ZEOVit or not to ZEOvit?

[Milad]

i need some advice!!
what im looking to do is enhance my corals a bit and also clear up my water. to me it seems like there is alot of particles floating around all the time, especially after i feed.

so should i zeovit? or use NP pellets?
which is less maintenance? will I need to do something everyday with the ZEOvit stuff? i dont want to be chained to the aquarium. right now i could go for a 3days without touching it.

[fkshiu]

Zeovit is a pretty hardcore way of running a tank that requires a daily regimen of dosing various things in various amounts. Not a lot mind you, but it is not for the casual hobbyist who may get bored or lazy and not keep up with what to drip in and when. Zeo also isn't exactly cheap. You should hang out on the Zeovit forums a bit to really get a flavour of the commitment and complexities of the system.

Pellets are lower maintenance than Zeo but the focus of pellets is really to reduce nitrates as opposed to creating a truly "ultra-low nutrient system" that Zeo does.

[christyf5]

if you really want to try zeovit you don't have to run the whole system. I just used a few items from it, those being coral snow, coral vitalizer and sponge power. I found the coral snow really did a lot to clear my water but if you're finding particles in the water, that won't necessarily be cleared by the use of a low nutrient system, that could just be stirred up detritus and such. I've never figured out how people get that "so clear it looks like there is no water" look in their tanks, they're so incredibly clear. Granted I've seen many photos that looked like that but only one or two tanks in person

[Myka]

I have hundreds of dollars of Zeovit stuff. I struggled with it for about 2 years. It all started when I purchased the Nano pack on sale. I moved up to using almost all of the additives, the Zeolite rocks, pretty much everything. It took twice daily manual dosing. Shake the rocks twice a day. Can't use GFO, chaeto, etc. I found it to be very finicky...dose a little too much of this and you get cyano, dose a bit too much of that and you get diatoms. I always found I was chasing one alga or another around trying to eliminate it by dosing a bit more of this, a bit less of that. However, the corals looked really good, and growth was good too.

I started working out of province again in February this year. For several months I had a tank maintenance guy coming to dose my tank everyday. This got really expensive, and he didn't understand the Zeo system very well (the average Joe will have no clue what the additives do), so there was more algae than usual. I finally tossed the towel on the Zeovit, put my GFO reactor back online, and HOLY NEON CORALS BATMAN! My tank really perked up when I put the GFO back online. I think that was part due to over-dosing some of the Zeo products (hence the more algae than usual), so the GFO really sucked the phosphate out, and got on top of the algae.

Now 4 months later, the only Zeo products I use are Coral Snow and Spur2.

[Milad]

what is GFO?

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Milad

what is GFO?

Granular ferric oxide - you run it in a media reactor to reduce phosphates. It is incompatible with the full Zeovit system.

I also run half-assed Zeo like Christy and many other people. Like many things in life, I could never bring myself to commit to the whole thing. I guess my wife should feel special.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by Milad

i need some advice!!
what im looking to do is enhance my corals a bit and also clear up my water. to me it seems like there is alot of particles floating around all the time, especially after i feed.

so should i zeovit? or use NP pellets?
which is less maintenance? will I need to do something everyday with the ZEOvit stuff? i dont want to be chained to the aquarium. right now i could go for a 3days without touching it.

I would not waste your money on either.

To clear your water you can consider the following.

1. If the stuff is floating on the top like a greasy slick use a pie plate to slowly skim the stuff of the top.
2. Invest in 3 or 4 filter socks and arrange to hang one on the outlet from your main tank. Change often and wash separately in your washing machine. (Remember to put th pods that most often settle in the bottom of the sock back into your sump.)
3. Tape a white paper to the outside of your tank and notice the yellow water. Place some washed charcoal in the water flow and remove when the yellow clears up.

And with the money you save, buy your self one of those beautiful Aussi LPS.

[Twinn]

+1

That is good advice aussie LPS are cool and look good in nice clear tanks.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by naesco

I would not waste your money on either.

To clear your water you can consider the following.

1. If the stuff is floating on the top like a greasy slick use a pie plate to slowly skim the stuff of the top.
2. Invest in 3 or 4 filter socks and arrange to hang one on the outlet from your main tank. Change often and wash separately in your washing machine. (Remember to put th pods that most often settle in the bottom of the sock back into your sump.)
3. Tape a white paper to the outside of your tank and notice the yellow water. Place some washed charcoal in the water flow and remove when the yellow clears up.

And with the money you save, buy your self one of those beautiful Aussi LPS.

I have 4 filter socks, i go through all of them in about 1.5 weeks and wash them together. What do you mean about the pods? how do i see them and how do i put them back?

also i do have a oil slick somtimes at the top of the tank, so whats a pie plate?

i think i should get someone to come by and look at my tank to make sure im not losing my mind about the particles.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by Milad

I have 4 filter socks, i go through all of them in about 1.5 weeks and wash them together. What do you mean about the pods? how do i see them and how do i put them back?

also i do have a oil slick somtimes at the top of the tank, so whats a pie plate?

i think i should get someone to come by and look at my tank to make sure im not losing my mind about the particles.

Carefully turn the used filter sock inside out and you will usually find lots of pods which you can throw back in the sump.

Tip the pie plate so that only the oil slick slowly enters the plate until most of the slick is gone.