Zeovit in a Nano (detailed update dec 5th)

[christyf5]

Wouldn't the large water changes sort of negate the use of zeovit? Every water change you do not only greatly dilutes the zeovit additive concentration, but also disrupts the system unless you're really careful to make sure the levels of various zeovit additives "match" the water you removed.

Just wondering.

[Joe Reefer]

If your going to use a phosban reactor for the zeolith. How do you stir it daily?

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Joe Reefer

If your going to use a phosban reactor for the zeolith. How do you stir it daily?

You just turn it upside down and right side up a few times to stir up the detritus.

[Joe Reefer]

haha ok. maybe i should just drink my coffee.

[christyf5]

hehe its a legit question as the phosban reactors don't have that handle pump action thing to stir the zeovit "manually". I just used to turn it upside down and shake the crap out of it until I saw detritus and stuff float down. Then I'd right it and turn the pump back on

[albert_dao]

You really shouldn't be doing large water changes with Zeo. Your best bet is to run SOME kind of skimmer.

Food for thought:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1209702

[Delphinus]

So um ..sorry, I'm a little confused. You're not running a skimmer on this system? Or are you? Funny you should bring this up, borne out of frustration for not getting fst enough progress on my tank build - out of spare parts I had lying around, I slapped together a 20g reef nano system this weekend. It's cute, it uses a Hydro Alkaseltzer or whatever it's called as the sump return, a seio for tank circ and a superskimmer 60 that I was going to meshmod. I was thinking, I wonder how zeo would work on a wee little tank like this. So your thread was rather timely!

Have you thought about running a small skimmer on your setup? I thought one of the reasons Zeo/Ultralith/Prodibio/Reef-resh type systems work so well is that the skimmers are constantly removing the nasties. I mean, sure, on a small system you can just change out the water on a weekly basis or whatever, but I thought the whole point with the dosing and skimming of a bacterial based system is that things are replenished and removed on a more steady-state type situation.

The wee little Euroreefs are the shizzle! A mesh'd Euroreef, that's a winner. I can't wait to see these guys hit the market!

[sphelps]

Hi Sean, I may be able to provide you with a little useful information, however I haven't read this entire thread so hopefully I don't repeat too much others have said, if I do I apologize.

I helped a friend setup a nano with zeovit, his post can be seen here:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=35489

In addition I've been using zeovit for quite some time and have learned a lot about the system over this time. The most important thing I've discouvered is the guide is a guide and is only really useful to get an idea on how to use the system. You have to basically find a balance and find your own dosing and media requirements to best fit your system and needs.

My main question for you is why do you need zeo? Basically if you're planing on doing weekly water changes and keeping an average bio-load nutrients shouldn't be much of a problem. I think it will be more beneficial for you not to use the full system, forget the reactor and media and simply dose a few of the zeovit additives that do not require the reactor. There are many people that do this and get what they want and need from the system.

You have to be careful not to do too much, too many water changes and/or too many additives will create too many elements for the system which will actually darken corals and have other negative effects. I don't believe the system will work without a skimmer, but I could be wrong. As I understand it the system basically provides a type of bacteria that brakes down nutrients into more skimable organics. Water changes will help remove these organics but no more than water changes alone, in fact you with water changes you can only remove a percentage each time which will not have the same effect as a skimmer. A skimmer will be much more effective for the system, so basically if you're just planing doing more water changes what's the point of the zeovit?

Basically you skim heavy, the zeovit helps the skimmer skim more organics, and you make up for the lost elements with consistent water changes and the addition of extra zeovit elements not found in most salt mixes. In addition other additives are available to improve coral health, color, growth, and so on.

The best advice I can give you is try without zeovit first, see what you get by maintaining levels constant. Keep you nutrients low and be consistent with weekly water changes. Then try some of the additives available from zeovit such as the amino acids, potassium, and Macro elements. You can also use zeofood without a system as it provides corals with food, amino acids and vitamins, just dose quite a bit less than recommended for the full system. Zeostart can also be used as it simply provides a food source for nitrifying bacteria, however you may not want to use this very much as too much of this bacteria isn't necessarily good. Finally a really good additive to use with caution is Zeospur2 as you can flush out zooxanthellae from the coral improving color.

Unless you honestly cannot control your nutrient level I can't see why you would want to use the full system. Even if you can't with such a small tank I think you need to find the source of this problem and correct it. Zeovit is by no means a miracle system for saltwater, many people do extremely well without the system and many people who use the system have not had good results.

HTH,
Steve

[kwirky]

got my K+ to 410ppm. Took almost 250mL of k-balance to do it.

and I built a zeovit reactor. the DIY thread's here: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=37037



I know this is probably a x-post, sorry

[kwirky]

although I liked running rowaphos/phosban, I did not like the two little fishies phosban reactor. I was allways paranoid a hose would pop off and have water all over the basement floor. HOB filter's are nice and clean since there are no hoses. There's no sump so I have to keep my equipment minimalistic. So instead I'm going to buy a box of rubber gloves and daily throw on a glove to mix up the zeolites by hand in the HOB filter. There'll only be a cup of zeolites so i could just wiggle my fingers in there and that'd get the job done i think

As for the water changes affecting the trace concentrations, I don't know if that's such a big deal because the salt mix is putting the trace back in. The zeovit guide says that the water changes are in order to replenish trace elements, and not really to export nutrients. If needed, I could just increase my daily dosing of the 4 core supplements. I only need like a drop of each anyways.

I'm going in to Gold's today to see if they have the little starter bottles in stock. If the entire thing doesn't work, I'm only out 70 bucks or so. Not bad considering some of the other expenditures out there.