wasp

Depends what you are keeping, but that sounds like a reasonable amount of flow as long as you have it going in the right places. An SCWD would make good alternating current, but they do reduce flow, in my opinion by about 1/2. Some people swear by coral sand but it can be hard to vacuum if you ever want to do that. What corals do you have? Looking forward to see what you do keep us updated!

MG/Litre is the same as ppm, parts per million, same thing.

Another thought, you did not mention if you have changed the rocks regularly, this is important especially during the nutrient reduction phase, best to change them every 6 weeks. Also, you would benefit by increasing the amount of bac you are dosing, this from the guide:- "B) Amount to be used in tanks with high nutrient load and in tanks using ZEOvit for the first time (already stocked): During the start of the ZEOvit system: Dose 1 drop per 25 gallons net water volume daily over a period of 2 weeks. Subsequently, dose 1 drop per 25 gallons net water volume two to three times weekly until the change of ZEOvit. After the first exchange of ZEOvit: Every other day 1 drop per 25 gallons net water volume over a period of two weeks. Subsequently, dose 1 drop per 25 gallons net water volume two to three times weekly."

Well if he said 2 mls, then 2 mls. Personally I think you should increase the bac and zeofood, the zeofood is quite powerful at assisting bacteria to reduce nutrients. Yes I shake the rocks daily, the amount of mulm that comes off I think it is quite important to do it every day. It makes room for new bacterial growth, while making other bacteria available for skimming or feeding corals. Bychineva, just wonder if sudden temperature changes from your chiller may affect the bacteria, however that is something you will be able to asess when it happens.

Wow that seems like a heckuva lot of zeostart, my 200 litre only gets 3 drops daily, however I guess more could be used during the initial nutrient reduction phase. Are you cycling your reactor on 3 hours, off 3 hours? Like you, when my tank was in the initial phase, for a while not much seemed to be happening. Then I started cycling it on 3 off 3 and brought those nutrients right down. Don't ask me why but it's what Zeovit recommend in the first phase and it did do the trick. BTW that is quite a clever idea using the cannister like that, if you can I would like to see a pic.

Chloride is not much of a worry, the biggy you are trying to avoid is phosphate. Some bottled water is simply carbon treated and will still contain phosphate, and some spring water will contain it. Any water treated with RO will have low / zero phosphate.

Bychineva I think you've started a monster!.............

Whoa! Another awesome tank from someone just started!! Are you new to this Bychineva or have you done it before?

As at this morning pH = 8.06 ( will go up once lights come on ) PO4 = 0.01 ( Hanna ) NO3 = 2.5 ppm (salifert) kH = 6.6 (salifert) Ca = 420 (salifert) Mg = 1380 (salifert) Salinity = 1.025

I've been using the ones you mentioned Mark for several years with no problems, only running 450 watts of light though. Recently upgraded to 650 watts still seems to work OK although I was advised I should get something better or split the lights to one timer each.

Check out the slideshow too! http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14834763/?GT1=8506?GT1=8506

That T'ed sump return is clever, adjustable to anything you want!

Wow each pic is great! Can't get a decent full pic of mine at the moment cos my lights are funny but a big thumbs up to each of the tanks shown

Nice to see a lot of new people starting up in marine! Welcome aboard, all the best with this fascinating hobby!

Dunno about the clam but your corals are looking sweet, and rocks clean! That pink monti could use some iron though! :lol:

You'll love the auto top off, when I got mine just found that even though topping off manually is a simple thing, not having to constantly hassle around with it is great.

Cool. Soon as anything happens let's know.

They got some kind of problem their pics weren't showing, I went to their site & it said they were undergoing emergency site maintenance.

Here is one of his million post threads, can't tell where the pics are cos photobucket is funny at the moment. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... genumber=1

Come a long way pretty fast!

Good site Kevan! Nice pics!! This from the zeoguide "The addition of iron primarily affects the green color formation. However, this element has to be treated with caution. Iron is known to increase coral growth, but also the growth of algae. You can see the same result in the density of zooxanthellae in coral tissue. Darkening of tissue suggests too much iron is being added. As an initial dosing regimen, we recommend 1 drop per 25 gallons daily. This dosing amount and interval should be adjusted accordingly. We recommend using yellow corals as indicators. Stop dosing when yellow corals display a green shimmer. Stop dosing this product (or potassium iodide / fluoride concentrate) until yellow corals become intense yellow again. In most cases, dosing twice weekly at a rate of 1 drop per 25 gallons should be sufficient. (Another indicator that your corals lack iron: red acropora turns pale pink and green acropora turns yellow.) This supplement can also be used in tanks not using the ZEOvit method."

Going by your very light colours, I've always thought your nutrients, or at least certain of them, must have been very low, even back before you started zeovit, your colours were very light. I've found the zeo iron deepens & richens the colours, I think it feeds the zooxanthellae ( i THINK ). But also every tank is different it's a case of seeing what works.

For a bigger tank it can cost, however it depends what you do, just using the basic 4 would obviously be cheaper. Zeovitnz, the NZ agent for the product, would be better able to discuss cost, not sure if I should do that here. Dropping him a pm and having a chat is the best plan he is very friendly and knowledgeable, plus has a stunning tank. If you miss a day or a week dosing, really, nothing happens. The zeovit system works more on the accumulative effect of maintaining correct bacteria, etc. over a long period of time. But if dosing was done irregularly for a long time, the tank would suffer in that nutrients would not be getting reduced at optimum amounts and it may start to show. So what I'd say is that IMO anyway, zeovit will give results, but requires attention to the dosing schedule, plus money, a person has to decide if they can do both of those before going with the system. Also, to be frank I don't know how essential it would be for a tank like yours PuttPutt, already pretty stunning, for me it was a different story my tank was green and there was a huge improvement.

OK well dosing, the first thing I had to do was get nutrients down because when I changed to a new tank a few months ago I ( stupidly ) put in some uncured rocks & they polluted the tank had an algae explosion and sick corals. This was done with what zeovit call the "basic 4", which are :- 1. zeobacteria, a live bacteria culture dosed 2 drops twice a week, to maintain bacterial diversity and eat that crud. 2. zeofood, a mix of trace elements etc designed to nourish the bacteria, minus the phosphate etc we are trying to remove, dosed 3 drops daily. 3. zeostart, a carbon source for the bacteria, dosed 3 drops daily. 4. zeovit rock, 1/2 a litre in a container with water flowing through. This is to provide a base for bacteria to live on and is changed each 6 weeks. It is believed by some that the zeorock also performs other functions to help the tank but no claims are made by the manufacturer in this regard. That was the first phase, and took up to a few days ago to get the nutrients right down, the aim is to get as close as possible to the water at a wild reef. A person can just use the basic 4 only, and run a nice clean tank and the corals will do well. However, zeovit also put out a range of products which can be used in the second phase, the phase after the nutrients are reduced. Not much point using them in the first phase while nutrients are still high, if the corals are already struggling with nutrient overload, dosing more will likely just add to it & do more harm than good. So now the tank is in the second phase, I'm still using the basic 4, to hold nutrients down, but in addition I'm dosing Daily zeovit iron, 1 drop zeovit amino acid 3 drops zeovit CV, a mix of coral foods in both liquid and particle form, 3 drops zeovit LPS aminos, 1 ml k balance, a potasium supplement, 1 ml Monday Spur ME, a mix of trace elements often missing from salt mixes, 2 mls PIFF, 3 drops Tuesday zeobacteria, 2 drops Thursday PIFF 3 drops Friday zeobacteria, 2 drops This is one of the arguments used against zeovit, that it is complicated. However now I have figured out what all the doses should be, I have them written on a bit of paper I refer to each day at dosing time, and the whole thing would take less than a minute a day. The tank is 200 litres. The second phase additives need not be dosed, but do improve colour and growth if they are. One advantage of a small tank like mine is that dosing is relatively cheap so I am going the whole thing to get the best results I can.