Zeo Armageddon

[Buzz1329]

The following took place in my 180 Tank (with 40 gallon sump) that I started with the ZeoVit system in May 2013.

On Oct. 18th, six weeks after my last change, I swapped out 80% of the ZeoStones in my reactor with a 50/50 mixture of Brightwell Neo Zeo stones and Zeovit stones. At about the same time, I switched salts from Instant Ocean to Red Sea salt (because the Red Sea salt had significantly lower alkalinity levels (10.8 vs 8.3). However, I cut my weekly 10% water changes in half because the booster pump for my RO/DI system died and I had some trouble replacing it.

As best I recall, I made no other significant changes during this period. I continued pumping the ZeoVit reactor 10x twice a day and dosing ZeoStart (1.2 ml daily) and Sponge Power, Coral Snow, Pohl’s Extra, B Balance, ZeoBak, Iodine, Iron (6 ml 2x a week), plus ZeoZym (1 tsp a week dissolved in 2 cups of DT water) plus ZeoSpur (6 ml weekly).

Strangely, although I had discontinued dosing KW and 2-part Alkalinity a few weeks before, alk remained at 7.7 – 7.8 and calcium at 475-500 throughout this period. I used both Red Sea and Salifert test kits to confirm these numbers. Despite the lack of additives, coralline algae growth remained strong and steady. Other tests showed nitrate and phosphate as unreadable, magnesium at 1500, potassium at 410, and salinity at 1.035.

Within a week after I started using the Neo-Zeo stones and Coral Sea salt, I started noticing that some of my frags (primarily montipora digitata) started to look faded. Over the next week, they started to lose chunks of tissue throughout the body of the coral. As each reached what I considered the point of no return, I removed it from the tank. Then, I noticed other SPS frags starting to wilt, including some acropora pieces and two scroll coral frags. They also gradually lost patches of tissue from their skeleton.

During the first week of November, I removed almost all of the rocks (including the Neo Zeo stones) from the reactor and replaced with 1.3 liters of ZeoVit stones. When I set the reactor back up, I reduced the rate from about 130 gph to 90 gph and added an extra dose of ZeoStart and ZeoBak to kick start the bacteria.

I was hoping that with this change, I would be able to save the frags that had just started to deteriorate, but no dice. It looks like the spread of rot to other coral is slowing, and many frags have been completely unaffected. E.g., of two hydnophora frags sitting right next to each other, one completely bleached, the other is unaffected. LPS frags are generally doing fine.

I’ve ordered LED lights for this tank, but have not installed them yet, so the lights remained the same (3 x 400 watt 20,000k metal halides and 2 T5 blue plus bulbs) as did the photoperiod.

Filtration consists of a SRO 3000x internal skimmer (which works great) and a half-liter of Matrix carbon kept in the Zeo reactor and changed monthly.
I’d like to blame it on the Neo Zeo but have not found any other reports of similar problems and am well aware of the “post hoc ergo propter hoc” logical fallacy.

If anyone has any thoughts on what caused this, what steps I could make sure it’s under control and to prevent it from happening again, I’d appreciate hearing from you.

[Buzz1329]

Bump

[ridetheducati]

You are doing too much at the same time. Also, your water parameters are not in the recommended ranges: alk 6.5 - 7.5, Ca 400 - 420, Mg 1250 - 1300, salinity 1.025 -1.026.

Stability is the key, especially when running a system with low nutrients. The margin of error is much smaller.

[Allmost]

did u test K+ after ?

are u sure the flow through reactor wasnt increased ? or amount of stones ?

[Buzz1329]

Originally Posted by ridetheducati

You are doing too much at the same time. Also, your water parameters are not in the recommended ranges: alk 6.5 - 7.5, Ca 400 - 420, Mg 1250 - 1300, salinity 1.025 -1.026.

Stability is the key, especially when running a system with low nutrients. The margin of error is much smaller.

Thanks. Any advice on lowering the alkalinity and calcium? As I mentioned, I am not adding anything to maintain the levels I reported (besides 2x 10% water changes over the past 30 days). Since coralline algae is starting to sprout all over the tank, I don't understand how alkalinity and calcium can remain so steadily high?

[Buzz1329]

Originally Posted by Allmost

did u test K+ after ?

are u sure the flow through reactor wasnt increased ? or amount of stones ?

Thanks! Yes, I test K weekly and for the past few months it has consistently been in the 410-400 range. As a result I stopped dosing K Balance.

Before this happened, I deliberately increased flow in reactor to 120 as a result of advice on the other forum. Prior to that, I kept it at 90 gph. I have always used 1.3 - 1.5 liters of stone (following directions on Zeovit package to use one liter of stones per 400 liters (105 gallons) of water.

Thinking about it, it is certainly possible that when I changed 80% of the stones in mid-October (using half NeoZeo stones), that the flow rate increased beyond 120 gph due to the clean stones and the fact that I cleaned the pump at the same time. I stupidly did not check the flow rate after replacing the stones, because I thought I already had it dialed in.

Assuming the flow rate got away from me, now that I have reduced it to 90 gph, should this resolve the problem? Is there anything else I should be doing? Like removing some of stones? Adjusting dosing of ZeoStart or ZeoBak? More frequent/larger water changes?

[Allmost]

Assuming that was the ISsue, you should stop dosing Zeospure2 and B-balance for time being. you could Either double dose Xtra [helps corals and frags recover] or use SP daily for a week. in either case, go back to normal when corals are recovering or if you notice a brownish film algae covering rocks.

hope the other corals make it fine

[Buzz1329]

Originally Posted by Allmost

Assuming that was the ISsue, you should stop dosing Zeospure2 and B-balance for time being. you could Either double dose Xtra [helps corals and frags recover] or use SP daily for a week. in either case, go back to normal when corals are recovering or if you notice a brownish film algae covering rocks.

hope the other corals make it fine

Thanks!