Zeovit in a Nano (detailed update dec 5th)

[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.

[christyf5]

Use a chopstick, lots of detritus really needs to be powered out of crevices and I don't think gentle currents will really stir it up.


As for the water changes, its not just the trace elements that need to be replenished. With zeovit, I do believe they actually want you to reduce your water change frequency/volume. Because you're adding all of the bacterial population, food for them and then whatever else (sorry I can't remember exactly what else you're supplementing with), you'd be disrupting those populations and their food source every time you did a water change.

I just can't see zeovit really benefitting you in this case and it would probably be a waste of money as you wouldn't see the results you were looking for.

Just my two cents

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Christy, why don't you think it would benefit him? Because it's such a smaller tank volume than those who generally use Zeovit? I'm on the steep Zeovit learning curve as well, so....just curious! What about a 55G? Does anyone think there's a realistic minimum tank volume to make Zeovit worthwhile?

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Use a chopstick, lots of detritus really needs to be powered out of crevices and I don't think gentle currents will really stir it up.


As for the water changes, its not just the trace elements that need to be replenished. With zeovit, I do believe they actually want you to reduce your water change frequency/volume. Because you're adding all of the bacterial population, food for them and then whatever else (sorry I can't remember exactly what else you're supplementing with), you'd be disrupting those populations and their food source every time you did a water change.

I just can't see zeovit really benefitting you in this case and it would probably be a waste of money as you wouldn't see the results you were looking for.

Just my two cents

thanks for the chopsticks idea. I'm going to forge ahead and see if it works. I think there's about a 50% chance. As for it being a waste of money I'd be getting just the little bottles so it's not much of an initial purchase.

We'll see.

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

Christy, why don't you think it would benefit him? Because it's such a smaller tank volume than those who generally use Zeovit? I'm on the steep Zeovit learning curve as well, so....just curious! What about a 55G? Does anyone think there's a realistic minimum tank volume to make Zeovit worthwhile?

it's not the size of the tank that makes it questionable, it's the fact most nano's usually lack a protein skimmer and have larger water changes. Your 55 gallon would probably work if you have efficient skimming and follow the prescribed maintenance.

I'm planning on trying something that isn't proven so I know results won't be guaranteed because it won't be a "standard" zeovit system.

[christyf5]

I don't think it would benefit him in the way he wants to use it.

Think of it this way. You have a nice glass of koolaid all tasty and sweet but you can't drink it. You can only look at it and follow the directions on the box. Then you dump half out and put water in. Now its all diluted and probably tastes like crap. So you add more sugar and more koolaid powder to hopefully get it right, but you never know. Then you have to dilute it again. Rinse. Repeat.

Hmm thats a crappy analogy. What can you expect at 8:30am? I think I need coffee too

All I can think of is what a huge waste of money to have to be constantly dosing zeovit to get those levels just right, only to be dumping it down the drain on a weekly/biweekly basis because you don't have a skimmer.

The zeovit principle is based on constant dosing. It only takes a couple minutes etc but you're dosing daily regardless to keep the system intact. If you're going to disrupt the system by removing half of the dosage through water changes and then dilute it and toss some extra in to hopefully make up for it, I don't really understand how it can be beneficial for your tank in the way its supposed to.

Its not that he can't do it, I just don't think he's going to get the best bang for his buck.

[kwirky]

the zeovit guide prescribes 10% water changes for "heavily stocked aquariums" anyways, and at least a 5% water change. Water changes aren't "detrimental" to zeovit.

and we all do your kool-aid analogy anyways in our reef tanks. We do water changes and there are all sorts of supplements in our salt mixes that we can't track and we have no clue where they sit after a year or so.

what I'm expecting is less algae in my tank. I had used phosban before and still have frustrating problems. I'm not worried about more coral growth, polyp extension and all those other etceteras zoevit brings. I just don't want algae in this tank after it's been up for a couple months. If it does that then I'll be extatic.