Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - What's your take on zeovit?

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- - What's your take on zeovit? (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=101437)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stinktooth (Post 851302)

On a 70g system you should dose 1 vial of bio digest and 2 vials of bioptim. 1 vial of bio digest is good till 250g. All in all it costs you less than a pack of darts a month to run it.

Nop. The batch I bought had 1 vials of biodigest (and 1 vial of biotim) for every 50 gallon. Like I was saying, prodibio is confused about their own dosing recommendation :)

Yah it costs less than a pack of darts but zeo costs about $1 less than that (according to the calculation I posted above). With prodibio, it would be like...hmm....how much should I dose with the new batch....(and have to look at the back).

I bet you got the nano reef kit. I also double checked the boxes. Bio digest 1 vial for 30 to 250g and bioptim 2 vial for 50 to 100g.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stinktooth (Post 851305)

I bet you got the nano reef kit. I also double checked the boxes. Bio digest 1 vial for 30 to 250g and bioptim 2 vial for 50 to 100g.

Nop :) The one you are talking about is their 1st batch kit and the recent one....in between, they changed to 1 vial per 50 gallon. You can check with Aqua Digital on that. There's a post in his forum about this changes.

I only care about what it says on the box when I use it. Dose twice a month and I'm done. Zeovit imo takes up a lot of time and money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stinktooth (Post 851307)

I only care about what it says on the box when I use it. Dose twice a month and I'm done. Zeovit imo takes up a lot of time and money.

Yes the instruction at the back of the box keeps on changing. If I had the box, I would have taken a snap and posted it here to prove. And if you look at my calculation I did few posts back, you will see that zeo is cheaper on the long run. Upfront cost looks high but those things last for a year and gets distributed over time. With prodibio, you are basically establishing the ULNS and will have to rely on supplements (like the zeovit foods) to maintain the corals, so in the end, the cost gets higher with prodibio no matter what. Would love to see if someone can disprove it :smile:

And I thought hobbyist believe "you get what you paid for". Wonder why someone wouldn't go to zeovit, which is a proven system (the dosing schedule is steep thats for sure but when it comes to cost, why not?)

I started zeo almost a month ago. The results I am getting are noticeable, I could see results after about 10 days. Now my tank has been running for about 18 months, so I'm just dropping the levels. I'm only adding zeo back and start, with 3L of zeovit and carbon.
I also joined the zeovit forum, very very helpful. They get back to you fairly quickly, and after several pm's I was on my way down the rabbit hole.
My algae problem is almost completely gone. I tried prodibio before for several months without these results. Just my opinion and thoughts are that you have to find a system that works for you. For me, that's zeo.
Bob

I've done a huge price comparison in the past and zeo came out cheaper every time. I run the base system... Zeobak, Zeo food, coral snow, amino acids, Start (on a dosing pump), and change my Zeolites every 3-4 months. My phosphate and nitrate levels are barely detectable, even when I skip water changes for a month at a time. For 300 gallons of water volume, my yearly cost is $300-ish and I physically dose twice per week.

I've tried bio pellets in the start, which did an amazing job on the nitrates. Phosphates rose and I noticed problems with my corals.

Prodibio was way too expensive for my tank. It came out to almost double of what I'm doing with Zeovit now. Also cracking vials and dumping stuff in is more clunky than unscrewing a bottle and squeezing stuff in.

Zeovit-Stick to the system and it works. Great colours, good polyp extension.

Me-laziness and it works. Decent colours (just not pastel), good growth and polyp extension.

Basically to each his own. I did zeo for over 2 years and I weaned my system off of it and sold my reactor. Not cause it didn't work, simply cause of laziness. Some corals look better with zeo, others don't. Can't please every single coral with one system.

My tank still looks great and I've got corals that I can't remove due to size. If have to break the coral to remove it due to my glass braces and size of the coral.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrhasan (Post 851265)

Basically you are using almost all the required zeovit products other than the basic four used for ULNS :P So why not use the complete system :lol:

Well here's the difference. The $120 cost that you are pointing out is only to reach ULNS. Afterwards, you will have to start dosing other stuffs to reach the point where you appreciate you did the ULNS in the first place (and hence the added cost).

Prodibio biotim + biodigest (15+15 vials box) costs $40 (taking the cost you posted).

My tank is 70 gallon (net volume). So basically, I will have to dose the exact same amount that a 100 gallon would dose. Each vial cost $1.3 (excluding TAX). Basically, I will have to dose 4 vials every 15 days (2 + 2) thus, costing me 8 vials every month ($10.6). Afterwards, I will have to reach out to add elements like CV (+$50), CS (+$50), xtra (+$50)....etc.....cost actually starts getting build up.

It would be wise to compare prodibio's cost directly to the basic four.

1lt of zeolite = $17. This will go will be enough for 16 weeks/4 months (500lt is needed for my tank). So, this costs $4.25.

Zeobac 10ml = $20. For my tank, I will have to dose 3 drops (perhaps) twice per week. Hence 6 drops per week or 24 drops per month. That equals to around 1ml per month. So this bottle will cost me $2/month.

Zeofood 50ml = $20. For my tank, I will have to dose 3 drops (perhaps) twice per week. Hence 6 drops per week or 24 drops per month. That equals to around 1ml per month. So this bottle will cost me $0.4/month

Zeostart 250ml = $45. For my tank, I will have to dose 0.5ml daily. Thus 15ml monthly. So this bottle will cost me $2.7/month

So, basically, prodibio would cost me $10.6/month for the same result (being optimistic here) that zeovit would do for $9.35/month. Rest of the cost will incur depending on personal ways and views. But basically, to maintain ULNS, that's the cost for my tank.

Generally, in zeovit forum, people who run full form of zeovit predicts a cost of $20-25/month on a moderately sized tank. So, extrapolating that results in a maximum of $300/year. I am sure that will go up with prodibio if you follow the same dosing regime as with complete zeovit system.

Like Albert said, I am also reading this for the first time that those 3 didn't work, esp coral snow. Don't really know....

Plus how much for the reactor plus how much time?

Charles

You can run zeo additives sans reactor (bak and start3) similarly to how you'd run prodibio for similar net effect. You just get a lot of benefit to having a reactor and doing everything daily. Consistency yields better results.

It's sorta like having a calcium reactor/doser setup vs manually adding your ca/kh/mg. Overall increases in water stability and makeup regularity promotes better vigor.