lduncan

Pies, increased skimmer gunk was the very first effect that the zeovit had (after only a couple of days), the water clarity came later.

Ok, sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that it is because of the zeovit system that my nitrates are rising. Just remember that zeovit is not the key to running a successful tank. I actually did stop dosing zeofood when you pointed that out (even though there was not mention of that on either the korrallen website, or in the instructions supplied to me.) and have been dosing ZeoStart in the quantity you recommended (2mL every 2nd day). I have noticed that the water has become much clearer, this is probably the cause of my green porites lightening up, due to increased light penetration. Other than that, I have had no dramatic changes, either for better or worse so far in using the system. After 5 weeks it is still early days. Layton

Hasn't worked for me yet. My nitrates have risen from less than 1 to 2.5 to 3 since I started using it. Layton

The zeovit debate continues...

Very impressive. I should have stuck with german at school. Layton

Well... not at home. One of the companies I work for happens to be the family business, so I could have access to it if I wanted. It's storage for a commercial printing / prepress business, there's really about 5 TB of data all up across two raid 5 systems (fibre channel interface). All powered by Apple computer. Got 2 of these http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/ and one of these http://www.apple.com/xserve/. It supports both Mac and PC users. Just switched over from a Windows 2000 based system. Similar spec, but the Mac now maxes out the gigabit ethernet at 51 MBytes/sec (no Jumbo frames), in comparison to 20 MBytes/sec from the previous PC (crippled by Windows no doubt). Cost around 67% of any other PC based system we could find. No viruses written for Mac OS 10.3 yet either. Anyway, maybe this should be something that the Marine Aquarium Society should look at, there are plenty of data centers in India and the like with VERY low rates and offer plenty of storage. (Their uptime is usally not the best, but still around 98.5%) I only pay US $12 a year for hosting of www.reefcentral.co.nz (only gets 25MB though), so it's dirt cheap. Layton

Got 3 TB of free disk (may need a bit more though ), but no static IP. Layton

It looks like Ultimate Reefs, SQL database (or the server it's running on) has decided it's time for a lunch break. So it's not displaying your image. Ira's probably using the sad excuse for an internet browser (aka Internet Explorer) which defults to a red X when it can't load an image. OR Ira's taken too many of the reds ones and not enought of the blue ones (joking) Layton

Looks great. I lost the last of mine last week, just melted away, like it has a habbit of. I haven't had much luck with xenia, probably cause the peices I got were imported, and being a notoriously bad shipper, it never really took off. Pies, I would like to see some pics of your newer acro frags, you sound like you've got some nice ones recently. Layton

Ultimately there is only one supplier of Zeovit. The instructions I have are consistent with those on http://www.korallen-zucht.de/ , and numerous other websites. All say dose ZeoFood at 1-2 drops per day. The same for ZeoBak, but only for 10-14 days after adding new zeovit. Layton

My camera is on holiday for another two weeks, but i would be interested in seeing some pics of different frags. Pies, I hear you have some blue acro's? Any staghorn type acros? Layton

sorry, BIG typo. The zeofood seems to pack a punch! I wouldn't like to see the tank after 3 weeks of adding 5mL a day! Layton

and 10% weekly water changes. Layton

Ok, here is what I have added so far: 5mL ZeoStart 6 drops ZeoBak 5 drops ZeoFood daily. I stopped adding the ZeoBak after 2 weeks. I'm using 2 litres of Zeovit. As for the algae problems, I don't think they are related to the sugar. If I recall, people have had problems with red cyano (which I have never seen in my tank), rather than green hair algae when adding sugar. It could be related to the drop in alk. Who knows, anyway it's not a major problem at the moment, just a couple of small patches. I have noticed that my green porities, which was once a vibrant green, has lightened up considerably. Layton

Good to see some new people stumble into this neck of the woods. To answer your question, I would say it depends on how far away the power head is from the coral, and how powerful it is. If it is too close, it may, in the case of stoney coral, rip the tissue right off the skeleton, or in the case of soft corals, they may refuse to extend their polyps. If it is too far away, and there is too little flow, the same may happen. Corals may refuse to extend polyps, and in stoneys, the tissue may also start to receed (slow rtn). This is usually because corals rely on water flow to both bring in food, and to remove wast products. If niether happens due to inadequate flow, then the coral will eventually die. So experiment. Maybe place the powerheads so that the flow is directed above nearby corals, but directly at ones further away. The ideal solution for larger tanks are the Tunze Stream (www.tunze.com) pumps, which shift large volumes of water at reasonable speed, rather than low volumes of water in directed "jets" like traditional powerheads. They are relatively expensive though. Both Pies and I, along with a few other reefers around NZ use them, and they are great! Layton

There is a distinct green colour to the zeolite. This could be from a number of compounds. Most likely it is an iron(II) compound (as opposed to iron(III) which are usually a rusty colour). Alternatively it could be a copper compound, or most unlikely a chromium compound. Due to the fact that both copper and chromium are highly toxic to marine animals, even in extremely low concentrations, I think that the colour of the zeolite comes from an iron compound. I could be wrong altogether, but it is the most likely explanation for the colour. I have also never had any hair algae grow in my tank before. Layton

I was just thinking the same thing. I even checked using my fingers ;-) Layton

Interesting. Good things always seem to take time, and as we all know bad things happen quickly in our tanks. I started using zeovit myself two weeks ago, after waiting for my alk to drop to around 8, as people have reported rtn running higher alks and the zeovit system. Here are my observations so far. Small patches of green hair algae are popping up. I am doing slightly more than the recommended water changes. The suspected culprit is the high iron content of the zeovit. It is not a major problem yet, but I am watching it. Actually come to think of it, it's about time to replace my halides, so that can't be helping. During the second week, polyp extension on soft corals was the best i have ever seen, but they don't look their best colourwise anymore. Polyp extension on acro's was initially great, but has reduced a little now. Mild recession at the base of one acro, but nothing too sever, it is also a relatively new one, so may not be related. The seriatopora has had poor to no polyp extension, and the tips have gone more white (not from growth), I am reasonably worried about this one. Skimmer has pulled out a lot of extra crap (more than usual). My parameters are looking good, as of sunday: Ca = 410 Alk = 8 Mg = 1100 Salinity = 1.025 Nitrate = 0 Nitrite = 0 Phosphate < 0.015 Haven't lost anything yet so i'll see how it goes. Layton

$250. Yes Petworld did have a car crash into the corner of their shop, not sure what the damage was inside, but it was the same wall which housed all their tanks. So more than likely a lot of tanks would have been broken. Petworld have not imported anything since the passing of the owner Eddy a few months ago. Apparently the family is keen to keep the importing going in the future. Layton

I was in at Redwood Aquatics today, I just though i'd let people know that they have a Harlequin Tuskfish for sale. It's one of those fish you don't see very often, I think because they are generally collected from Australian reefs. Sorry Pies, no Powder Bules down here yet. Layton

I see they arrived! If they are too bright, you can "dim" them buy just swapping the 12volt plug pack with say a 9volt one (DC). From memory, I think I calculated that 7volt may be the absolute minimum, otherwise the LED's won't turn on. Layton

Sorry Pies, my camera has taken a vacation to England and Europe for 5 weeks (My parents are borrowing it while they are over there) so no pics for a month or so, unless I can organise with a friend to borrow one. Layton

Nope, and probably never will... well definately not in a display tank, maybe I would consider doing one in a separate sump plumbed to a main tank, but even then I don't know if I would. My main problem with them is that they just seem to be "dirty", they may be alright for a year or two but then they eventually clog up with crap and crash, unless they have been frequently maintained. Maintenance is not something which appeals to me, especially when it involves piles of stinking sand and crap. I would much prefer to keep sand clean of any crap, and even, to an extent, nitrifying bacteria. I think the bacterial processes are better handled by live rock where once nitrites are converted to nitrates they can be more efficiently converted to gaseous nitrogen (due to higher densities of nitrate to support the required bacteria strains to reduce it). For this to occur in a sand bed, it requires that the bed becomes stagnant. The live rock method seems cleaner to me. So to answer your question, no I don't use a dsb, not because they don't work, they definately do, just that i'm lazy and don't want the hastle of maintaining one. Layton

hey Nick, send them to me (i've got jetstream) I can resize them for you. Layton

Phosphates are at less than 0.015ppm, the test liqiud is not quite a colourless as if it came straight from the tank, there is a hint of blue, but lighter than the lowest graduation on the salifert kit, using the low range. Layton