Hello! Newbie Ultralith Questions

[aep]

Hi. Just started using ultralith.

Tank setup - Mixed LPS (acans, euphyllia, flavia, open brain, maze turbinara etc)
Mixed soifties, leathers, muchrooms, Zoanthids, button poylips, xenia & sponges.

few fish - 6 of them

Tank is 220ltrs, external canister - just running LR rubble & Phos remover, MCE600 skimmer, 6x24W T5's. 2 Koralia 3's & Vortech & Carbon (also in skimmer)

Params all good except high nitrates (around the 40 mark)

had lith in for 2 weeks in the skimmer media chamber, just started dosing Bak, Bio & MinS.

Bio - 4 drops
Bak - .7ml
MinS - .4ml


since I have been doing this my blue sponge has lost all colour, everything else looks okay, Has this killed the sponge? is there anything else in my ststem that may be incompatable?

Are my dosing levels about right?

Thanks

[AQD_ottawa]

Claude can advise further on the dosing.

[C. Schuhmacher]

Hi

How many Ultralith you use
if you reduce the nutrients it will be normal that blue sponges can lost some color

Reduce the Ultra Bio and incrase the Min S to 1 ml

Greets Claude

[aep]

Thanks AQD - Was told to keep MinS low at the start due to the high nitrates, then increase as the nitrates drop.

Claude - Any comments

Thanks!

[AQD_ottawa]

we need to know how much Ultra lith you are using, this is important then step by step complete support after this

[AQD_ottawa]

Here is a helpful short hand manual I think this will help you a lot to get going on the right track

Here is a simple step by step guide mainly based around 400L or 100 gallons of tank water. When calculating your own volume please decrease by 20% to take into account displacement of sand and rocks etc.

To start
• Use 250ml of Ultra Lith per 400L of water as an initial start up
• Increase by 250ml every two weeks until you have reached 1L capacity per 400L of water
• After 4-6 weeks exchange 50% of the Ultra Lith. Repeat this 4-6 week 50% cycle from now on
• Clean (shake) the Ultra Lith daily, for best results utilise an Ultra Lith reactor, this makes life so much easier.

Initial dosing from start up

Dose as follows

Ultra Bio
• Dose 1 drop per 100L of water per day for the first two weeks
• Week 3 do not dose
• Repeat after 1 week break
• Turn skimmer off for 2 hours when dosing.

Note – after initial set up it is only required to dose as above when changing the Ultra Lith media.

Ultra bak and Ultra Min S
• Dose 3ml per 1000L of water every day of each until nutrients have dropped significantly then reduce dosing to 1ml a day of each.

Continued use.
• Repeat Ultra Bio dosing schedule when replacing media every 4-6 weeks.
• Dose Ultra Min S and Ultra Bak 1ml a day per 1000L of water keeping check on your parameters.
• It is now advisable to be adding trace elements such as Ultra organic this is key to colouration. Dose as instructed on the bottle.
• You can also use Ultra organic with Ultra Amin to achieve very bright colouration
• I recommend using Ultra carb L also this is important for removing the yellow tannins from the water.

[aep]

Ah we posted at the same time! I will add more MinS now!

I have 250g ultralith - Was going to increase to 500 and move into a reactor tomorrow.

Would this dose be about right:

2 drops Bio, 1ml MinS & .6 Bak

Should this be about right?

Do you think the sponge will get any colour back - its gone completly white.

[AQD_ottawa]

Yes sounds about right.

It is likely the sponge will come back, the nitrate level will take much of the colour away, once you have this down then colour should come back.

[aep]

UPADATE!!! I now have a reactor & 500g of media, 250g 2 weeks old 250g new :) now its 1am in the uk and I am going to bed!

I also added another .7 of MinS to bring that upto the 1ml

Thanks for your help

[AQD_ottawa]

continue to add 2ml of bio directly to the media for 2 weeks then break for a week.

[aep]

Will do! Thanks for the help and advice.

[aep]

Claude - If you are there! Asked on UR but the site is down.... You said that I over dosed which caused the sponge to loose colour. What did I OD on?

Also, What do I actaully test for to see the nutrient levels drop? Nitrates are still the same. everything else seems the same.

Thanks

[aep]

Another question! Though one of you recomended adding trace elements now, cant see in the post above - Maybe I am going mad! Should I start this now. If so what do you recomend?

Thanks

[AQD_ottawa]

Hi

let your system stabilise for a few weeks then add Ultra Organic, this is the easiest one to use and gives great contrallable results

[aep]

Thanks AQD.