Brightwell's Neo Zeo

[gatorwpb]

Anyone here using Brightwell's new line of products that compete with Zeovit?

I know there was one post on another subforum, but not much has been said about it. Ive been following it on R C as well.
I am planning to start it soon, maybe a couple weeks or so.
I think my goal might be to use Zeovit or Elos Amino Acids but everything else Brightwell.

 

[cablebox615]

The guy at my LFS said that's all he uses in his tanks. He even told me to get it off the Internet because it's cheaper than what he sells it for. I'm going to get the plankton products and there 2 part alk and calcium formula. I my even try there garlic product and the Amino omega ( it's there version on selcon). I would try brightwell products if I were u.

 

[gatorwpb]

Originally Posted by cablebox615
http:///forum/post/2845450
The guy at my LFS said that's all he uses in his tanks. He even told me to get it off the Internet because it's cheaper than what he sells it for. I'm going to get the plankton products and there 2 part alk and calcium formula. I my even try there garlic product and the Amino omega ( it's there version on selcon). I would try brightwell products if I were u.
Thanks. I am about to start using their Calc and Alk products, as they are very concentrated, but I have to finish up my old product.
What I was specifically asking about is the zeolite media, which Brightwell calls "Neo Zeo." It is similar to the Zeovit product (but cheaper) and should be combined with the Brightwell MicroBacter7 and ReefBioFuel products.

 

[xhappyx]

i have not really read a whole lot about that, however me personally i run a full zeovit system and only because of how much info is out there on it. if somethings out of wack i can just go to there forum ask question and usually within an hour i have my answer and what doseage has to be changed. just try and be sure whatever it is ur trying start out slow. especially with any type of zeolite. and i would suggest starting out at half the recommended dosage. so that ur tank can gradually get used to it. good luck what ever u do chose.
tom

 

[gatorwpb]

Originally Posted by xhappyx
http:///forum/post/2846626
i have not really read a whole lot about that, however me personally i run a full zeovit system and only because of how much info is out there on it. if somethings out of wack i can just go to there forum ask question and usually within an hour i have my answer and what doseage has to be changed. just try and be sure whatever it is ur trying start out slow. especially with any type of zeolite. and i would suggest starting out at half the recommended dosage. so that ur tank can gradually get used to it. good luck what ever u do chose.
tom
Thanks Tom (my name too). I read on zeovit.com as well. and that is a huge benefit having an active forum community for their product. I think (or hope) that the Brightwell neo zeo system is very similar to the zeovit. I may use the Zeovit AAs or maybe the Elos AAs as I hear they are more concentrated than the Brightwell. The Zeovit products are just much more expensive overall, which is what makes the Brightwell products more appealling.
Can you share your experience with Zeovit? How long and how the results have been? Thanks.

 

[xhappyx]

Originally Posted by GatorWPB
http:///forum/post/2847485
Thanks Tom (my name too). I read on zeovit.com as well. and that is a huge benefit having an active forum community for their product. I think (or hope) that the Brightwell neo zeo system is very similar to the zeovit. I may use the Zeovit AAs or maybe the Elos AAs as I hear they are more concentrated than the Brightwell. The Zeovit products are just much more expensive overall, which is what makes the Brightwell products more appealling.
Can you share your experience with Zeovit? How long and how the results have been? Thanks.
originally i started out just dosing additives to get a little better color. and saw a huge difference after the first month or so. then got into reading more and more about it, and thought i might as well just go ahead. i started off slowly, and did end up with a cyano problem, which was under control in a matter of 2 days. turned out i was dosing to much of the amino acid high concentrate.
currently i run
1liter zeolites
zeo carbon
coral vitalizer
sponge power
zeo bac
start2
pohls xtra
k balance strong
spur2
coral snow
amino acid high concentrate
stylo pocci glow
keep in mind it's only a few drops 3 times a week. only thing dosed daily is start2 which helps eliminate nitrates and phosphates. i'm at the end of phase 1 right now. colors are starting to lighten up now which means little to no po4 and no3. i've been using full zeo for about 2 months now. and i can't wait to be at phase 3. u have so much control over the system. in the beginning it can be frustrating ,just have to be patient. but i can actually see how much clearer the water is, how much more growth i'm getting, and overall corral health is just better. key to having sucess with zeovit is keeping very stable water params
i just tested tonight and
po4 0-0.01
no3 0
cal 400
alk 7dkh
potassium 380
so far i'm happy with zeovit. good luck with what u decide to go with.
tom

 

[gatorwpb]

Thanks its good to hear other's experiences!
I actually bought the Brightwell Neo Zeo (zeolite media), Microbacter7 (bacterial supplement) and Reefbiofuel (carbon source) from fragfarmer. I hope to have it delivered just before thanksgiving.
The recommended schedule is to add 100g of the media per 50g of water volume per week in the sysem. After 4 weeks of that I will start AAs. Im thinking maybe the Elos AAs, but not sure yet.

 

[kholla12]

Have you though about useing sugar vodka or sulfer ? I have do alot of reading on it and most people seem to have good results.

 

[gatorwpb]

Originally Posted by kholla12
http:///forum/post/2848250
Have you though about useing sugar vodka or sulfer ? I have do alot of reading on it and most people seem to have good results.
Yeah I have. The vodka method, or even vodka, sugar and vinegar, is the carbon source, which is the reefbiofuel from brightwell. I guess you could skip the RBF and just dose vodka, but I figured Id just use their product for it.
The Neo Zeo and mincrobacter7 complete the package to truly get ultra low nutrient system (ULNS) by providing not only the carbon source, but the extra bacterial supplement and the media to stimulate the bacterial growth.

 

[gatorwpb]

Well unfortunately I wont be getting the neo zeo until after the holidays, unless I can change the shipping destination.
But in the mean time, heres a new Acro. Efflorescens "efflo". It was at my LFS for over a month and they had a calc crash. It will end up being red and blue tips with bright green/yellow polyps. It will take a couple weeks to turn around.

And here is my ORA Red Planet Table Acro which I got from CoralJunky. He fragged his frag and I traded with him. It lost the green but is now coming back in the encrusted area. It is one beautiful coral once it grows in.

 

[gatorwpb]

Well the good news is that the delivery came early, bad news I had to drive 45 min to my office to pick it up... oh well.
Neo Zeo stones, Microbacter7 and ReefBioFuel.

~60g of stones in my phosban reactor with flow cut way back.

Full sump shot.

I hope to do weekly updates and a photo log of the coral color shift and growth.
For fun!! New ORA frags - Borealis, Pearlberry and Bellina (closeups in other thread)

 

[rotarymagic]

Ok so do you have a kalk reactor and calcium reactor running in addition to the chemicals?? Or do you only use chemical additives?
What do the stones do?

 

[gatorwpb]

No kalkwasser or clacium reactor. Ive been looking at calcium reactors, but dont really have the room. But I just dose 2-part solution. I switched to dosing the calcium and alkalinity liquids from Brightwell. It is very potent and seems to work well.
I would link a PDF document that explains it all, but unfortunately cannot. google "aquabuys" and click articles. the link to the PDF is there.
The Neo Zeo stones absorb ammonium and phosphate. Also, they create a biofilm, which is bacterioplankton which supposedly is a food source for corals and other organisms in the tank. the directions say to shake or raise the flow rate through the reactor to 300+ gph to releasse the biofilm into the tank. Those are then taken up by corals or skimmed out.
I will increase the amount of stones each week while dosing microbacter7. Then starting the third week, I start dosing the reefbiofuel, which is a carbon source similar to dosing vodka. After 5 weeks and maxing at 300g of stones, I will reduce the MB7 and RBF and dose only a couple times a week.
After leveling out those two, I will start to dose amino acids. Still deciding which brand of AA (maybe Elos of Zeovit). Then after a couple of weeks with the MB7, RBF and AAs, I will look into Brightwell's other additives like Koral Color, Koralle-VM, Potassion, etc.

 

[gatorwpb]

Today started Week 2 of the Neo Zeo. on day 2 I actually realized that I had only 1/2 the amount of stones, so I increased those to 120g for the first week. I added another 120g today for a total of ~240g of zeolite stones in the Phosban reactor. Each week I will continue to add 120g.
Also, I dosed too much microbacter7 on the first day, so Ive reduced it to about 1.5mL of MB7 each day. I turn off the skimmer for about 4 hrs each day after dosing the MB7. Also, every 2-3 days I increased the flow through the reactor to the max my little pump would do, ~220gph and shake it up to release the bacterioplankton into the tank. This is removed from the system as a food source for the coral and is also taken up by the skimmer. I plan to upgrade the pump once I am at the max amount of stones - 600g - for my tank to something in the 330+gph range.
After the conclusion of Week 2, in addition to continuing to add stones, I will increase the flow through the reactor to ~50gph. Then I will decrease the amount of the MB7 dosed to only ~0.6mL daily and also start dosing ~0.6mL daily of ReefBioFuel. I expect to see a bunch of change during weeks 3-4.
Not sure how I can document the changes other than to post pictures. I have to clean the glass less for sure. I do have a small amount of diatoms on the sand and some biofilm on the powerheads and the frag rack. I feel like some of the colors have lightened, but other than that not too much. Also, the water is very clear.
Day 0 - Tricolor, similar to ORA Chips

Day 8

Day 0 - Blue Mille

Day 8

And just because, here's a side shot, which really shows the pop of the colors right now in my tank

 

[clownfish11]

Originally Posted by GatorWPB
http:///forum/post/2852925
Well the good news is that the delivery came early, bad news I had to drive 45 min to my office to pick it up... oh well.
Neo Zeo stones, Microbacter7 and ReefBioFuel.

~60g of stones in my phosban reactor with flow cut way back.

Full sump shot.

I hope to do weekly updates and a photo log of the coral color shift and growth.
For fun!! New ORA frags - Borealis, Pearlberry and Bellina (closeups in other thread)

let me know when you get some frags of those beauties

 

[gatorwpb]

About to complete my 5th week of the Neo Zeo.

Ive got 600g in the Phosban Reactor and it is full.
Overall, the tank is very clean, very little algae to scrape off the glass, and the sps seem to be lighter in color. The polyp extension on all the corals has been amazing, but it was pretty good prior to starting. I will be reducing the frequency of dosing the reef bio fuel and the micro bacter7 to just twice a week and see how that does.
I have ordered from premium aquatics my next round of additives but unfortunately wont be here until Monday next week. Im hoping that the light colors will deepen and be more colorful once I start with the additives.
I will be using:
Zeovit KZ Amino Acids
Brightwell Vitamin-C
Brightwell KoralColor
Brightwell Koralle-VM
Brightwell Restore
Added in pretty much the order of this list ~ 2 weeks of each before starting the next on the list.
FTS:

Top down of the sps from the first photo. The green is starting to come out in the branches.

Frag rack

 

[lilbuddha]

Evening,
GatorWPB nice colors
Got a few questions ?
How is the skimmate ? Is it producing more than it was before ? Is there a lot of mulm/bio film
when u shake it up .
I have a new tank up and running .Went from a 120 glass to 100 acrylic . I started using the biofuel because whenever I used the vodka method my wife kept asking me . What are u drinking ? The smell from the VSV would blow through the fans spreading through the room . When I told her I was adding it to the tank she asked "are u trying to get the fish drunk "?
I am still in the new stages of the tank and am not sure which products I will use for this ULN tank .
There seem to be more and more appearing all the time .
I do like the Prodibio Biodigest as it is only added every 2 weeks and whenever I will change out the Tunze Zeolith and Zeovit .
Anyone favor any product over the other ? I am referring to the products other than the media , bacter or organic source for the bacteria . Yeah I may get beat up for doing it this way as the media is in a Large Merlin I had laying around powered by a Maxi jet 300 .
I will need to choose soon as I will be putting everything back in .
BTW Im da noob here .Hi Everyone

 

[gatorwpb]

Originally Posted by lilbuddha
http:///forum/post/2913186
Evening,
GatorWPB nice colors
Got a few questions ?
How is the skimmate ? Is it producing more than it was before ? Is there a lot of mulm/bio film
when u shake it up .
I have a new tank up and running .Went from a 120 glass to 100 acrylic . I started using the biofuel because whenever I used the vodka method my wife kept asking me . What are u drinking ? The smell from the VSV would blow through the fans spreading through the room . When I told her I was adding it to the tank she asked "are u trying to get the fish drunk "?
I am still in the new stages of the tank and am not sure which products I will use for this ULN tank .
There seem to be more and more appearing all the time .
I do like the Prodibio Biodigest as it is only added every 2 weeks and whenever I will change out the Tunze Zeolith and Zeovit .
Anyone favor any product over the other ? I am referring to the products other than the media , bacter or organic source for the bacteria . Yeah I may get beat up for doing it this way as the media is in a Large Merlin I had laying around powered by a Maxi jet 300 .
I will need to choose soon as I will be putting everything back in .
BTW Im da noob here .Hi Everyone

hey there LilBuddha

At first, when I started with the stones and the Microbacter7, my skimmate dropped significantly. I was still feeding heavily, but not much was being skimmed. I was told that once I started with the RBF, the skimmate would pick up. It has picked up, and dose stink, but somehow it is still not skimming as much as before I started the system. It must be because the organics are being broken down by the bacteria before they can even be skimmed out. I never had algae on my rocks, but they are super clean. Also, I only clean the glass once a week or two weeks.
There dose seem to be a decent amount of Mulm. I switched to a Quiet One 1200 pump on the Phosban reactor, and it does a good job of flushing out the mulm every 2-3 days when I increase the gph to ~300. The polyp extension on the SPS when I flush it is very good, so that means it must be working (the mulm is the biofilm and is actually a food source for sps).
You are doing the right thing starting a bacteria/zeolite system from the beginning. All the zeovit guys say they will start every tank in the future with a bacteria driven system because it helps tremendously with the cycle and also helps with the initial algal bloom.
I had been dosing 12 drops of RBF each morning like I was the first 6 weeks, but I noticed some whitening on my ORA Bellina, so I reduced that to 6 drops in the morning each day and the coral is recovering. So I guess thats what it means by adjust as necessary. I also have been dosing the Zeovit Amino Acids (2 drops daily just before lights out) and 12 drops of KoralColor at same time as the AAs. Ill start the Vit-C and Koralle-VM on maybe next week.
Heres a pic of the supplements I picked up and a few new pics of the tank. Just fragged a bunch of corals too. Sand is very clean, glass stays very clean, but not a big difference in colors, other than them just looking great all around.
Any other questions, let me know. Im not on this site as much as I used to, but I will check it a couple times a week.

 

[gatorwpb]

One other thing that I am reading is gaining in popularity is trace elements. Most people dose for Calc and Alk, and some dose for Mag, but the trace elements get left out.
the Brightwell products I have contain trace elements and they supposedly help with coloration.
One product that I might try out soon is the Tropic Marin trace elements. Seems reasonably priced and pretty potent.
As for the different ULNS systems, you cant go wrong with any of them. Obviously, with Prodibio, you dont need stones or a reactor. But the Brightwell, Zeovit, Fauna Marin and Tunze systems all do use stones. To me, it seems like you get more consistent results if you use the stones and also dose more frequently, rather than just once a week/two weeks.

 

[lilbuddha]

How will u know which products do what ? U are adding Koral Color and the Amino but will add a few more next week . I'm just curious cuz all these bottles are mkaing me think I'll get a dosing addiction .LOL . BTW there seems to be some talk of potassium as an additive too . I saw some from a lab outfit as it is pharm grade . I just need to research and figure out how to mix and dose as iodide is used . I always had good luck with Tropic Marin BIO calcium but it seems hard to find over the years . I am finally finishing my 5 gallon buckets of B-Ionic .. It has lasted me about 4+ years .
I do have more questions but so I hope ur around . I hang out in other forums too but use a different name . U prolly can figure it out from the avatar . I hang out in the light /filtration section .Love to see eveyones new toys.I don't know when ur going to start fragging but put me on your list .