Zeovit & SPS

[Reefaholic]

May i ask if you increase feeding, PO4 will increase? Then what is the point of having 0.00 PO4?

[weileong]

thanx guys....

hope it stable and stay that way... so long not over 0.02 I'm happy

I am having a hard time trying to boost up the PO4 reading, it's been 30days since the PO4 reading is 0.00 (undetectable) with the hanna and a month since I stopped dosing zeostart.

Technically speaking I am in stage 3 already since one month don't need zeostart.

Fish feeding 4-5x/day currently.

[weileong]

May i ask if you increase feeding, PO4 will increase?  Then what is the point of having 0.00 PO4?  

Stanley,

As NO3 and PO4 are one of the two nutrients that we can measure so we use that as a guage for nutrients level in our tank.

It is true that increasing feedings will eventually cause the PO4 level in your tank to rise but to what extend? How much feedings? Some reefers feed too much till the extend that their nutrients export could not handle and hence caused nutrients (PO4) to rise.

I feed 4-5x/day yet my PO4 still remains at 0.00 (undetectable with hanna), I can get by without cleaning the tank glass for more than 2 weeks and it still looks like it just got clean.

You probably already know that even at PO4 reading of 0.04 (with hanna) you still feel that your SPS can be better. I went thru this before and the color of the SPS is directly related to the PO4 levels, the lower the lighter/brighter the color.

To answer your "question" directly, we feed heavily and at the same time our nutrient export allows us to keep the PO4 at undetectable levels. You must remember hanna low end sensitivity is much better than your salifert PO4 test kit. Making the PO4 rise is easier (just more feedings and fatter fish, less powerful skimmer, saves electricity, lower amount of zeolites, lower flow thru zeo reactor etc) than trying to fight to lower the PO4 levels so we do have more control in this sense

[alanseah]

May i ask if you increase feeding, PO4 will increase? Then what is the point of having 0.00 PO4?

err I dont know what give u idea I reduce feeding.. my feeding has never been reduce and in fact been increasing cause I'm trying to train my AT to feed on pellet... so I will flood the tank with alot of pellet.. until all my anthais and tangs which is like hungry ghost can also eat till so full see the pellet also cant be bother to eat anymore...

[planetg]

congrats both bros.

your patience and believe have reap rewards!

[weileong]

Thanks bro... don't worry with the right method it's just a matter of time you join the ranks of stage 3 zeovit users

[alanseah]

yaya even more powerful then us...

so many ex toy u have..

[weileong]

he got the LA3 to bake his corals so when in stage 3 his SPS lagi more power.

[alanseah]

better still.. new tank somemore...

so even faster stage 3 then us..

[weileong]

Like I said, provided only the correct method is used, if not overdose, underdose later funny things happened in the reef and no stage 3 already.

[alanseah]

wont la.. plantg an old reefer.. he know what to do...

[weileong]

Sometimes old reefer doesn't meant confirm success, look around and you know liao.

[YzF]

Bros WL & AS

Some Help needed...

Background:

Its been some time (Prob abt 3 months?)I stopped following the dosing of Zeo stuffs except for about 2 drops of Zeofood every week and the Zeovit in the FR

Had a bottle of zeostart and i used it like 2 times and stop dosing when some of the 2 small colonies of Sps rtn. One of them seems to color up FULLY and then stn from the tip to the base (Any idea what might happened? Starved to death?)

Had Amino Acid, PocciGlow as well.

I stopped the amino totally after the red slime outbreak

PocciGlow works pretty well for me in reducing the Zooxan.

Measured the tank parameters the other day:

Nitrate=0

Phosphate=0.01

Alk=6.5

Calcium=470

What should i do from here now? Time to get some new stuffs?

Thinking of trying out other Zeoproduct. eg zeostart2 & Zeospur

Are they avail locally yet? Its really been some time since I do something abt the system.

Btw do you all feed your tank? eg phyto, zooplankton etc...?

Pls Advise

[alanseah]

err... what u use to measure your p04 one....???

also why your zeolite in FR one..?? it should be in the zeovit reactor ma.. else how u pump it..????

[YzF]

Salifert test kit. See a very slight tint of blue.

FR cos no place for reactor in sump liao.. pump it? No... Shake it..

[tineng]

zeostart2 can get at oceanplanet.....PR will not bring them in until they can clear their existing stock of zeostart....

[alanseah]

Salifert test kit. See a very slight tint of blue.

FR cos no place for reactor in sump liao.. pump it? No... Shake it..

Salifert.. lolz.. then it's more then 0.1 already la and worst u still can see tint blue...

wow shake it huh... gd luck hor... u need to shake it at least once a day but we mostly pump it twice a day or when p04 is high u should pump it 4 times a day.

[weileong]

YzF, not enough information but probably you like to check that all your parameters are close to NSW levels.

You sure there is no kH crash few weeks ago? That could cause STN few weeks after that.

The secondary supplements are useless when you are not in stage 3 and you're just wasting money if you dose them.

With the full zeovit system and properly implemented, there is no need for secondary feeding as the mulm from the zeolites would feed the SPS already.

[YzF]

YzF, not enough information but probably you like to check that all your parameters are close to NSW levels.

You sure there is no kH crash few weeks ago? That could cause STN few weeks after that.

The secondary supplements are useless when you are not in stage 3 and you're just wasting money if you dose them.

With the full zeovit system and properly implemented, there is no need for secondary feeding as the mulm from the zeolites would feed the SPS already.

Bro AS

I remove the floss on top of the FR. So the mulm can flow out readily. Not trying to say its as effective or as good. Just that that my sump already has my skimmer in it and no space for the Zeoreactor. Guess its the best choice for me now.

So the salifert test kit cannot tell the result..Well i try to judge visually and compare on the color chart. Its not totally clear as in the first bar on the chart and its lighter then the 2nd bar on the chart. And thus the guess. I will do it in my company lab then. Will update on the phosphate level again.

What i wanted to say earlier is the the phosphate has not increased for the past months. (neither decrease). So i need to dose zeostart until the PO4 is all gone? Anything to note while dosing zeostart? Possible drop in dkh in the process?

Bro WL

kH crash? Hum.. can explain what you mean by crash? as in the value dropped till a very low level? i did notice my kh is pretty low now. Trying to pump it up now.

The STN happened quite some time ago and i have not tested the water then. So no info for you to help me out..

So you dun dose any of the food now? I not very worry abt the SPS without food. More worry abt the LPS.. Yumas in particular..

What other info do you need? i can fill you in.

Thanks for all the help form the bros here. SRC is still Home

[weileong]

STN happened quite sometime ago? Very difficult to advise you if you could not provide enough information

kH drop has no direct relationship with dosing of zeostart.

kH crashed means kH dropped to lower than 5.5.

The mulm from the zeolite will feed your corals (including softies and LPS), if you're worried then you can dose AA.

Of course SRC is home.... you probably already know that Some places are good for talking/reading rubbish but when it comes to info or when you need to sell something then you gotta come back to SRC.

[alanseah]

Bro AS

I remove the floss on top of the FR. So the mulm can flow out readily. Not trying to say its as effective or as good. Just that that my sump already has my skimmer in it and no space for the Zeoreactor. Guess its the best choice for me now.

So the salifert test kit cannot tell the result..Well i try to judge visually and compare on the color chart. Its not totally clear as in the first bar on the chart and its lighter then the 2nd bar on the chart. And thus the guess. I will do it in my company lab then. Will update on the phosphate level again.

What i wanted to say earlier is the the phosphate has not increased for the past months. (neither decrease). So i need to dose zeostart until the PO4 is all gone? Anything to note while dosing zeostart? Possible drop in dkh in the process?

Bro WL

kH crash? Hum.. can explain what you mean by crash? as in the value dropped till a very low level? i did notice my kh is pretty low now. Trying to pump it up now.

The STN happened quite some time ago and i have not tested the water then. So no info for you to help me out..

So you dun dose any of the food now? I not very worry abt the SPS without food. More worry abt the LPS.. Yumas in particular..

What other info do you need? i can fill you in.

Thanks for all the help form the bros here. SRC is still Home

may i know what kind of lab test is that... those real lab grade one..??

or still same those color testing..???

anyway you dont provide us full detail of your whole things.. how much zeolite, how big your tank etc etcs....

then suddenly out of no where just post your problem.. we also cant tell what happen but just guessing.

But one thing can tell is your stn/rtn is confirm no the cause of zeovit one...

[35Cents]

I can confirm for YzF that the company's lab test for water samples are done on ICP-OES machine.

ICP-OES stands for Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectometer. 0.01 accuracy.

[weileong]

Using ICP might not give you the complete picture of the PO4 concentration. In the sense that ICP measures P and this will include organic as well as inorganic PO4 and other stuffs that might contain P.

This is like trying to measure the room temperature by measuring the time it takes for the ice cream to melt.

However it's still way better choice than our plain old test kits

HPLC or IC are better choice as you can measures the PO4 directly.

[35Cents]

Mmmm... but the machine is able to measure the 3 kinds of phosphates which are:

1. Polyphosphates

2. Ortho-Phosphates

3. Phosphonate

To my understanding inorganic phosphates consists of ortho-phosphates and polyphosphates and inorganic phosphates consists of phosphonate....... should be like that.... can't really remember...hehe

WL you in lab industry too? Or you so hardcore till go read about these stuffs that I hate to learn..... haha

[YzF]

Thanks 35cents.

Some info:

-Tank Size: 4x2x2 (with 2 feet sump)

-Using 8 x 54watts T5 (Just changed 4 of them to Deltec tubes)

-Skimmer: H&S (For 800 litres.. forgot model liao)

-Tank has been running since Aug 04.. (Happy Birthday!! Tank!! )

-Currently home of :

AT, YT, BT

Flame angel

Orchid dottyback

Sunburst

Blue-eye anthias

6-line

And another abt 10 smaller fishes like gobies.

-Feed once or twice a day with 2 cubes of frozen mysis or brineshrimp each time.

-Started with Zeovit in about late Oct '04 due to tank crash. Hope it can absorb all the NH4 during the crash then. I dump in the whole packet of Zeolite although i was warned to half the dosage first.It works for me as it reduces the nitrate level to undetectable range in abt 2-3 weeks after the crash.

-I changed the Zeolite once every 2 months and the last time i change the media is prob abt 3 months ago.

-Follow the dosing of 'Starter kit'. Was doing 4 drops of Zeofood every day.Then bought Amino Acid and Pocci glow to try.(Forgot exact date liao)

-AA dosing cause some red slime bloom and Bro WL gives some advice. So i stopped it till now. Reduce the dosing of Zeofood to 2 drops every 2 days to help with the red slime. Pocci glow help to lighten the colours of the frags i got from fellow reefers.

- Abt feb.Read some articles and realised i should dose zeostart to reduce nutrients. So started Zeostart dosing. Was dosing 1ml every 3 days. And Zeofood 2 drops every 3 days. Then STN happen and i stopped the Zeostart.

-Changed the zeolites again in May. Used the whole bag everytime.

-Only dosing Zeofood 2 drops/5days.

-Shake the reactor once or twice a day.

Left out anything?