Happy Chappy!

[KP]

Looks like a very nice A. turaki to me.

Oh right, they are have an interesting shape, very cool coral!

[wasp]

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.

[puttputt]

wow, thats alot of dosing. I'll talk to you when I visit re costs. I presume it would be 5X the dosing and cost for a 1000l tank.

[Drifty]

wow photos look awesome wasp.

What happens if you miss a day, or a week of dosing?? also what is the approx cost of dosing on a 1000l tank

[wasp]

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.

[chimera]

As you probably know wasp, I've stopped dosing zeovit myself. Only for the fact that the corals are too light coloured, I prefer the deeper colours. I am interested in the CV and amino acids (in fact, have been for sometime just never got around to enquiring with Brendan) Have PM'd him now though. I believe zeovit certainly helped reduce my nutrients, took a while but thats probably due to the crappy rock I had from day one - should have cooked it The caleurpa I had in the fuge used to grow like a weed, now I'd be pulling out a strand or two every couple of weeks. The rock in my display is going through it's new "cycling" process because of the new lights. I can see colour where I've never seen it before - and that was after stopping zeovit - however I dont believe it's because I stopped zeovit, moreso to the lighting upgrade I did at the same time. I dosed to the levels indicated and probably more often than not, underdosed. Now my nutrients are low (taking them as low due to the very slow caleurpa growth and the good colours Im starting to get) I'm keen on "feeding" the corals with CV and amino's.

[wasp]

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.

[chimera]

I've found the zeo iron deepens & richens the colours

cheers, maybe i try that? i want darker colours, have you got an article that explains zeo iron or should i just speak to brendan?

i started feeding phytoplankton about a month ago every 3rd night, PE is CRAZY when i do (in fact, it's crazy even when i don't!) i'm also going to raise the lights a couple of inches, i think it's TOO bright but i guess at least i don't need to buy ANYTHING new when i upgrade (except the tank of course,... and maybe a new stream or two :lol: )

[kevan]

have a look here http://www.captiveoceans.com/

[wasp]

Good site Kevan! Nice pics!!

i want darker colours, have you got an article that explains zeo iron or should i just speak to brendan?

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."

[Duke]

Well said...

dosed 30mls of voda today will wait 2 weeks and see if there is any improvment in slime.

[wasp]

Cool. Soon as anything happens let's know.