po4 and zeo
 

I've been on the zeo train for about 6/8 weeks. I've been all over the zeo forum for advise but am still fighting po4.
I've tested ro water and nsw. I dont overfeeding and skim wet. Also change filter sock everyt wo days

Along with po4 I'm also loosing to stn

Any advise is appreciated

Alk 7.8
Cal 410
Mg 1460

Po4 0.36

Is that po4 reading in ppm? What is your nitrates and is there something in your tank leaching po4? Stn could be from the po4. I would stop dosing anything right now until you find out the cause of the po4 and getting it under control... Maybe consider using fozdown or similar products

Yes ppm.
So this is what I found out. My nitrates are to low and I need to raise in order to get the ratio needed for bacterial consumption

So I bought some zeo "foods" and will Carry on

From what I have been reading, it seems like the zeovit methodology does not advocate the use of GFO. However for such high levels I think it will be fine to use some phosphate binding media since the bacteria will have more than enough PO to consume. Once the levels drop, then I would remove the media and see if you are able to keep the balance with just the bacteria alone.

I've heard of this method before, but nobody ever reports back with the results.
Please let us know how it works out for you.

We run full zeo on our 600g SPS system and cannot keep PO4 in check without GFO.

We only have 12 fish but we do also have 400 troches snails and 200 peppermint shrimps in there.

That makes me question zeo at all then

What are you using for salt?


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Reefers best

Took me a good 4/5 months to get the po4 to 0 (hanna); it was ugly in between the transition. It just takes a lot of time.

I started zeo day 1 and have never had PO4, so not sure if it's better at keeping it low, or lowering it if it's present.

I'll predict it's the test kit! :wink:

+1. I would borrow a buddy's phosphate test kit first before making a lot of changes. However, if PO4 is that high try to control reduce it and see if you are a le to find the source of the PO4 ( rocks leaching etc...). I am assuming you are running a full zeo routine and in the early stages you are dosing allot of food a k into the tank. I think running GFO will be ok. Good luck and hope you will be able to solve the problem.

Damn thats a lot of snails and pep shrimps , I'm guessing you don't have any aptasia in your tank? Lol

Sells peppermint shrimp, buys a used car...

Going to buy a new test kit today. Stopped buy Waynes and tested his water against his test kit lol. Red sea may be out to lunch as according to his test his water was. 0.05 and my test kit showed it At 0.64

If anything, this is good news! A local reefer tried Red Sea and his numbers were all over the place. He is now using Salifert and would never go back to Red Sea again. Problems could have been created due to bad readings. Keep us posted on your recoverly! :biggrin:

I use the Red Sea kit for mg. and it seems accurate.

Maybe it's just the po4 one that's bad

like everything else in this hobby, Zeo is not a magical fix. it is something that takes time to make changes. and progress towards your goals. stick to the program and try not to make too many changes at once so you can make an appropriate observation on how your system is progressing.

how often/what are you feeding? how much and how often are you changing your water? fish list?

I feed once a day mysis or like frozen. Change 5 gal water weekly
Fish list is
Black cap x2
McNeilli assessor
Yellow assessor
Royal gramma
Midas blenny

The gard part is watching coral suffer

I would venture maybe it's better at keeping it low. I started zeo at day 1 on my 280g and it had a persistent PO4 high reading. The prevailing advice from zeovit advocates was to give it more time. After 18 months I concluded I had given it enough time and started using GFO.

What a difference ever since.

Unfortunately GFO is not really an economical alternative to zeovit! At least not on my tank.

if you're targeting a ratio why not lower the PO4 with gfo rather than raising the nitrates? i'm not zeoliterate and quite possibly a moron.

</0.02>

You're correct on this. I did just that! Less stress on the corals too! Zeo diehards believe that saying " no pain no gain".

Switch to feeding every other day. And bump up you water change to 10gallons

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Will do

Ok. I did 15 gallon water change and will messure po4 in a few hours and check again in 24 hours. I removed my filter sock as it may be residue fronm washing machine.

I wasn't able to get new test kit today as I worked late

What bothers me the most is I used prodibio from day one and all was well I didn't think the change over would be so harsh

Tested po4 at 0.16

Also dosed coral snow to remove the debris from doing wc and bowing off rocks

Which kit did you test with the second time?

I haven't had a chance to grab a second but hoping to grab a salifert today

Are you washing with detergent? That will have phosphates in it. Wash your filter socks in hot water only with a little bleach. No soap or detergent necessary.

I use to wash filter socks with baking soda

No soap at all just hot wash with second rinse

Hey proteus, are you making your salt mix and then storing it for any length of time?

Are you straining the frozen food and discarding the frozen food water?

Are you in a city or in an acreage on well water?( thought I read you had an RO)


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Or testing the new water mix for P04?


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The longest I've stored water was a week. But. It's in a aquarium heated wirh ph.

U do rinse food and yes rodi

I tested nsw this morning when I got home from work and reefers best is 0.08

Ive.lowered dt po4 to 0.08 and am incorporating some rowa to get lower. I hope the zeo will take.it from there

It should do the deed, sounds like you've cover most everything else, side note I run zeo as well and use the Hanna p04 checker not a great tester, the accuracy is like +-5%


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So today I finally had a chance to make it into lfs and took water sample in. This morning I tested with red sea and tested at 0.16.
I asked harvey (marine aquaria) to test and on elos it came out at 0.00.
So I bought a salifert and test at home at 0.02 so I'm sure the red sea is poached

Bought some phols xtra, K balance, amino acids to start feeding tank.

Yeah that's a fair conclusion,

I've found that KZ Amino acid is pretty strong stuff, I've had two half dose or every other day dose so as not over grow the green stuff.

Let us know how the phols xtra works out.


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