Zeovit and ULNS and Dinos?

[SifuMemphis]

I recently switched to Zeovit and running ULNS with 7.3 Alk, 420 Calcium, 1250 Mag, 1-5ppm Nitrate, and 0.01-0.02 P04. While I know Zeovit is very controlled dosing and so on, they recommend running close to zero for both Nitrate and Phosphate. Wouldn't running both near zero potentially bring upon dinos? Any other zeovit users out there able to provide me with some context?

Thanks!

 

[ZoixDark]

not a zeovit user but i think the thinking is that the zeovit is supposed to allow the good bacteria to thrive and thus it should out complete dinos.

 

[ckalupa]

If during your transition you dropped the phos and nitrates quickly, yes. Dinos and cyano can appear. Are you on the zeovit.com forum? Answers can be found over there.

 

[taricha]

Wouldn't running both near zero potentially bring upon dinos? Any other zeovit users out there able to provide me with some context?

I've seen zeo tanks with really really bad dinos. So it's possible, but many don't.
So go for it, and monitor and make observations.

 

[Biologic]

not a zeovit user but i think the thinking is that the zeovit is supposed to allow the good bacteria to thrive and thus it should out complete dinos.

I think the idea in theory is to rapidly populate the tank with new diverse strains of bacteria via ZeoBak. Then feeding said bacteria with ZeoStart (carbon source) and ZeoFood (amino acids). Also, feeding through aminos, planktonic foods, and fish poop, in your tank in a balance way to keep nutrients available for corals.

I’ve just started with ZeoVit. I’ve became a believer when I started using ZeoBak and among other things, I was treating my tank with to fight a Dinoflagellate outbreak. Not only did it disappeared, I don’t have any filamentous algae.

I’m only a week in (officially) and my PO4 is 0.3 ppm and NO3 is at 10 ppm. Far from the low nutrients you’ve typically see in Zeotanks. I said officially, because I am going in full bore now. The basic 4 principle, so full zeo. Before I was just carbon dosing for a month.

Nutrients are high, yet I don’t have any algae growing in the tank. Not even a dusting of the glass. Corals appear to be happy, colorful, and polyp extension is great. I anticipate lower nutrients in about a couple weeks. We will see. I am tired of winging it, and going into a method approach. I may try Redsea in the future, who knows.

I think the biggest issues for new tanks that get dinos is just biodiversity. Zeo or not. You need diverse and strong bacteria population that outcompetes dinoflagellates. Don’t drop your nutrients to zero by water changes. Don’t fidget with your sand. Suck up what needs to come out, just don’t expect this sterile environment. I am mostly writing this to myself. That’s why I got dinoflagellates.

 

[Jonify]

I've not heard this from Neo systems--the bacteria you are dosing and hosting outcompetes things like Dinos, even if you're running ULNS.

 

[Nano sapiens]

From experience, while not a Zeo system, my nano ran very well for 10+ years with undetectable PO4 and 0.5 - 1 ppm NO3 (salifert test kits) with no dino issues.

IME, in mature systems of ~2 - 3+ years what we consider low nutrients are often not a problem if the system is fed and maintained regularly, but nutrients test low in the water column (just means that inputs are being regularly assimilated, so there's not much left to float around in the water column). The potential problems referred to here often arise when going from a high nutrient to a low nutrient system in a relatively short period of time.

Per the old axiom, 'Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank'

 

[nmo0ory]

i am a zeovit user for around a year
i got dino before starting zeovit when i dose vibrant
but after raising my po4 and no3 all gone and also i had lot and lot of hair alage
i started zeovit after the dino went away
then everything went very good
po4 and no3 reduce over time very very slow and now no3 is 0 and po4 is 0.01 and want to make it 0 as well
no alage or dino or cyano or any thing water is super clear
so you need only to reduce it very slow
also go to zeovit forum is better they will help you in every step

 

[SifuMemphis]

Thanks for all the response. I am on the zeovit forum as well, and it's been quite helpful. I just did my first zeolite change out, and running the reactor on 24/7 instead of the 3 on 3 off. Things seem to be doing well so far.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've not heard this from Neo systems--the bacteria you are dosing and hosting outcompetes things like Dinos, even if you're running ULNS.

Might be the bacteria, or it might be the nutrients dosed in organic forms that helps prevent dinos at low nutrient levels.

I'm not sure anyone has experimented to see which it is. Might even be both.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for all the response. I am on the zeovit forum as well, and it's been quite helpful. I just did my first zeolite change out, and running the reactor on 24/7 instead of the 3 on 3 off. Things seem to be doing well so far.

FWIW, some of the claims of the zeo crowd, at least in the past, did not seem chemically correct. Ammonia and the zeolites they use as a substrate for bacteria was a good example, IMO.

My advice is to treat any forum as a skeptic when folks make claims about how something works without clear evidence that such claim is the case.