Just about ready to throw in the towel grrr

[digital-audiophile]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Personally I think your skimmer is your problem, I really don't think a ER 135 is big enough for a 90 gallon + sump system when using Zeovit. Although it may be a good skimmer for the price it just simply will not do what you're expecting it to. Basically you're flooding your tank with bacteria and bacteria food to eliminate nutrients but there are harmful byproducts that need to be skimmed out. It seems fairly obvious to me that skimming has not been effective and these byproducts along with excess bacteria and b-food has resulting in a cyano outbreak.

Although the guide does state that 5% weekly is fine when using RBS it also states this would be for the purpose of only replacing elements. In your case you should change more water to help remove byproducts and excess bacteria and nutrients not removed by your skimmer.

With sump minus displacement of rock my system is only about 100G total water and I am only lightly stocked so the ER should be sufficient, I would love to upgrade to a BK but the $1000 price tag is holding me back. With the ER and weekly changes I should be removing enough of the bad nutrients to compensate for not spending my mortgage on a new skimmer.

As I noted earlier in exchange for my regular 5% water change this weekend I am planning on doing a larger removal and replacement upwards of 25% volume.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by digital-audiophile

With sump minus displacement of rock my system is only about 100G total water and I am only lightly stocked so the ER should be sufficient

That's exactly what Euro Reef was counting on when they came up with that rating, plus they didn't make that rating for a zeo tank. I'm not trying to cut you down, nor am I telling you to break your bank, I'm just being straight forward. If it was sufficient you probably wouldn't have the cyano outbreak. Your best bet would be to cut back on the zeo until you get things cleaned up.

[Delphinus]

So how much of a ratings-upping should you look for, maybe about twice? Ie., look for 200g if you have 100g? I realize skimmer ratings have gotten better in recent years but I still take a skeptical view towards manufacturer ratings.. something of a black art methinks..

[marie]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

So how much of a ratings-upping should you look for, maybe about twice? Ie., look for 200g if you have 100g? I realize skimmer ratings have gotten better in recent years but I still take a skeptical view towards manufacturer ratings.. something of a black art methinks..

Even Bubblekings ratings are suspect. I have the supermarin 200 which is rated up to 400g and I find it is a little small for my system of around 200g total. I now wish I had gone with the supermarin 250

[i have crabs]

i would try dripping kalkwasser at night for a week wich will pricipitate out any extra phosphate in your water. also if you dont use carbon i would use that for a while too.

[digital-audiophile]

Originally Posted by sphelps

That's exactly what Euro Reef was counting on when they came up with that rating, plus they didn't make that rating for a zeo tank. I'm not trying to cut you down, nor am I telling you to break your bank, I'm just being straight forward. If it was sufficient you probably wouldn't have the cyano outbreak. Your best bet would be to cut back on the zeo until you get things cleaned up.

You might very well be right, it's just there is nothing I can do to change the skimmer situation so I am stuck in a rut it might seem. I've already reduced my zeo addivitves to a very minimal dose, any lower and I might as well stop all together.

I am running carbon fluidized in a phosban reactor, I know the zeo guide says to run it passive in the sump but I found before my issues that the carbon had a better effect in the reactor.

[sphelps]

Usually skimmers like EuroReef have fairly accurate ratings. But every tank is different, you may have a light bio-load or so you might think as you only have a few fish. However some feed more than others and have more corals which could either lower or increase the bio-load. Another concern is over skimming which is just as bad as under skimming but has different effects so it's also important not to go too big as well.

With zeovit the idea is to over skim and replace the elements more often than usual. So a large skimmer is very important for this method to work. Zeovit is not for everyone and I wouldn't recommend anyone just jump into it because they see some really nice tanks that use it. The bottom line is it's not a miracle cure or tool for reef keeping and there are just as many, if not more, beautiful tanks without zeovit out there.

My recommendation to anyone thinking about zeovit is not to start with the full system (basic 4). First try everything else in the guide except the actual reactor and basic 4 additives: efficient skimming, good lighting, good alternating flow, weekly water changes, stable parameters and so on. Then try a few of the other additives which do not require the reactor. Such additives include:
Amino Acids (both lps and reg)
Coral Snow (coral food, and helps remove slime)
Zeospur2 (when used properly will control zooxanthellae concentration for better color)
K- Balance (Potassium)
and so on, there are so many now, all worth trying.

If that doesn't give you the results you're looking for then you can consider the full system.

When I used zeovit I did a lot of reading on the zeovit forum and found many people jumping into the system and had bad results, similar to the one in this thread. I had good results with zeovit but after a year I found that I can get better and more consistent results without the full system.

[wickedfrags]

Gotta agree with Snappy.

Change out your filters, flush your RO membrane and change your DI resin. In 2 weeks you should be back to normal. If I see algae starting in my tank it is always because of the RO unit, regardless of the TDS (which can vary greatly depending on the device used to measure). Do this and the algae will go away by itself.

Also, I would not recommend storing your new RO water in a rain water container that long (more than 24-48 hours) if it is not food grade. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Snappy

Greg,
are you using RO water? If not the spring run off time is really bad for extra chemicals in the water our reefs don't like. I am having a similar battle as I neglected to change my RO filters soon enough.

[andresont]

I had a beautifull 1 year old tank with ZERO alge and growing SPS with very nice colors.
Then ZEO "miracle" came to our land.My tank is now full of red hair algae.
ZEO rocks are just NO3 and Po4 Factory, at least it was to me similar to BIO balls.

I had corresponding flow to my tank size throu the rock , regular shaking, RO/DI water only with TDS @ o-ppm, marine pro salt, fresh T5 bulbs, water change every 8 days, two skimmers 600 L/air /hr each, 90x times display tank flow turnover. Sal 1.024, Ph always 8.3 day above 8.1 night.
I feed my sps regulary with variable diet.

I was never able to find a sweet spot between carbon and bacteria doisng, so I got rid of ZEO rocks and will never go back to it.Still use some suplements like Sponge, Amino acid etc. Just because i still have it.

3 weeks without ZEO rocks, cut down light first two days no loight at all, now down to 3hrs a day, vigorus Po4 removal and manual algae removal, seem to improve overall tank condition.

For red cyino though I use ZEO-bak soaked in ZEO-snow seems to help.
Will never use ZEO rocks again.
Not to mention large SPS loss due to a tiny bit more flow that I tried for few days. Lost about 400$ worth of SPS in 4 days like a snap !.

Still have 2/3 of a bag of zeo rocks if anybody wants it.

.

[albert_dao]

Sounds rather atypical of Zeovit or probiotic methods in general.