavily stocked with large tangs and angels and the water clarity was mindblowing.

Greg, Safari, our local supplier, is going to set it up on their display, which unfortunately is not a SPS tank. I think May might include a trip to th emainland, so I'll see if I can mooch some viewing from some of the users here. I'll probably sign up, just for the added nutrient export, it's just that my reading at zeovit.com left me lacking...
I'm confident with the skills I have and my existing equipment that I can produce a nice tank (if I ever get any corals!!), but zeo may just give it that extra push I've always been after

The zeo forums are pretty one sided I agree, I go there mainly to look at the pictures and I got some start up advise for dosing as the manual seems to contradict itself a lot.

If you were in Calgary I would be happy to have you over to show you my tank in person, like i've said before it is noting special but I have seen changes. I tried again last night to take pictures but I cannot seem to get my white balance correct so my pirctures all do end up looking like a T5 pastel nightmare :p

I did manage to get a nice picture of a new acro that I picked up on Sunday that looks like it might have some nice potential. I will post that picture when I get home and hopefuly follow up with progress pics.

I wish that I would have shot some pictures before I started zeo, my tank was drowing in green film algae. I would scrub the glass in the AM before I went to work and by the time I came home there was a solid film back on the glass. Within 24 hours after starting zeovit this algae started to fade and within a week it was all but gone. I do still wipe the tank daily but there are just small little patches here and there on the glass and as I mentioned before I think it is flow related and skimmer related. I'm going to get a vortech to add more random flow to areas that don;t seem to get it right now, and I need to get a proper sump built, Right now I am using a sump tank without baffles so I am having water level fluctuations in the sump so that by the time I get home there has been enough evap that the skimmer is not pulling as much foam as it was in the am (or I could set up an ATO to solve this)

Absolute rubbish. Zeo is just another product to be used a tool to help cleaning the tank of nutrients, there are many others like fauna marin, prodibio.

These products work on using bacteria to clean the tank, something that has been done for 20 years or more,

All zeo is, is bacteria and a food source for the bacteria to grow. so they multiply and clean your tank. in simple terms.

Zeo does not tell you what is in the bottles as it creates a perception that it is something special, good marketing.

I know this is a thread on Zeo and is suppose to have pics, currently I'm using ultralith by Fauna Marin and have been doing so for about 2 months or so. Colours on my sps tank were fair before I started and I thought after reading the stuff about expelling zoo on the coral and yabba yabba yabba that the coral was going to be brighter. Well there is some truth behind it but I would say that the stuff in the bottles smell much like vinegar. Anyhow I'm not exactly sure why we buy the zeolith rock other than a place where bacteria can feed and grow why couldn't they grow on biorings or inside biorock. I would suggest this if you want to try it for yourself, first off instead of buying the reactor try using a canister filter, if you buy one used you'll save some money there. So basically all you start with is a bottle of the so called bacteria some zeolith rock and the canister filter. After this go get yourself a bottle of the cleanest purest vodka available, sugar and vinegar then add a little of each ingredient every other day and see what results you achieve. If I only knew this before I would've saved about $100 bucks on the extra additives, anyhow seeing as I dosed minimal from the start and dose even less now things are going great. And what algae problem ahahhahah corals look awesome and PE is like excellent aswell if I had a sharp camera I would post some pics but because I don't, I feel embarresed to post blurry out of focus pics. Although upon digging through photobucket I managed to find a few pics that a freind took with an slr, 1 thing I will add is that corals do appear alittle lighter or paler now than before I started the product.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...y/IMG_2234.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...y/IMG_2233.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...y/IMG_2241.jpg
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...y/IMG_2221.jpg

Yes, we know. Andrew was just poking at me re: a past thread on lighting. Zeo also does not cure cancer (as far as we know today) :)

A cheaper or poorman Zeo method. It's a good read if you have the time.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1348770

You dont need to add the zeolite at all. it is just added to help the cleaning process.
zeovit will work without the zeolite as the bacteria is the partthat breaks down the waste.