Anyone using Zeobak? Which LFS carry it?

[Jimbo327]

Is anyone using it? Or using the zeolite reactor with zeobak? Would love to get some to try it. Or know of a LFS that carries it?

If you are using it, how do you like it?

 

[Jimbo327]

I just ordered some from BRS along some AF bacteria.

 

[Jimbo327]

I see some spots of cyano, so trying to dose some bacteria to see if it can outcompete it.

 

[anthonys_aqua]

I see some spots of cyano, so trying to dose some bacteria to see if it can outcompete it.

are you trying to do the coral snow with bacteria?

 

[Jimbo327]

No, I carbon dose with vodka, so I think that is causing the cyano. I think I'm going to dose more bacteria to try to outcompete the cyano. Going to try this because I don't want to use chemi clean, even though I have a box of that from before that I can use.

 

[Dooly]

what are your nutrients at? sometimes, I see that low nitrates vs higher phosphates can cause cyano issues

 

[Jimbo327]

Last I checked, Nitrates were in the 30's and Phosphate were like 0.3. I don't have a problem with low nutrients, it's probably too high. That's why I have increased my carbon dosing, and I think I need more bacteria to offset the increased carbon into tank.

 

[Dooly]

you're right, they are pretty up there.. do you know the cause and are you doing anything other than vodka dosing?

 

[Jimbo327]

I run skimmer and UV. just vodka. I do dose LC to lower phosphate as well, just very minimally.

I don't want to use chemiclean right away because it'll probably throw off my biome. But may need to resort to chemiclean if I can't do it naturally with bacteria. Someone said to use vinegar instead of vodka, so I haven't tried that yet.

 

[wishntoboutside]

The while Zeovit line is very interesting to me. I recall years ago drooling over their forum and many tried to get that true low nutrient aquarium and crashed thier aquarium I liked thier stuff because it was super concentrated and one could see the results. They were a decent line when distributed through Vertex. I think there are also spot of similar products that others have reversed engineered. Phols extra, sponge power definitely worked for me

 

[Jimbo327]

KZ does have a very interesting line. I've heard good things about a lot of their products especially zeo products, FW stop, Phols extra, sponge power, etc. They are just a bit pricey.

 

[Jimbo327]

In addition to the bacteria, I'm going to stir small sections of the sand bed to get the trapped detritus into the water column and hopefully down to the filter sock. I remember talking with Mike (thegrun) before he left the hobby, and he had a weekly routine of stirring up different sections of sand bed to keep it clean. It may be that my sand is just filled with detritus and gunk. And that's fueling my cyano.

 

[Jimbo327]

Measured my Nitrates (28 ppm) and Phosphates (0.29 ppm) with Hanna checkers. It's a bit higher than I like.

Going to try to bring those down to at least below 20 ppm nitrates and 0.2 ppm phosphates. Still higher than more people would like, but that would be a great first target at this point.

 

[Jimbo327]

My nitrates are now 15 ppm and phosphates at 0.19 ppm. But cyano is spreading on more sand and rocks.

I'm sucking them out, but hard to reach some rocks and sand in the back.

I'm trying something new. I'm injecting bacteria into the sand bed with a turkey baster (where the red cyano is on my sand). Let's see what happens. Basically, I have 2 sections of sand that is covered with cyano, I vacuumed a lot of it out from both section. Then I injected the bacteria into 1 section, and left the other section alone.

 

[Dooly]

My nitrates are now 15 ppm and phosphates at 0.19 ppm. But cyano is spreading on more sand and rocks.

I'm sucking them out, but hard to reach some rocks and sand in the back.

I'm trying something new. I'm injecting bacteria into the sand bed with a turkey baster (where the red cyano is on my sand). Let's see what happens. Basically, I have 2 sections of sand that is covered with cyano, I vacuumed a lot of it out from both section. Then I injected the bacteria into 1 section, and left the other section alone.

After vacuuming, inject bacteria into the sand and also dose coral snow/calcium carbonate every time you clean the sandbed or stir things up. Should clear up the cyano.. basically what sunnyx says on r2r...

 

[Jimbo327]

Does he inject the bacteria into the sandbed too? I just came up with that since I have this bacteria slime already.

 

[Dooly]

Does he inject the bacteria into the sandbed too? I just came up with that since I have this bacteria slime already.

he mixes bacteria with the calcium carbonate before dosing and just doses into the water column, but to me it sounded like the carbonate would just take it away along with anything else and it would be filtered out so I started dosing PNS red bottle into my sandbed a while back for the best chance of the bacteria colonizing the affected areas..

 

[Jimbo327]

But you didn't have cyano though, right? My cyano is pretty thick on the sandbed.

And have you just used chemiclean? I remember using it in my previous tanks, and nothing was really affected. I wonder how long this cyano can persist before negatively affect the tank vs. using chemiclean... taking a hit to the biome, but at least the cyano is gone and repopulate the bacteria instead.

 

[Dooly]

But you didn't have cyano though, right? My cyano is pretty thick on the sandbed.

And have you just used chemiclean? I remember using it in my previous tanks, and nothing was really affected. I wonder how long this cyano can persist before negatively affect the tank vs. using chemiclean... taking a hit to the biome, but at least the cyano is gone and repopulate the bacteria instead.

I do have cyano on my sandbed which is why I’m currently dosing bacteria and snow. Rather do it this way then using any chemicals..

 

[Jimbo327]

Well, how long have you been doing the bacteria in sandbed? And is it working? I'm using the zeobak. I had used PNS probio before it's great at denitrification but I don't like the smell.

This is my 2nd day of injecting the bacteria into sand. I don't see much difference yet. If anything, just the act of injecting into sandbed makes the detritus in the sand fluff up into the water column...maybe that'll aerate the sand so that cyano doesn't like it...kinda like a very localized flow. I purposely didn't vacuum up the cyano in the injected section of sand, just to see how it works.