Does anyone use Zeovit or similar?

[E.intheC]

I've been doing a lot of reading about Zeovit and other related ULNS methods lately (including carbon dosing/adding bacteria/etc).

Who on MR does this, and what are your thoughts? Do you have any tips on good reading (besides the Zeovit forum, RC forums, and the Zeovit downloadable PDF, as I've read the last two pretty intensively).

Thanks in advance for the help. :thrash:

 

[SevTT]

The Zeovit system is based on a solid husbandry regimen, but it also 'requires' quite a few products that I think of as snake oil (the regular additions of small amounts of bacterial cultures) and it makes much of improvements that are by no means unique to the zeovit system. (Much ado is made about mulm from shaking your zeolites up. You get the same stuff from blowing crud out of your live rocks, or disturbing your sand, or cleaning your prefilters, or doing anything else that stirs up detritus.)

Part of the core zeovit philosophy also seems to rely on a fundamental and much repeated misunderstanding about the levels of nutrients on a reef. There are very few dissolved nutrients on a reef, but there's an absolute profusion of food, bound up in plankton and pods and such.

In short, IMO, the zeovit system works -- but it's surrounded by hokum and drenched in snake oil. I prefer a system that puts more food and nutrients into the system itself and relies on biological systems to capture those nutrients and turn them into more food or remove them from circulation. *shrugs*

 

[E.intheC]

thanks for the reply SevTT. what system do you use? Right now I'm just using the Berlin method with carbon in a mesh bag in my sump, but looking for a lower nutrient environment. Whether I'll use Zeovit/vodka/GFO/etc. is still up in the air.

 

[batt600]

Here this is what your looking for http://www.korallen-zucht.de/files/zeoguide_103_english-1.pdf

 

[E.intheC]

batt, thanks for the link. I've actually read that a few times recently. Just looking for local's experiences with the Zeovit method

 

[batt600]

Im thinking of trying this setup .Went on there form and dame the sps tanks lool amazing from people using the zeovit setup. The starter kit is only $179 with Reactor will order next week.

 

[E.intheC]

Yeah, I saw that you can get that starter kit for about 179 w/ the vertex zeovit reactor.

I think you can do the same with a phosban reactor or BRS reactor for much cheaper. Granted, you'll have to manually shake the zeolites, but I don't have a problem with that.

 

[SevTT]

thanks for the reply SevTT. what system do you use? Right now I'm just using the Berlin method with carbon in a mesh bag in my sump, but looking for a lower nutrient environment. Whether I'll use Zeovit/vodka/GFO/etc. is still up in the air.

Basically, a modified Berlin/Jaubert/whateverthehell system. DSB, fuge, LR, somewhat weak skimming, carbon dosing via vinegar in kalk topoff, activated carbon and some aluminum-based phosphate remover in pantyhose in my sump, and not freaking out when algae or whatever does have a small bloom. But really, the important thing is having a diversity of life, particularly microlife, that actively seeks out detritus and consumes it. Once the tank is nice and crawly with worms of all sorts and pods of all sizes -- not to mention snails, hermits, and the fish themselves, along with, yes, algae and diatoms and such -- you can throw an astonishing amount of food in there with little effect on the water quality.

I don't use any kinds of amino acids or whatever -- a proper diet is chock full 'o amino acids in balanced levels, that's what protein is. And that's how corals on a reef are most likely getting them, not through direct absorption. I use a lot of cyclop-eez and mysid shrimp, and selcon for HUFA supplementation.

Carbon dosing via vodka or whatever does exactly this, at the absolute lowest level: it provides for the growth of bacteria that float in the water, consume your nitrates and phosphates, make more bacteria, and then get skimmed out and/or consumed by your corals. Nutrients are converted to nutriments very rapidly.

Even your rocks just provide a platform for more life to grow on and stratify. If you approach it like you would playing the game Spore, building an ecosystem from, literally, the ground up, filling up functional niches, you can't go too far wrong.

 

[E.intheC]

The above is definitely some good information. Ill have to try that game spore.

For those of you who buy zeovit locally, (or online) where are you buying the supplements?

 

[TheHun]

I use the Zeovit method in my tank, you can check out my results;

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/photography/73812-my-one-year-old-mixed-reef-tank.html


i buy my supplies online from Aquarium Specialty and they are great!

 

[NYreefNoob]

the reactors for those have a HANDLE TO STIR THE ROCKS UP THEY NEED TO BE STIRRED

 

[E.intheC]

Rick, I've seen the Vertex reactors. They look great. If you don't want to use an actual Zeovit reactor though, you can actually shake it and it will work just fine. You can use BRS reactors/Phosban/etc. just fine.