Setting up ZEOvit System

[kwirky]

i'd have to say i'm quite pleased with zeovit so far. I've been running it for 2 weeks and some of the algae waves i've had in new tanks just haven't happened. The tank's been running for 2 weeks now with 50% new rock. Here are some nitrate tests that are pretty damned interesting:

24g sumpless tank. aqua-c remora skimmer, DIY zeo-reactor, aquaclear HOB for carbon.
Nov 16: started zeovit
Nov 19: 5ppm Nitrate, 10% water change. Theoretical nitrate now 4.5ppm
Nov 21: 2.5ppm nitrate
Nov 30: 10% water change
Dec 3: undetectable nitrate (salifert kit)

FAST results I tell you . It's a low-nutrient tank in only 2 weeks. Crazy...

my only complaint is my own DIY reactor. I didn't break up the zeolyte media at all when I put it in my reactor made of 1.5" pipe. There are some large chunks that make washing the media a *****. When I change the media on the 7th I'm going to break the larger (1.5") pieces in half so they fit better in my tiny reactor.

Oh and the recommendations to run the carbon "passive" wasn't cutting it for my system. I had my carbon in a bag just sitting on the liverock and i had huge microbubble problems and never had skimmate from the skimmer. put an AC30 on the back of the tank and threw the tiny carbon bag inside and the next morning I started getting skimmate. I don't think it'll be an issue because the size of the media bag inside the filter is so small there's enough bypass to ensure the carbon's not being assaulted with flow but there's enough flow through it to ensure it's working. I knead the carbon daily as part of the dosing routine.