Reef Tank: Zeovit Notes

After a month of running zeovit filtration and supplements in my tank, I can finally remove myself from their exceptional marketing photos and take a look at what benefit it had provided for my tank. Given that my system and corals are still very young, its hard to draw any conclusive evidence. Further complicating the matter is that my tank has been quite healthy and algae-free since inception, and maintains a very low bioload (still only one fish). That said, I've noticed some nice coloration from all SPS species, especially my birdsnest which has taken a very bright pink coloration. Good polyp extension all around.



One thing the good people selling zeovit systems will impress upon you is that a special reactor is useful for running the filtration media. Giving the rocks a shake every day loosens the mulm that collects within the media, letting it drift into the system and feed the corals. I've found that for smaller tanks, running this media within a simple hang on filter, the Hagen Aquaclear, works just as well. This filter has a nice media basket with convenient handles at the top above the water surface. You can easily remove the top and give these a good shake to release a great cloud of organic filth for your corals to feast upon.

I've found the Aquaclear to be a great all-purpose filter. Currently I have a bag of activated carbon and a bag of liverock rubble running, with the rest of the space filled with approximately 1/3 liter of zeovit medium.

Links: Making Waves with Vortech Pumps

I've started reading yet another (RSS is a wonderful technology) online aquarium magazine, www.advancedaquarist.com. Informative and well researched articles from smart people is a great counterpoint to some of the things you read on internet forums.

Being a gadget lover, I'm always drawn to posts about reef keeping technology. The controllable Vortech pump should be a familiar item to anyone involved in keeping coral, but unless you've seen one in person its hard to understand just how powerful the pump is, and how minutely the controller allows you to tinker with water flow. Check out this article about defining waves in general, and making them with the Vortech.

Or better yet, just start up this amazing video:

Links: Moving a Reef Tank

Moving a tank is no different than moving the rest of your household: success requires careful planning, execution, and having the necessary materials on hand before begining. In July we will be facing this challenge when moving to a (fantastic) new apartment. Fortunately we have a month of overlap between leases, so a full day can be devoted directly to moving the tank without distraction.

I found an excellent link today while browsing the Reef Central forums, a write up on moving reef tanks. Take a look: http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

Some key takeaways from the read:

Have freshly mixed saltwater on hand, both at the packing point and the destination.
You'll want clean water to bag up your livestock in, and clean water to fill the new tank. Moving liverock and disturbing a sand bed will put a lot of detritus in the water, and you don't want things to sit in bags while your RO unit slowly makes new water.

Stock up on supplies.
Trash cans for moving water. Big tubs for your liverock, submerged. Bags for livestock, and coolers for them to be placed in. Towels, filling supplies, and everything else you might imagine you need. Making a trip to the store for extra containers while your reef is half packed will not be helpful, so get more than you'll need at the start.

Reef Tank: Updates

I wanted to provide a quick update on my reef aquarium. For the most part things are doing well, and I feel like the tank has established a good rhythm. Water quality has been great, the firefish has been quite healthy, and a plethora of small invertebrates has been emerging from the live rock.



Coral Growth
Of the ten coral specimens I've introduced to date, eight are doing great and showing good signs of growth. The Acropora millepora and tabling Acropora in particular have shown exceptional encrusting growth lately. The pink birds nest, Stylophora pistillata, has also been growing very fast.

Two species not doing well. The Pavona maldivensis has been pale and showing no sign of growth since within a few weeks of being introduced. I keep hoping it will come back, but it is seeming less likely with each passing week. More concerning is the recent demise of the Pocillopora damicornis. For the first month, this was my healthiest looking coral. Great color and polyp extension, and very obvious growth. One day it just started going down hill for no apparent reason, showing bleaching around the base which has since spread up into the branches. Some of the polyps still look healthy and extend to feed, but I fear there isn't much time left for this colony.

Flow Adjustments
I decided that running two Koralia 3 pumps, 850 gallons per house each, was too much for this tank. Corals demonstrated stressed behavior in the powerful current. I have since cut back to running just one, with a Koralia Nano on the opposite side to keep detritus off the bottom of the aquarium. This seems to be working out well so far.

Zeovit
Possibly suckered in by the great marketing photos on Zeovit USA, I've started to implement their system on my tank. Zeovit is a mineral that has been commonly used for filtration in commercial aquatic systems prior to becoming a trendy brand in the reef hobby. The pore density of zeovit makes it exceptionally good at filtering out ammonia, preempting the nitrogen cycle before it can occur. By removing the ammonia early in the cycle, bacteria never get a chance to convert it into nitrite, which eventually becomes nitrate.

Because of the sheer effectiveness of its ammonia removal, it is suggested that the reef keeper dose colonies of bacteria and bacteria food to keep the tank in a natural state. Conveniently, the provider of zeovit also makes these products. You can read more from the source in this PDF guide to the Zeovit filtration system.

To start, I've begun with ZEOBak bacteria solution, and the ZEOFood7 bacteria and coral food. I will slowly introduce the zeovite filtration material this coming week. There are a number of other supplements and foods in this product line that I have read good things about. Although too early to make any sort of useful evaluation, I've noticed the tank water appearing quite a bit clearer since the dosing start. Algae formation on the glass also appears to have been reduced quite noticeably. I like to pretend that the corals are beginning to color up and appear healthier as well, but that could just as easily be attributed to their finally becoming acclimated to the tank.

Turtle Tank: Three Years Later

I haven't yet posted about my turtle aquarium on this blog, so I owe my non-existent readership some back story on the setup and specs of this habitat. In the meantime, I spent a few minutes this afternoon trimming some of the plants and other general maintenance. This tank was built with a plexiglass divider wall to retain the land area. The facade of this wall is built out of natural cork bark which creates a great natural aesthetic, in addition to being a nice soft material for the turtle to clamber across.



After three years of operation he cork is naturally quite saturated with water. Its been slowly chipping off ever since the tank was setup, but today I noticed that quite a large piece had finally started to break off. I attempted to adhere it back to the plexi, but the soft and waterlogged bark was not letting anything stick. I finally just broke it off and removed it from the tank.

I'll have to decide how to proceed with this tank. It could use a total breakdown and reconstruction, but I don't have any temporary space to house the turtle while I make that happen. Also I need some sort of plan. I've always looked at the revision as a chance to make more swimming area available within the aquarium, but I have yet to figure out how to do so while also keeping the natural aesthetic. It would make sense to do this before we move to a new apartment in July, so I best get sketching.

Reef Tank: More Firefish Pictures

When I came home from work tonight the firefish was out front and center, and he's been at the glass begging food and attention ever since. I managed to get some decent pictures of him (her?) and the new coral:

Reef Aquarium: First Fish

Today we took a trip over to Skipton's and looked for a good first fish for the reef tank. As a person with a history of past impulse purchases, I wanted to make sure I limited my selection to species I had read about and knew would be good fits for my tank. I made up an email with common names, photographs and scientific names of the six fish I was interested in and mailed this to my iPhone. This turned out to be really helpful when staring down the tanks full of gorgeous saltwater fish.

We ended up deciding on a Purple Firefish, Nemateleotris decora. Here is a shot from when he was drip acclimating.



Quite the looker, and the colors are even more vibrant under the metal halide lighting. Its been hiding under a rock on the side of our tank for the majority of the time so far. I saw it eat a few marine food flakes that I dropped in experimentally, so hopefully all is well and its just being shy/angry about the new tank. I also picked up some frozen food while at the store, mysis shrimp and a marine blend. Once I see this guy show himself around the tank I will try out a little of that.

I also couldn't resist getting this Zoanthus colony. I've really wanted some polyps for the tank, and they were too nice to pass up. The polyps are most closed up in this photo, I will take a better one tonight showing its placement in the tank.

Blenny Lips Video

Its always fun when your professional life intersects with your hobby. Working for an online video service, the potential for this is quite high due to the number and variety of video publishers we work with. Blenny Lips has always been one of our favorite small video publishers, publishing great scuba shots from Bonaire:

Reef Tank: Copepods

I got a call from Cassie while on my way home that "some of the corals didn't look very good" and that there were "crawly things in the tank". My immediate thought was that some sort of pest, possibly the 'red bugs' associated with Acropora corals had been introduced with the recent coral frags. This turned out to be a case of "new parent" needless worry on both our parts. After getting a few of the new critters under my microscope, and verifying the identification, it turned out to be harmless copepods, a coveted food in the captive reef aquarium for both corals and fish. In other words, a good thing.

Here is a good article on Copepods, and also a few photos from the microscope.





At this point there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these guys in various stages of growth around the tank. I've been reading that a new trend in reef keeping is to avoid adding fish until the tank has been established for a few months, allowing populations of these smaller animals to take hold and establish themselves before larger predators are introduced. So far this seems to be a good approach.

Reef Tank: More Frags

With the new metal halide lighting in place, I wanted to have someone take the compact fluorescent fixture off my hands. A one bedroom apartment is not the sort of place that you tend to keep unused equipment sitting around in. I posted listings on the aquarium forums I use, and on Craigslist. One interesting note came in from a Boston area reefer who offered up some coral frags in trade for the light, in lieu of the price I had been asking for.

Throughout the entire history of this project I have tried to plan and move slowly with each aspect. Impulse purchases and stock acquisitions can be a real problem with keeping aquariums. The prudent move would be to watch the corals I introduced on Friday carefully for two weeks, and then proceed with further stocking. Furthermore, the corals being offered in trade are some of the more difficult of the stony corals to keep. I decided to get them anyway.

Here are some photos, along with trade names and my best guesses at scientific names.

Acropora rosaria:



Acropora sp., "purple slimmer":



Acropora sp., supposedly a tabling formation:



Acropora millepora:



I acclimated these with the same slow drip procedure used for my previous coral acquisitions. So far everything seems at home, with decent polyp extension. I think I'm close to my limit on coral species and space in regards to the room they will need to expand into over the course of the year. Now the long wait while they slowly fill in.