Started a 60 Gallon Cube - Future Questions

[andrewknies]

1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
2. Net water volume: 55 Gallons
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique: No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) No
5. Are you using Ozone No
6. Are you using UV No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) CAD Light (Replacement coming next week)
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) No
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) Hyrda 26 hd
12. What corals do you keep - Mainly LPS with a few SPS up top
13. Tissue color (light or dark)
14. How long has the tank been running 3 Days
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system - Ideally
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.)
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - 50-60lbs All Established from Previous Tank...Years Old
18. Any present problems - Steady As She Goes
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.)
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) Red Sea
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.)
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.)
23. Which salt brand do you use Reef Crystals

In a previous 25 Gallon I ran a "successful" zeovit system following standard dosing with zeolites in a media bag. I've always started aquariums with CaribSea Live Aragonite.

My plan was to set this 60 Gallon Cube up and run a true zeolite system. During my research for this run I discovered Live Sand was a bad idea. In my previous tank I did have a cyano outbreak but when treated with coral snow I was able to beat it. Now I made the same mistake.

So questions:
Will cycling the tank prior to zeovit addition will I avoid the problem?

If it's a bacteria strain issue can skip the dosing or scale back the zeobak dosing?

Should I just burn the tank and start over with dry sand?

Anyone had long term success after starting with live sand? My previous tank settled in nicely after a week of cyano.

Thanks in advance.

[G.Alexander]

Hi Andrew



I expect you have already started to cycle the system as described over here:

http://zeovit.com/forums/showpost.ph...60&postcount=7

The combination of live sand and zeovit does often cause issues with cyanos and other kind of films so I expect it is some kind of a bacteria based problem.

If you like to be 100% sure I would vacuum out the live sand and replace it with a shallow aragonite sand bed. Soak the material in RO water and check if it does leach PO4, if not just add it to the system, the sooner the better.

The other alternative is to keep it as it is to see if the expected problems do come up. If that is the case you can than replace the sand but at this stage this might stress the animals.

Personally I have often hear about the problems with the combination but I do not know a system which is working well with it. Maybe some others do have first hand experiences posting some additional information.

G.Alexander