Ciclo iniziale di avviamento in soli 14 giorni?

An effective biology and some other “tricks” make it possible!

Here we go:

Day 0:

Install an appropriate sea water tank, install the sump, install necessary PVC tubing and make sure to give the glue enough time to dry !

Day 1:

1. Water

Fill the system with reverse osmosis water, if possible use the RO unit with a filter resin as last stage. Warm up the water to 20-25° C and install current pumps at the same time.

2. Current

We recommend a smooth and broad flow, about 20-30 times of the tank’s volume per hour. Also well approved is the combination with Osci-Motion – they create a very natural shifting streaming due to the pivoting pumps.

3. Sea salt

As soon as the water temperature is around 25 °C add salt slowly into the current and adopt the salinity around 34 %o. Live rock can be added as soon as the salt has dissolved completely and the water is clear.

4. Live rock

It is very important to use fresh and clear live rock, approx. 10 % of the tank’s contents. Always available in our online shop or in our store in Coburg. Rock work can easily and stable be fixed with Speedglue without harming the water quality in any way.

After you bring in the live rock in the tank, the sand bed is next. At this time the skimmer is started as well as the ZEOvit® filter and the tank needs light now!

5. Sand bed

Now you can add a shallow sand bed. Use crushed Coral Sand or Aragonite from Korallenzucht. Do not use Live Sand in combination with the ZEOvit® system.

Coral Sand
Very clean coral sand from the best coral regions in a optimal size of 2-4 mm. Soak in reverse osmosis water for 3-4 days before use and replace osmosis water daily.

Or you can take Aragonite:
High quality sand without phosphates for sand bed. This can be used immediately without soaking for a few days.

6. Start the ZEOvit® filter and skimmer

Use 1 liter ZEOvit® for each 400 l of water tank volume. Do not exceed flow rate through the filter of 400 l per hour maximum. Start your protein skimmer.

7. Lighting and other technical equipment

Start the lighting min. 10 hours per day. Start also all other technical equipment now.

8. Dosage

The addition of ZEObak, ZEOstart and Sponge Power can be started now.

ZEObak: 5 ml per 100 liters/25 gallons
ZEOstart: 10 ml per 100 liters/25 gallons
Sponge Power: 3 ml per 100 liters/25 gallons

Day 2 and Day 3

Dosing break.

Day 4:

Dose ZEObak, ZEOstart and Sponge Power as recommended on the products label.

Day 4-10:

Different algae phases can appear, like some brown slime algae followed by some healthy green algae. Use the same dosage like described for day 4 above. Double check Salinity.

Day 10

First herbivore fish (max. 2 per 200 L) can be added, also sea urchins and turbo snails. You should also be able to add the first not to sensitive corals like branching Montipora. Add now the Activated Carbon.

Activated Carbon

As soon as the first animals are stocked into the system, add the Activated Carbon: 0.5 – 1 Liter per 1000 liters as recommended. Replacement interval 30 days.

Day 11-14

Keep dosage as described for day 4. Test Carbonate Hardness and Salinity carefully. More corals can now be added into the system. Additional fish can be added but should be done very slow. Also fish feeding has to be done very carefully in this phase as biology is not very stabile in this phase. Do not add more fish than 1-2 fish per 250 liters per week. After additional 4 weeks you can add the rest of the fish which where planed for the system.

With this method we have started many tanks very successfully without any problems. Take care of the above directions.


By using the ZEOvit® system your tank has optimum preconditions for healthy growth and fantastic coloration of your corals. When used permanently your reef grows healthy and magnificent and also your fish can show their full beauty!