ULTRA LITH TUTORIAL AND SUPPORT THREAD

[AQD_ottawa]

We have generated this thread due to the high demand for information and support for the renowned Fauna Marin Ultra Lith system.

Please post all your Ultra Lith questions here including success stories, well anything Ultra Lith really

Welcome to a community within a community :)

I would like to open this up by announcing that anyone wishing to get into the Ultra Lith Sytem, there are going to be two great offers made available, the first one has already been launched and that is, if you purchase a Fauna Marin Zeo matic Ultra Lith filter while stock last you will recieve $150 starter kit for free.

The other deal is more permenant and is the Ultra Lith starter kit at a great price to help people get into this amazing European concept of Coral culture and reef keeping.

We look forward to all your questions and posts.

[AQD_ottawa]

Ultra Lith manual (http://www.faunamarin.de/bedienungsanleitung/ULTRALITHMANUAL08_eng_red.pdf)

[docwells]

I am in need of some guidance. I have a 70 gallon BB sps dominated tank. My cuurent paramters are ph 8.31, alk 2.57dkh / 7.2meq, calcium 410, magnesium 1320, nitrate and phosphate zero. I started the system on 07/26/08. I started my dosing at half recommended doses as instructed by Claude. I made increases in doses every 2 weeks. Well 1 weeks ago, I was using 5ml/ 1000L ( 1.25ml) of ultra min s and ultrabak. I got the whitish film desribed in the manual and decrease both to 2ml/ 1000L ( 0.5ml).

1. What do I need to do with the dosing of ultra mins and ultrabak? Should I have left the bak at the previous dose when I decreased the min s? I am thinking I needed to raise my min s as I have seen some regression on a few corals. I assumed they were starving from lack of food. No pest seen. Should I go to 3ml/1000L ( 0.75ml)? My nutreints have always been zero before the system.

2. Can mins and ultrabak be dosed above the recommended 5ml/ 1000l?

3. I did start the power trace elemnts as discussed with Claude. I am at 1.2 ml daily and increasing by 10% weekly.

4. I am also using ultra organic. I started it 2 weeks after starting powertrace as directed by Claude. I am at 1ml/100L ( 3ml) daily. Should I stay at this level? Is there any advantage to increaseing this? Is there an indicator for when I am dosing the right amount?

5. How long before I see a big change in coloration and growth? Don't get me wrong, there has been some coloring up of some corals. My growth has stopped completely though. Pretty strange. I can only figure that there is not enough food for them. I am have patience, but looking for direction.

6. Is there anything else anyone can thing of me doing? I plan on ordering a reactor to replace my bag. Maybe good agitation of ultralith will be helpful. I am runnung carbon. I am also holding off on ultra amin as directed by Claude.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[hopkisag1]

I made a spreadsheet that will calculate basic dosing. Please send me an email if you would like to beta test it. adam.hopkins@gmail.com

[C. Schuhmacher]

Hi Docwells

I think you mean 7.2 dkh ? ( alk 2.57dkh / 7.2meq,)

If you have decression of the corals then you have to much BAK reduce the Bak of 50 % and increase the Min S
You can also add more Ultra Organic that will help to feed the corals

In some tanks with Fishes or more nutrients can be added till 10ml it depends on the nutrition which is adding to the tank.

If you add to much Trace Elements you see that your corals get brown We did not use products which eliminate the zooxanthelles so it needs more time till the corals will loose them and have the full color
The idea of ULTRALITH System is to get natural colors.
We will bring at end of October some new products which will help to increase the colors or brightness if corals faster.

If you have less grow you will have to less food increase Min S a little bit then the corals will grow better and have more color
have a look to your water changes and carbon filtration.

Did you have fish in your tank ?

Greets Claude

[docwells]

Hopkisag1,
I will e-mail you.

Claude,
Thanks for the response. I will leave the bak at the decreased level and increase my Min S. I will also add more organic. Are you saying that I can increase the organic to 10 ml if needed? Just want to make sure. And you are right, in that I got my alkalinity measurements reversed.

I will leave power trace addition at low levels for now. I understand on the need for more time to get natural colors. I understand patience is the key.

I am doing my weekly water changes. And I just exchanged my carbon for new carbon.

I do have some fish in my tank. I have 2 small tangs and 2 chromis. i am thinking of getting some more small fish, but I don't want to overdo it.

Thanks for the help.

[C. Schuhmacher]

Hi

No problem with the fish
you will find the right dosing if you control your corals and find the
right view for it.
Every tank is different so start with 50 % of the organic then you can see how the corals react.

Please ask me if there is a change so i can support you better
Gruss

[docwells]

Thanks for the help.

I will repost after I see what the changes do in my tank.

[schwenkl]

Trying to reach Claude. Sent email questions / suggestions and PM as follow up. Not in huge rush but at great time to make this decision as I'm changing out to new sump/refuge and running out of current product.

[AQD_ottawa]

Well getting new product is not an issue you dont need Claude for that, where you based?

Claude has been active at the European trade shows the past week so has not been around much, email me at sales@aqua-digital.com and I will contact him tomorrow for you.

[schwenkl]

Michael,
Been busy. Finally got a PM from Claude but my email is MIA so I am still trying to find the time to rework and I will send to you since I only have email for him through here (which really isn't an address I can see).

I use Todd (which I think has everything but the carbon). That is a shameless plug by the way. A knowledgeable huge help. In California so haven't looked anywhere else because he's got my profilux needs as well.

Some questions beyond the email.......

No DSB or mud use with Ultralith, so still keep the refugium and how about the Cheto?

Parameters: Sg 35ppt, Ca 420ish, Mg 1260ish, Ak 8-11?

5 to 10% water change every week for the duration or long term? Been doing weekly 15% anyway and don't have to dose anything. Would prefer 10% weekly than I can do all my tanks with my new water change bucket build......

Mature water of freshest batch?

One bottles of wine or two when I do water changes?

Obviously, drop any other C dosing?

Still use Phyto to keep a strong Pod population or the system takes care of it?

Appropriate for mainly LPS tank or overkill?

How stringent is the daily? That is my last struggle as I will not always be able to do unless it as easy to regiment to others like feeding....

As you probably are noticing from my call sign, yea its me, always have just a few questions. Learning quick and what I have learned the most is not to settle, look at my quote, form profilux to AS to eheim.......thanks michael

[Moser]

Is the skimmer only required to be turned off when dosing BIO?.

ie the week when I'm not dosing, is it ok to leave the skimmer running 24/7?

If a little bit of necrosis on acro tips or recession is seen in LPS, is it wise to drop the BAK a little +/- the BIO a little, but ok to Inc the MinS a bit?.

Also, would it be reasonable to start dosing UltraOrganics or PowertraceB as a coral support?.

The assumption is that the Ultralith/ BIO/BAK are working a little too well and starving the corals into recession.....so either/or drop that and increase the nutrition side?......

Thanks
Mo

Thanks
Mo

[AQD_ottawa]

Is the skimmer only required to be turned off when dosing BIO?.

A: Only needs to be off for 2 hours after dosing

ie the week when I'm not dosing, is it ok to leave the skimmer running 24/7?

A: Yes but see above

If a little bit of necrosis on acro tips or recession is seen in LPS, is it wise to drop the BAK a little +/- the BIO a little, but ok to Inc the MinS a bit?.

A: check paremeters if all OK suspected bacterial over dosing, so halve the amount of Bak and increase the MinS also look at adding Amin

Also, would it be reasonable to start dosing UltraOrganics or PowertraceB as a coral support?.

A: Check first your paremeters and then yes, i suggest Power trace 1,2,3,4

The assumption is that the Ultralith/ BIO/BAK are working a little too well and starving the corals into recession.....so either/or drop that and increase the nutrition side?......

A: Exactly right - Fauna Marin Lith systems WORK, and as such have to be treated with care and not over dos. Always edge on the side of caution and under dose rather than the other way round

Remember you only dose Bio 2 weeks out of 3, and once system is stable, only when you do media changes.

[Moser]

Thanks for that. I'm kind of getting the idea of how it should work.... I just checked my params tho' :confused:

I started Balling and Ultralith at the same time 3 weeks ago today, as you probably recall. 500 Liter system. Recent Bubbleking skimmer.

Starting Nitrates 50. Phos 0.08 ( D+D test kit), (but needed to change the Rowaphos and got it to 0 a few days later).

Then switched the Phos reactor out and added UltrabarbL to it- 100ml.

I used the supplied Eheim 1250 pump, on my Grotech 110, for about a week. I started to get some recession in my acans and Favia, so I bought an Eheim 600 Compact (150 - 600ml variable) and plumbed that in instead of the 1250 Eheim. Should really have started with lower flow!.

Balling was spot on from day 1.

I dosed Balling Light solutions: 75ml/ day Alk. 25ml/ day Cal and 15ml / day Mag. I added the trace solutions to the Calcium, but my Fluoric additive had brown bits in it, so I didn't use it. You may recall I had a problem with sell by dates being out on all my solutions and Claude was going to replace the organic ones. However, the trace solutions apparently don't have a sell by date and should have been fine..... except my Fluoric one is not right..... I'm still waiting for the replacements. I gather they are now about to be sent........

My Balling params have been fine. Alk:8.0. Ca 410. Mag 1310. and haven't budged. I've been testing daily to every 2-3 days whilst setting up.....

OK, so since I changed the Grotech reactor pump, my Monti has perked up.... this is a fairly sensitive test in my tank that all is well... or better than before!. It's still not right tho'...

I have 500ml of Ultralith about 200-250ml/hour flow in the reactor.
I was dosing 1.5ml BAK and MinS and 5 drops /day for the first 2 weeks. I then dropped this after discussion with Claude to 3 drops BIO and 1.5ml BAK/ MinS.

I started getting a slightly greenish (as opposed to brownish) algae deposit on the glass, so I dropped BAK and MinS to 1.0ml / day each last week and no BIO (3rd week).

I lost a small acan frag due to recession. a bottle brush acro has some necrosis on the tips only. A nice favia has suffered though, with a fair bit of recession. In the areas of recession, I have Cyano deposits... but not too much elsewhere in the tank.

So reading things through, I thought that I should keep 500ml Ultralith with 200ml/hour flow, drop the BAK to 1ml and increase the MinS back to 1.5ml /day... that is what I did and posted yesterday.

So, I am starting week 4 today. BIO is due back on.
I checked params just now

Alk 8.0
Ca 410
Mg 1310
Ph 8.3

Nitrate 50.
Phos 0.045
:confused:

I thought Phos was close to zero last week and week before.
Nitrates did dip to around 30 last week/ week before.

So now I'm a bit lost.... I was expecting lower and lower readings, not higher!.

Since params were better (slightly) last week, I'm guessing the stopping of BIO may have reduced the Bacterial load and thus the ability to de-phos and de-nitrify?. I don't know if things would react that quickly though?. ie stopping BIO.

Or

Is it just that I have a bad batch of solutions and the system is just not working and my nitrate and phos are slowly just creeping up?.....

BUT

Something must be happening though as my corals felt a hit when starting wth the 1250 Eheim and certainly feel happier with the reduced flow of the 600 Eheim.

So, how to proceed???....

I'm thinking to keep going with the recommended 1 drop/ 100l ie 5 drops BIO, to get the bacterial load up again ( assuming they had dropped off... may be wrong there... This was reduced to 3 drops week 2) and slightly reduced BAK at 1ml and increased MinS at 2ml ( or should I go even higher?). I should also do Powertrace 1-4 and maybe Ultraorganics and Ultra Amin too.... all to give a power boost to my corals ( and maybe arrest/ reverse the necrosis/ recession), but reduce the hit on the corals by not overstimulating the bacterial / Ultralith load (BIO/BAK).

I am HEAVILY overskimming the system with the 300 Bubbleking, so should be able to remove any excessive nutrients that the additional solutions add........

What I don't know is

1. Are my soultions ok?. Claude did say they would be fine. Can the BIO go off... that was a fresh bottle with no probs as far as I know.

2. Why my Phos and Nitrates are still high???

3. Is it just too soon for the parameters to drop and do some systems just take a while to drop down??

4. I feel I'm getting to know what I should be doing, but most seem to be having a rapid decline in Phos and NItrates. Do some people retain phos and Nitrates for a while??... is anyone out there who took a few months to drop their nitrates?.

I must say that I have a fairly heavy fish load though.....lots of tangs!!. So that's why I went for the monster skimmer.

5. If I add all the additional solutions at this time, will there be any stimulus to drive a Cyano reaction in the tank?..... I don't want Cyano to suddenly take over the tank..... What is it that causes cyano outbreaks when dosing BAKS/Mins?

6. Just a separate thought. Do people who have very low nutrients established have problems acclimatizing new SPS to such a system?.... ie SPS that has not been so nutrient deprived before, or do they just acclimatize and have no problems?....

Sorry for the long one..... learning lots as I go along.

Thanks
Mo

[AQD_ottawa]

Hiya

Can you drop me an email to sales@aqua-digital.com

I am going to get claude to support your directly by phone as your system is quite complex and you need direct instruction.

Regards
Michael

[schwenkl]

Feeling left out Michael...

No DSB or mud use with Ultralith, so still keep the refugium and how about the Cheto?

Parameters: Sg 35ppt, Ca 420ish, Mg 1260ish, Ak 8-11?

5 to 10% water change every week for the duration or long term? Been doing weekly 15% anyway and don't have to dose anything. Would prefer 10% weekly than I can do all my tanks with my new water change bucket build......

Mature water of freshest batch?

One bottles of wine or two when I do water changes?

Obviously, drop any other C dosing?

Still use Phyto to keep a strong Pod population or the system takes care of it?

Appropriate for mainly LPS tank or overkill?

How stringent is the daily? That is my last struggle as I will not always be able to do unless it as easy to regiment to others like feeding....

[AQD_ottawa]

Claude will respond asap as in more his line of support ;)

[Moser]

Claude,
I know you're having a busy time.
I decided to dose the following (500L net vol):

BIO: 3 drops/day
BAK: 1 ml/ day
MINS: 2.5ml/ day
To try and boost the feeding to the corals and cut back slightly on the bacterial load and nutrient export.

I also dosed 2.5ml of each Powertrace today.

Is this reasonable?. This is week 4 of dosing, so I thought reasonable to start the Powertrace.

I didn't use AMIN or ORGANICS as worrried about use by date gone 9 months over....

I think the Powertrace are at a realtively low dose compared to recommended dose.

I will add in 250ml Ultralith to the reactor this weekend. Total then will be 750ml at start of week5. I wonder if I do need to wash the stones before adding them, or is it ok to add straight in to the reactor ?...

I am running 100ml UltracarbL. I am due to increase to 250ml next week.

Thanks
Mo

[C. Schuhmacher]

Hi Mo

Yes at the moment it is really stresful :-(

Take Bio 3 drops / 500 Liter every 3 days
BAK MINS ok
Powertrace add

1 50 %
2 100 %
3 100 %
4 50 %

of the main dose 10ml/100Liter/week

let Ultracarb running and wash out the ultralith before using
greets claude

[Moser]

Thanks Claude
Hope things get better for you quickly...
re Ultralith
Should I continue the BIO 3drops every 3 days for 1 week and then back to 3drops /day (as per manual), or just stick with 3 drops every 3 days until further notice? ..........

The Power trace volumes per week work out to
1 25ml
2 50ml
3 50 ml
4 25ml

Is it ok to dose these volumes in one go, or is it better to dose small amounts per day?... also, can I enlarge the hole in each bottle to take RO tubing and dose them with my GHL doser?. This won't make the solutions go off would it? I have a metre of tubing between dosing pump and sump, so a small volume will remain in the tubing between dosings.

Interestingly, I dosed these doses earlier ( before I saw your reply).
3 drops BIO
1ml BAK
2.5ml MINS
2.5ml each Powertrace

I decided to check Phosphates. I took a sample from the sump and it tested zero phosphates!!..... I then thought it might be due to the dosings that I just made and so took a sample from the tank..... 0.08.

This would suggest to me that the system is working, but the tank must have a depot of Phosphates/ nutrients. This will probably take a while to reach equilibrium overall and drop nutrients sufficiently. Some of the rock is from an old system and I wonder whether I'm getting some nutrient leaching?.

I will take your dosing advice. Please let me know how long I should continue the 3 drops BIO every 3 days for.

Thanks
Mo

[Hookup]

Hi there, I'm looking for a SIMPLIFIED ramp-up (startup) using the basic kit that I just got yesterday (from ottawainverts.com). Read the manual but I'm to slow to understand... I keep reading it but I just do not see the clear picture... sometimes I need to be treated like I'm 10yrs old...

I have an 250gal / 800L system, but it's weird. 90gal in the display, and 175gal sump... I know.. odd, but so am I.. :) I'm trying to figure out the ramp-up and "run-mode"...

Going to keep searching forums and the web to see what else I can find that will -click- for me...

Thanks

[Hookup]

Found the next thread in this forum... i'm sorry I didnt look into the forum more before posting... Embarrassed...

[AQD_ottawa]

hey

dont worry why not give me a call tomorrow you are only local ;)

email me for my number

[Moser]

A little update on my system. 500L.

I had the RTN on my Plating Monti and lost my favia due to too high a flow in the Ultralith Reactor.....
With Nitrates at 25+, I thought the supplied Eheim 1250 would be ok.... probably not!.

I changed the pump to 400L/H. I reduced dosing on 17 Dec 08 as suggested.
My doses since then have been

BIO 3 drops twice a week. Skimmer off for 2 hours on those days.
BAK 1ml/day
MinS 2.5ml/day
GHL Pump
Balling Ca/Mg/Alk.... all stable 480/1320/8.0, with very little change over 2 months.
PowerTrace 1 3.5ml
PT2 7ml
PT3 7ml
PT4 3.5ml

I have still not received UltraAmin or UltraOrganics.
I now have 1.25L stones in the reactor.
250ml CarbL in a reactor.

My Monti's are recovering very well and look healthier, with nice growing edges..... The previously necrotic areas will take a little while to cover over again!. The rest of the tank is looking better.

I must add that I switched out Aquaray LED's and replaced with 3 x 250W Giesemann MH 20,000K. at the same time as starting the ULNS and the tank looked instantly better, with much better polyp extension and acan coloration.

I've tried not to measure Phos and Nitrates too much as I think they would very gradually come down and as long as the other parameters are stable (which they are) no crisis.

My Nitrates are a stable 50 since starting ULNS ( they were 25-30). My stocking is moderate to high with Tangs.I feed once a day.
I have massive flow, 2x 20000L/h Tunze's and a 6.5m3 Red Dragon return. Some of my rock is from an old system, but much of it was farily freshly matured.

My phos since stopping the reactor and switching to UltraCarbL in it are now steadily going UP!. I checked phos on my new Hanna meter. it was 0.08 a few weeks ago. It is now 0.13 !. It was zero before removing the Rowaphos.

I have some nice SPS in the tank now. I think the colors are fairly good, but I wonder whether they are just strating to brown out a tiny bit..... not unexpected with my phos and Nitrate levels.

So:

Can I add some Ultraphos to the UltracarbL in the reactor to help get the phos down a little. Is it safe to mix the two?

What dosings should use for the additives now?

I know of several people using ULNS who have phos that crept up
after starting and several who restarted Rowaphos.

There are also some that run ULNS and keep some phos remover going (even though they are not supposed to).

What happens if you do restart Phos remover?. Will ULNS stop working?. Will it actually help as the phos drops to near zero and allows the ULNS to mop up the rest??

Some people switch from one ULNS system to another and find one or other works for their system. 2 months is prob too soon, but is it recommended to try a switch if one system doesn't work, or is it better to be very patient.

Does the fact that some of the solutions were out of date actually matter?... Claude said not for the inorganic solutions. I am still waiting Organic replacements.

Thanks
Mo
PS I have to clean my glass daily.... brown alge, occasionally a green algae. No white films ever.


I have been dosing <a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13964393#post13964393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Moser
Thanks Claude
Hope things get better for you quickly...
re Ultralith
Should I continue the BIO 3drops every 3 days for 1 week and then back to 3drops /day (as per manual), or just stick with 3 drops every 3 days until further notice? ..........

The Power trace volumes per week work out to
1 25ml
2 50ml
3 50 ml
4 25ml

Is it ok to dose these volumes in one go, or is it better to dose small amounts per day?... also, can I enlarge the hole in each bottle to take RO tubing and dose them with my GHL doser?. This won't make the solutions go off would it? I have a metre of tubing between dosing pump and sump, so a small volume will remain in the tubing between dosings.

Interestingly, I dosed these doses earlier ( before I saw your reply).
3 drops BIO
1ml BAK
2.5ml MINS
2.5ml each Powertrace

I decided to check Phosphates. I took a sample from the sump and it tested zero phosphates!!..... I then thought it might be due to the dosings that I just made and so took a sample from the tank..... 0.08.

This would suggest to me that the system is working, but the tank must have a depot of Phosphates/ nutrients. This will probably take a while to reach equilibrium overall and drop nutrients sufficiently. Some of the rock is from an old system and I wonder whether I'm getting some nutrient leaching?.

I will take your dosing advice. Please let me know how long I should continue the 3 drops BIO every 3 days for.

Thanks
Mo

[ReefRockerLive]

Moser, I would restart the PO4 remover starting with 50% of your usual amount. Add the remaining 50% after the first month, you should then see those PO4 levels drop slowly. During this time, slightly increase your UltraBak dosage to 2ml per day. The increase in Bak dosage should result in helping to further reduce both PO4 and NO3. Mixing UltraPhos and UltraCarb L will not pose as a problem in a reactor.

Here are your new dosages:

UltraBio - 5 drops twice a week
UltraMin S - 2.5ml daily
UltraBak - 2.0ml daily

From my experience, running UltraPhos with the UltraLith system did not cause harm to the coral. I believe that the reason why it is not recommended is because UltraBak also removes PO4 and with the addition of GFO, it may strip the PO4 to fast and cause damage. IMO, UltraLith tanks with a heavy bio load in fish may do better with the aid of UltraPhos.

2 months of running the system is too soon to tell if the system has worked for you or not. The system does indeed work, but depending on how nutrient rich the tank was prior to running UltraLith determines how soon results will show.

Most products are good up to 2 years from opening date. Disregard the use by date on the bottle. If I'm not mistaken, these dates are a requirement in order to have them shipped internationally. You will know when a product is no good due to a strong odor similar to rotten eggs.

RRL

[Moser]

Thanks,

Exactly what Claude had said about the solutions.
I thought it might be the case with Po4 remover and luckily I had bought some, just in case.

One thing I was worried about was running too much BAK as my corals did suffer when i started up. I lost a favia and an acan frag..... I think that was solely due to too much flow through the reactor though.

Thanks for advice. I will follow and report back. I am kind of expecting a long process for the results.

I am about to set up a 6ftx8ftx3ft tank.... in a couple of months and wanted to try the system on my smaller tank to get the hang of it.

I took the phos reactor off as soon as I hit zero with phos remover, but it seems sensible to re-start and get it slowly back down. Is Ultraphos good enough, or should I be thinking about powerphos?......

I think by the time I mature my BIG system, there wikll be so much volume that my nutrients will drop anyway!. I will link the 2 systems and run Ultralith from the start of the big tank.

1 thing i am going to check is a samle right out of the reactor flow. That should test how well the ultralith system is working.... ie the diff in nutrient levels between tank and reactor.

I am thinking of adding the Amin and the Organics.... are you running all of those too?

Thanks for advice.
Mo

[ReefRockerLive]

Hi, either UltraPhos or PowerPhos will do, the only difference is that one is Aluminum Based and the other is Iron based respectively.

Adding Amin and Organic to the cocktail of dosages would be an excellent idea. I am running what your running plus Amin and Organic and excellent results show. For you though, I would hold off until you can first get your tank parameters stabilized, take one step at a time and give it about 2-3 weeks.

RRL

[Moser]

Thanks

I thought I'd get Phos down and see how the corals are before moving to the next stage.

I wasn't sure whether Powertrace replaced the Organics or not... I was guessing it would be ok to dose all.... thanks for the confirmation..... Didn't want to over burden the system with dosing too many things.

I know to go slow from initial experiences!!.

I have started 2ml BAK from today. and will dose 5 drops BIO tomorrow. The rest stay ISQ.

Thanks!

Mo

[AQD_ottawa]

Just keep a close check on your nutrients, as you increase the Bak the nutrients can drop off quick, you do not want to get into a yo-yo effect, so follow Vinny's advise to the letter and all things will be great.

Ultra lith is just about finding the balance for each individual system, once found the users see results with coral growth and colour never seen or able to see without its use.

Claude informs me Organic is good for LPS predominant systems and Amin and Power Traces for SPS predominant. But as above follow what Vinny advises and soon you too will have a system of envy ;)

[Moser]

Thanks Guys

Mo

[Moser]

I wish I could start the Ultra Organics and the Ultra Amin, but it's been 3 months since Claude promised me replacement solutions for all of the out of date solutions I was sold first time.

I was about to switch to KZ last week, but decided to get the Dendro system and buy some new Ultra Amin as I had given up the idea that FM would ever send me new solutions!!.

So, I just bought the Dendro system and guess what?.. the new Ultra Amin stink of rotten eggs too!!!....

I've spent nearly 300 GBP on this system, with half the solutions stinking and out of date. I've yet to see replacements. I have 3 out of date UltrAmin bottles. Iodine Fluoric that has brown bits floating in it, so I have never even dosed it.

This is my last attempt before I go to KZ, becasue of false promises from FM.

BTW, my Nitrates are now back to 50 from 80 ( but is it the reduction in feeding or the Ultralith?) and my phos reads 0.06, but was that the small amount of Rowaphos I used or the Ultralith?......
In fact alot of the SPS are looking very healthy, so I kind of reduced checking the nitrates.... I'm sure nutrient depots are slowly being used up now and I just started a new bottle of UltraMINS.

BUT..... there is no excuse for a 3 month wait on a 1 week promise......

Any support would be most welcome.....

[AQD_ottawa]

You are in the UK so we can not help direct, but I do not understand why you did not get your dealer to replace them, that is what they are there for.

Anyway - the distributor in the UK was asked many times to send this to you. I will ask claude to send it direct, he thought they had :(

In future if you have a product issue with anything you buy no matter what it is, the fastest route is back to where you purchased it. Sadly trying to get something resolved publically through a forum based in the USA when you are in the UK is never going to be the most stress free route.

if you want to go down the forum route, then maybe go to the UK site uR I think you know it.

Hope that helps. :)

[Moser]

Thanks.

I hope this will stimulate the dispatch of a parcel finally after 3 months and about 15 emails, with 5 promises of "delivery tomorrow- promised". The dealer only had the out-of-date solutions, so I had to get them replaced "Centrally" anyway and I only had direct correspondence with FM DE.

In response: Sadly, the most stress free route to getting my products after 3 months was through a forum based in the US.

It seems they are doing what it says on the tin as my corals seem to be looking healthier now and colours are starting to show through. Nutrient levels are yet to drop low, but If all goes according to plan, my nutrients should start to go low in the next month or two, just in time for starting ULNS on the 1000gal tank.

To be honest, I would have just bought new solutions if I had known it was going to take this long. But all is well that ends well.