Opinions on Zeovit

[stlouisguy]

Not wanting to start a debate, but would like opinions of people who are currently using it, and people that tried it and quit and how your tank was on it

Thanks in advance

[Jasonincuritiba]

I have used it for over a year and have been impressed with its results, keeps phosphates, nitrates, ammonia, etc at 0, corals color up nicely. Check out zeovit dot com for more people who use zeovit. Dont rely on the opinions of those who have never even tried it.

[slojmn]

I would defiantely head over to Zeovit dot com and ask lots of questions. I have been using it for 2+ years, I love it. There have been ups and downs for sure. IMHO Zeovit does not give a ton of wiggle room for stability in the tank. I also think some of the supplements are not neccessary for my system, I've tried them all. Over time I have found the combination of things that work best for my system. The corals tell me what is working for them so observation is key when using the Zeo. BTW, I don't have any light, pastel, faded looking corals ...all nice rich colors.

[Horace]

Honestly after using it for 2 years, it didnt provide me any more visible benefit than running GFO and its VERY expensive and labor intensive. Honestly, its not worth the time/money to me so I dropped it. I also didnt like the fact that every time I turned around I was being advised to use more products, which also cost $$$$$. Simply put, yes it works, but its too expensive to be worth it and the same results can be gotten by much cheaper and less labor intensive means IMO

[Dwarf Seahorses]

I've personally seen many tanks using Z and the colors were amazing. I definitely noticed a difference between the Z tanks and non-Z tanks.

[raulalonso]

I have been using Zeo for over a year and the results are amazing, I have mostly SPS and I am getting much better colors than some of their mother colonies I got the frags from, so I am Zeo!! Yes it is time consuming, and yes the products are expensive, I guess depends on you to decide which method works better for you and your tank

[THP]

Hello all, I have been considering Zeo as well and actually, I would not mind if we could start a debate on using this product rather than the traditional phos reactor and refugium.

I am skeptical about relying on the Zeo forum as I feel it is biased (in favor of using Zeo) and would like some honest opinions although for information gathering, I am reading their forum and have joined it.

There are several things which concern me about it asside from the obvious huge costs of media, chemicals and so on. I believe Sloglm eluded to a suspicion I have about this method and thats the fact that it chemically binds amonia thus likely reducing the amount of nitrosomonas and nitrobacter that the aquarium would have otherwise naturally produced. It also appears to me that because of that, you would never have a naturally stable tank as you would when relying on nature to set an equilibrium.

With all this said, I'd be extremely afraid to leave the tank for 1-2 weeks while on vacation as I'm not sure that the tank would have enough beneficial bacteria to maintain stabily on its own.

Anywone have more comments/thoughts on all of this?

[Deuce67]

Originally posted by Horace
Honestly after using it for 2 years, it didnt provide me any more visible benefit than running GFO and its VERY expensive and labor intensive. Honestly, its not worth the time/money to me so I dropped it. I also didnt like the fact that every time I turned around I was being advised to use more products, which also cost $$$$$. Simply put, yes it works, but its too expensive to be worth it and the same results can be gotten by much cheaper and less labor intensive means IMO

Lol! Same comment for me.

[Serioussnaps]

Originally posted by Horace
Honestly after using it for 2 years, it didnt provide me any more visible benefit than running GFO and its VERY expensive and labor intensive. Honestly, its not worth the time/money to me so I dropped it. I also didnt like the fact that every time I turned around I was being advised to use more products, which also cost $$$$$. Simply put, yes it works, but its too expensive to be worth it and the same results can be gotten by much cheaper and less labor intensive means IMO

Ding ding ding ding

[THP]

alright, stupid question but what is GFO?

[speedstar]

forgive the spelling, but granular ferric oxide... rust it will pull the PO4 out of the water and fast be careful with the amount you use to start

[slojmn]

What I meant about stability is that if your params are not fairly stable then problems can occur. For example, if alk drifts to much tips will start to burn, things like that.
I think it is super important to remember the good husbandry skills and maintenance that most of us perform that use Zeo and those that don't. I know for any method/system/style of reefkeeping you choose to use this is what we all have in common. Just plain takling care of our tanks at a high level. Folks that neglect their tanks, Zeo or otherwise will have problems regardless.
As far as debates...do a search, there are literally thousands of posts debating Zeovit. You could read for a day .

[einsteins]

I dont use the full Zeo system but I do use their Coral Vitalizer, Amino Acids, and Coral Snow. I have gotten great results with these products. I travel a lot and cant be home to administer the full zeo system on a daily basis. I use Prodibio Digest and Bioptm to create a low nutrient system as it is much less labor intensive.

If you dont want to commit to the full system just use some of their additives.....they are quite good!

einsteins

[Big E]

I am skeptical about relying on the Zeo forum as I feel it is biased (in favor of using Zeo) and would like some honest opinions although for information gathering, I am reading their forum and have joined it.

True, it's very biased. Some of the biggest proponents on that site have crashed reefs, but of course the cause was something else if you ask them. Imo, the systems are running on a razors edge.

On the other hand, my friend has been using it for 3 years & he's happy with it. I don't feel his colors are better than mine, just different in some pieces. Some look better in my system & some better in his.

You can research zeo till the cows come home & the only way you're gonna know about the results is to try it.

[Dwarf Seahorses]

True, many people are biased in favor of Zeo on the Zeo forum. But you get many people on RC who are biased about it and bash it before they have even tried it and used it correctly.

[Horace]

Originally posted by Big E
Some of the biggest proponents on that site have crashed reefs, but of course the cause was something else if you ask them.

This is true...atleast two mods, who were charged with telling everyone how to dose thier tanks have lost thier entire tanks. Neither really knew why. Though unless you lose power or have some other big event its always hard to tell what happend. I am skeptical about one tank being the zeo that caused it, but the other very well could be... who really knows!

[slojmn]

Tanks crash all over the place, no matter what "system" or "style" of reefkeeping one institutes. This is part of the delicate nature of keeping a reef tank...Zeo system or otherwise. Very few can really pinpoint what happens when reefs go downhill slowly or fast unless there is mechanical failure of some sort, eg. Steve Weast...Kip is having a heck of a time figuring out what is slowly killing his reef, pathogen possibly. He doesn't use Zeo and has an incredible tank , excellent husbandry skills, and a deifnate passion for htese eco-systems. I have always looked up to his tank and have strived to emulate 1/2 of what he and others I respect have. Many Zeo tanks are thriving, some are not. Hard to know what is the cause, so many variables. I have 2 years and 3 months in and I am very happy. Have I had coral losses? you bet. I don't know any hard core reefer who hasn't.

[MCsaxmaster]

There are more and newer "methods" coming out all of the time now. IMHO something is worth trying if it is: 1. an improvement over current technololgy/methodology, 2. as good as current methodology but cheaper, 3. as good as current methodology but requires less maintenance. Zeovit, along with most other new "methods" does not satisfy any of these conditions from what I've heard from others. None of these new methods produces results that are necessarily any better than what we can all do with current technology/methodology and these new methods all tend to be more costly and labor intensive. I've yet to see any evidence compelling enough to make me think that any of this is an improvement of what is already available.

cj

[Big E]

Well said MCsaxmaster

Speaking of Kip........check his initial thread of his problems. "Careefer" posted about his unexplainable RTN/STN problems. He's another zeo user & mod. I don't know the current status of his corals, maybe he can chime in.

[slojmn]

Marshal's corals are all on the mend and traced to RO/DI issue. MCsaxmaster, Agreed . But it still doesn't mean the Zeo method is not working. I have living proof in my tank that it is working and well. Do I have a control tank to test against? nope. I just know compared to my last reef tank with a DSB/refugium this one is way less work and much prettier. Any problem algae is a non existant problem...my initial reason for setitng my tank up on Zeo. The gorgeous colors are just icing on the cake, my real goal is to not have nuisance algae. Zeo has met my goal with flying colors and it is really not that expensive on my systems. I am a major proponent of "Do what works for you" .
The same folks show up on these Zeo threads against it. Their experiences, if they actually have used it, is as valuable as mine. The more information one has the more infromed a decision one can make .

[THP]

Well, I have to thank everyone for their input and debate on using Zeo or not. I think that given I travel a lot for work reasons and that I'm not a billionare, the refugium method along with something like Phosban (and of course, good water change routines) is probably my best way to go. I guess in the future, if I find that I am getting algae issues I can always go the Zeo route.

I also base this on the fact that some of the best SPS tanks I've seen continue to utilize the refugium/phosban method of maintaining their tanks along with routine water changes. I also feel that I should not use a DSB in the refugium and instead use a thin layer of CaribSea. The display tank will follow the same regime of 1" max of substrate.

Again, I thank you all for the wealth of information and opinions on various methods to keep our fragile "ecosystems" in check.

[alazo1]

I've tried it a few times in the past without success but doesn't mean it doesn't work. I really think if you are the person that currently does not check paramaters often it may not be right for you. For the person that is always on top of their system you will have better success. It really seems that a stable system to start off with is crucial. Things like alk swings can be detrimental.

Nice thing about these systems (Zeo, Elos, Fauna Marin) is that we now know a lot of how it works and is no longer a mystery like it was in the beginning with Zeo alone.

Albert

[alazo1]

THP, the only similiar system that may meet your needs may be prodibio. I haven't tried it but just know that you will only need to ad it on a weekly basis vs daily.

Albert

[Shawnts106]

I too thought about trying this product out, along with Prodibio too...
After a whole LOT of research, talking to several people and reading different results... I decided Ill stick with what works for me.
GFO, WC, etc....

There are better ways to control nutrients, than adding this system to the tank and obtaining those results by such un-natural means...

[brianbigoats]

Originally posted by Shawnts106
There are better ways to control nutrients, than adding this system to the tank and obtaining those results by such un-natural means...

And GFO is Natural, Zeo/ultralith/Elos all use Bacteria to deal with phospates seems more natral than mined Iron oxide.
These method are just another way to Skin a Cat use what ever works for you Zeo does take a lot of dedication. as for Zeo mods Tank crashing there are lots of tank crashes for various reasons i belive one mod problem was traced back to bad test kits.

You would be suprised if you knew who was running it. people who run Zeo are not very vocial because of attacks by people here on RC there was some bad stuff that went down a few years ago on both sides