To zeo or not to zeo

[christyf5]

Ok so my tank has been on the zeovit program for almost 6 months now, some days I'm happy with it, other days I'm not. Mostly those days are when I see a gorgeous tank that isn't on zeo, or a gorgeous tank that is. Nitrates have always been an issue, they weren't before I started zeo and they're hovering around 20-30. This really ticks me off. But its not really the problem.

One of my clams has had some issues for the past two weeks. I thought it was pinched mantle but I posted over on the old clamsdirect forum (now reefaquariumforum.com) and they say it doesn't look like pinched mantle but they can't nail it down to anything else. They think it ay possibly be a nutrient issue (ie. nutrients too low) but I have 6 other clams and they're all fine. however with my nitrates at 40 seems odd. Theres nutrients in there somewhere, I can see the caulerpa grinning at me evilly from places I can't reach

Anyhoo, I'm thinking about stopping zeo for awhile. At the same time my clam started up I treated my tank with erythromycin to kill both the red slime algae which was plagueing my tank (not to the same extent that GreenSpottedPuffer was experiencing, mind you I don't have a sandbed) and help out the clam (bacterial issues were suggested). The erythromycin ended up doing in the cyano but didnt' do much for the clam. After the treatment I did a 10% waterchange (which I do weekly) and then a few days after that I did a 20% waterchange. I also ran carbon changing it out every 5 days. IMO I think the waterchange has done more for the clam than the treatment. Anyhoo, some stuff browned out (oddly enough only the corals that had yellow or green in them, other stuff is well, the same as it was before.

So, I dunno, is it possible to keep doing the zeo while dosing things for the clam? Or dosing things for the nitrates? Is it even worth it, sounds like I'm sort of working them against each other (ie. trying to keep nutrients up for the clam while using zeo to keep them down?).

Thoughts?

And no flames on the erythromycin, I was told its a main ingredient in many of the slime removers, I don't have a sandbed and the only repercussions so far are a couple of browny yellow corals and some diatoms which I believe I can control with waterchanges.

THX C