Zeovit System

[waynemah]

50 ml bottle twice per year-ish.

Interesting you say that! I never noticed a difference if I skip bak/food but notice a huge difference when start is missed... Also when zeolites are changed/missed I see no difference.

[sphelps]

I always make sure I purchase Zeobak that came in directly from the supplier as retailers don't usually refrigerate it. Doubt suppliers do as well but the fresher the better I figure. The expiry dates on the bottles seem to disagree with what's written in the guide.

From the guide:

This product has a limited shelf life because it contains cultures of living microorganisms.
Unopened, it will last for at least 6 months if kept refrigerated. After the bottle is
opened, the shelf life is approximately 3 months. Spoiled strains can be identified by a
foul odor. If this is the case, some of the microorganisms are dead and the solution
cannot be used. We recommend purchasing a bottle size that can be used in a 3-month
period. It is better to purchase smaller amounts on a more frequent basis. Please make
sure to avoid any contamination of the solution in the bottle (e.g. with aquarium water).

Yet the last bottle I purchased has an expiry date of 2015.

I wish I had a microscope so I test for certain but for now I rely on the odor test.

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I run the full system on about 220g of water. I'm more than happy with it. I even get lazy and forget to dose often, and I'm still happy with it. I buy the supps every boxing day and they last me the year.

I didnt know you are a zeohead Brad. I had you pegged as more of a basics old schooler.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

I didnt know you are a zeohead Brad. I had you pegged as more of a basics old schooler.

Ya, mostly, but I got a good deal on the gear when I started the tank, and it works out well, even with my forgetful nature Mental note, change rocks this spring -lol

[albert_dao]

Well, coming from a guy who has handled and used more of the product than anyone else in North America, I can assure you that it can be used on a fairly casual basis. As Brad says, it all boils down to expectations.

I've used it with schedules similar to Prodibio with good results. This is something I'd recommend for systems where you are just trying to maintain low and stable nutrient levels, e.g. dose ZeoBak twice a week, ZeoStart3 3/4 times a week sans media.

If you are looking to turn your corals into a palette and manipulate colors, then you'll want to follow the system closely. However, it is unforgiving if you get lax for an extended period of time since the system is operating at extremely low energy/nutrient levels. You're playing on a knife's edge and should treat it correspondingly so.

I should also mention that the additives can be used within or without the system and they're all pretty amazing as long as you have a ULNS (although some are quite good at getting you there... Coral Snow...).

HTH

[Bill]

Tried it and it seemed to work at first but it's lots of work. I switched to sulphur reactor with phos remover and carbon over a year ago and never looked back.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Steve...

Has anyone tried the "Zeovit" system? The products seem very expensive and was wondering if they are worth looking into. Are there any similar products?

Zeovit works great. I am constantly blown away by how nice well maintained zeovit tanks are. There are a lot of examples of them on Canreef and on the web. Heck, just visit the official zeovit forum and you'll see tonnes of nice zeoVit tanks.

Is the price of zeoVit worth it? That's a very subjective question. Kinda like asking someone if a Ferrari is worth it? It'll get you from A to B, but then so will a Pinto.

[andestang]

[Steve...]

Thanks everyone for their inputs! I greatly appreciate getting the many feed backs. Im still undecided right now

[asylumdown]

I think some of my general suspicion about zeovit is that for it the entire line to work the way it's advertised, with all those myriad of drops and ointments, claiming to do X Y and Z to coral colour, growth, health, etc. it implies that the people at korralen-zucht know a great deal more about the molecular biology of corals than the biggest universities and public institutions in the world.

At the very best, shame on them for not publishing some of their data in a way that could benefit marine sciences, and at the worst, I call shenanigans on at least some of it.

What I think is more likely, is that there are some very basic elements of the system that do exactly as advertised - the zeolites and liquid carbon (zeostart and zeofood smell to me very much like they have something like vinegar in them) aggressively reduce nitrates/phosphates, and a few of the supplements with known pigment enhancing elements, and maybe the amino acids do bump up some of the colours that would otherwise be washed out in the ULN environment. But zeovit has dozens more (extremely expensive) products like Coral Booster, Pohl's Extra, biomate, etc. with these incredibly vague descriptions that claim to act on coral or microfaunal processes in much the same way that the pseudo-scientific alternative health industry labels their products. I'm immediately suspicious of any product that claims to 'boost immune response' in anything, because

a) Health is nothing more than the absence of disease and an immune system that behaves normally. A 'boosted' immune system is what causes diseases like MS and Lupus in humans and is the exact opposite of health. In humans and all animals, the goal is an immune system which is just active enough to keep disease at bay, any activity beyond that and the 'immune system' (whatever that looks like for corals) is likely to become pathological to the organism.

b) The immune responses of corals are many and myriad, and are at the very highest scientific levels only vaguely understood, so to claim that there's a commercially available product that can influence those responses in some beneficial way requires a huge leap of faith on the part of consumers. I think Korralen-Zucht should at least back up that claim by publishing what specific responses they have found to be effective in 'enhancing' in some beneficial way - that in itself would be be giant leap forward in our understanding of coral biology and would likely be accepted by a very prestigious journal.

That's just one example, and I know it's not the only claim that the zeovit products make, but it raises a red flag for me. I have a hypothesis that many of the products that are sold and re-branded with a fancy new name are simply re-formulations of their original products that were successful, in slightly different concentrations. If I have a few extra grand lying around one day and I don't want to spend it on new lights, I've half a mind to buy the whole line and have them analyzed chemically.

The only other thing I'd say about zeobak (and this applies to all bacterial supplements) is that unless it's refrigerated all the way along it's chain of custody it likely has very little bacteria in it by the time most people buy it. And the notion that the microfaunal assemblage of a tank could be influenced in any way by adding 5 drops of a solution to a system that's already populated by several hundred billion bacteria of who knows how many species, even if there actually were lots of bacteria in the solution being administered... that seems far-fetched to me. It would honestly be pretty easy to set-up a trial to test whether that was true or not, but it would require getting ahold of a sample of fresh zeobak and first confirming over a period of months whether or not there were any living bacteria in it at all.

*sigh* I promised myself I wouldn't write another novel. I have to stop leaving my soap-box so easily accessible.

Disclaimer - I type all of this with a bottle of Pohl's Xtra and Coral booster hooked up to my auto-doser, and a drawer full of zeovit products.