I will be the guinea pig

[mgonz]

I turn off my skimmer about one hour before my lights go out. I feed my amino's then. About half hour later I feed the pro skimmer and the coral visualizer. I also feed the startbac2 at this time. I leave my skimmer off for 3 to 4 hours that way the coral have time to take in nutrients. I tried the pohls xtra last night and I must say it made my polyp extension extreme. not sure if it is just because I am adding something new. I plan on dosing this three times a week at about half ml as recommended by someone on the zeo forum.

Are you using the reef bio fuel alone or are you adding some type of bacteria into your system? it is a carbon source and will feed any good or bad bac you have in your system including cyano.. I heard really good reviews using it in conjunction with the brightwells microbac7

 

[mnat]

I have microbacter7 but have not been dosing it in hand with the bio fuel. Have not seen any negative effects yet, starting at the low nutrient dosage to get a feel for it (1 drop per gallon). Neither tank that it is going into has had cyano (knock on wood). Been dosing for a bit over a week now will see how it goes. I basically picked it up because I did not want to try vodka dosing on its own and this from what I have read is the closest you can get to it.

 

[mgonz]

yes it is similar to vodka dosing. both are carbon sources. most people use them to try to achieve an ultra low nutrient system. the microbac7 will put in your system the "good" bacteria it needs to break all the stuff down and the reef bio fuel is basically the food that feeds the bacteria to keep it working.

 

[mnat]

So I finally got all my supplies today so I started my dosing regimen. It is as follows:

Reef Biofuel 1 drop per gallon
Microbacter7 2 drop per gallon
Brightwell Coral amino 7 drops into the 20g 10 into the 30g
KZ Coral Vitalizer 1 drop into each tank
Pohls Extra 1 ml into each tank

The goal is to get more color and growth in each tank. The biofuel and microbacter are basically vodka dosing and adding the good bacteria to try and get to a ULNS. The others are to feed the corals. I turn the skimmer off for at least an hour after dosing. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[Dave]

Has anyone broken down the monthly or annual costs of maintaining this style of system?

 

[mnat]

I will try and answer that question with what I am running (granted I am running it on about 50g total):
BW Coral Amino $16.90 Less than a ml a day, my selcon bottle which is about the same size lasts about 6 months at a full ml a day.
BW Reef Biofuel $8.90 around 50 drops per day. No idea how to quatify that, but I would again say at least 6 months
BW Micro Bacter $8.90 around 100 drops per day. Again probably about 6 months
Zeo Coral vitalizer $37 two drop per day. based on the bottle size probably a year
Zeo Pohl Extra $37 two ml per day. Based on bottle size (250ml) 125 days so roughly four months per bottle.

So for a year if I continue dosing at this level lets say it takes
2 BW Coral amino $34
2 BW Biofuel $18
2 BW MicroBacter7 $18
Zeo Coral Vitalizer $37
4 Zeo Pohl Extra $148

Total would be $255 or $.69 per day.

I am also using the smallest bottle size available. If I decide I want to continue this experiment I can buy the bigger bootles which will reduce price. An example of this would be 4 Zeo Pohl Extra would be 1000 ml at $148 dollars. If I just bought the 1000ml bottle is would be $100 so i would save 48 dollars which would bring down the cost to $207 or $.56 per day. I could do the same comparison with BW because they sell larger bottle of just about everything I listed.

I am doing a trial period here to see if I get the results I want. If I see the growth and/or color I want I think it will be worth it.

DISCLAIMER: I am running the amounts off the top of my head, if someone comes up with math that is more precise then I will rerun all the numbers. Also, what I dose may change over time so that will affect the numbers as well. Also, I was running the numebrs off of PA prices, if you get it during a group buy you can take another %15 percent off all the prices.

 

[mgonz]

maintaining a system in my manor can get quit expensive. I dose lots of stuff and I do weekly water changes so between additives and all that it adds up. I have always had the mindset of keeping the system as simple as possible but like previously stated I never got the colors to pop the way I saw other tanks. this is the main reason for my venture in this. I will do my best to break down the cost of it all..

***Prodibio***
-Biodigest 1 vial every 14 days, 12 vials for $25 (roughly 6 months)-------------------------------------------$50
-Bioptim 2 vial every 14 days, 30 vials for $45 (roughly 7 months)-------------------------------------------$90
-Reef booster 1 vial a week, 30 vials for $49 (roughly 7 months)-------------------------------------------$98

***Kz Zeovit***
-Coral vitalizer 3 drops a day 50 ml bottle $41 (one year supply)--------------------------------------------$49
-Pohls xtra .5 ml 3x week 250 ml bottle $37 (one year supply)--------------------------------------------$37
-zeo start2 .5 ml a day 250 ml bottle $35 (one year supply)--------------------------------------------$35

***Elso***
-Pro skimmer 10 drops daily 50 ml bottle $23 (6 month supply)---------------------------------------------$23
-Omegas 12 drops daily 50 ml bottle $35 (6 month supply)---------------------------------------------$35

TOTAL IS $713


My god this adds up. this is all just supplements that I use to feed my corals. not to mention the trace elements or the b ionic I add on a daily basis or the tropic marin reef actif I add on my weekly water changes. but than again who said this hobby wasnt expensive

 

[Dave]

Thank you both. Very useful to know.

 

[mnat]

Two weeks in and I am going to keep doing this. Color has been very good, but growth has been better. Frags that I picked up very recently are encrusting their plugs at a rate I have not seen before. Granted I don't have any scientific proof that what I am dosing is the cause here, but growth and polyp extension has been excellent. I am going to order the bigger bottles whenever we setup the PA group buy so bring the cost down even more. I gotta see what pics I had before the dosing regimen and compare them to now.

 

[Nickjr000]

Just watch how much you buy. I know some of the zeo stuff has a shelf life

 

[mnat]

Thank you for the heads up, will have to check that out.

 

[Nickjr000]

just checked my coral snow, pohl extra and sponge. They all expire in like 2011. But i think i read somewhere to use 3, or 6 months after opening

 

[mgonz]

I have not read or heard that but I will be sure to ask on the zeovit forum.I am currently having an alk issue. I can not seem to keep my alk in range. I drop about one and a half to two points in a day. somehow it seems to continue to gravitate to about 5.8. I have been dosing my regular b ionic but have also started supplementing with Kents super buffer DKH. hopefully it will stabilize. this is really upsetting.

 

[mnat]

Try Brightwell Alk 8.3, I dose it every other day and have been having good luck with it.

 

[mgonz]

Well I was able to pinpoint the alk issue and have made my adjustments and have now stabilized all my parameters.. Things are looking good. Also I am happy to announce that I have made the LED leap. I picked up two 120 Watt panels and am currently running them on my tank. colors are looking good. A lot diff than t5. I have to say I love the way my tank looks with the new fixtures.. I have more blue bulbs than I have white. so I get more of a 20k look through the tank. I started the fixtures 6" of the top of the water for a week and have lowered it down roughly 2". its only been a week so I cant say anything bad or good about it yet so I will see... I will say this, the shimmer effect I get along with the actinic look I get is amazing. I never did HQI because of heat issues so I went with t5. I am hoping that the light that is given off by the LED is enough to keep my sps alive. Only time will tell...