UltraLith.com Forum - Blogs

Ultralith - Prima Esperienza - 1.00

matteo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:15:03 GMT

A seguire il racconto dettagliato della partenza del sistema Ultralith su una vasca da 300 litri di acqua effettiva con sistema di automazione plc zelio.

Lo spazio sar� utilizzato per descrivere l'esperienza da zero del sistema e contribuir� alla relizzazione di un importante database di informazioni delle rispettive esperienze degli altri membri, paragoni differenze e soprattutto consigli.

Vi aspetto tutti per questa nuova avventura.

Zeovit????? No grazie!!!!

Matteo D'Ascanio

Labman 194

labman — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:26:40 GMT

I have a 194 Gallon tank 72lx24wx26h 2 vortechs 50 gallon rubbermaid sump ATI BM200 skimmer I use Seachem reef salt I started this blog here mainly to document my progress with using Ultra Algae X to hopfully rid my tank of Bryopsis

:fluch:

2-2-08

jmuzzey — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:27:59 GMT

Tonight I added 500g more ultralith media to the reactor. I am now running 1000g of the zeolith. Starting tomorrow, I will be reducing the ultra bio to 4 drops, but still dosing 1.5ml of bak and 2ml. of min s. I am reducing the bio because the directions say after the first month, reduce the bio to one drop for every 200l.

I still have a little snot algae, but it seems like everything is becoming more stable right now. There is no new spots of algea, and it does not seem to be spreading at all.

My parameters that I tested tongiht are:
Calcium - 455ppm
Alkalinity- 7.4 dkh
Magnesium - 1600ppm

The Mg is high, and I am not sure why. I have had a few more snails die over the last week, and was not sure why. Now I think I know why. High Mg seems to kill snails. I have added no Mg supplements, but did do a 25g water change a week ago. If you remember, I was dosing Mg to try to get rid of what I thought was bryopsis. It wasn't, so I stopped. I was/am going to let it drop naturally, but I thought it would drop faster, as it always has in the past. Does teh ultra min s have Mg in it? or one of the other parts of the system? Just wondering why it is not dropping yet.

Everything in the tank is doing very well for the most part. The corals are growing fast, great polyp extension, and very good colors. I just wish I could get my ballast back from coral vue so i could start running 3 lights again. I am still moving the lights daily so everything gets light on one day or another. Kind of frustrating, but it needs to be done right now. Until next time, Happy reefing!

1-27-08

jmuzzey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:12:57 GMT

I have been dosing the same amounts lately. But tonight I lowered my dose of ultr bak to 1ml, and the ultra min s to 1.5ml. I am thinking of lowering the min s to 1ml if I keep seeing algea growth. I am still getting the same slimy algea growing on different parts of the rock, mostly in places where there is less flow. Little nooks and crannies, and at the edges of caves and holes.

I do not know what is causing it, as I have cut back on feeding to an extent. I still feed twice a day, but less amounts, and have cut back on the rods food to once every two to three days.

I did stir up some sand 2 days ago, and have noticed that this morning there was a slight brown covering to that section of sand now. Seems like diatoms or something, maybe the start of cyanobacteria.

The grape caulerpa and the cheato are still growing well in the refugium. I am also getting some sort of macro growth on the rockrock in the display tank. The macro in the display is not bothersome to me, it is an algea though that I have never seen before. It looks like little tufts of spikes, kind of brown or maroon, only half inch tall or so. I would rather have some kind of macro algea than dinoflagellates, or a diatom bloom, or cyano. If the algeas get worse, I will cut back more on the dosing.

In the next week or so, I will be adding more ultralith to the reactor, bumping it from the 500g to 1000g. It will be my one month mark. I will also take some water to DLC to have it tested. That way I can compare my test results to theirs. Until then, if anyone has any advice or ideas about the algea, let me know. I am hoping it is normal, from the tank adjusting to the new parameters, and from me finding what the right dosage amounts will be for my system. I am not doing anything crazy, just going to let things run their course. Thanks for reading, happy reefing,:thumbup:
Jay

1-24-08

jmuzzey — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:04:06 GMT

Here is a full tank shot. I am still without one of my lights, hopefully I will get the new ballast within a week or two, so the middle of the tank was dark when I took this photo. I have to find a way to shade out the brightness of the lights so it does not drown out the corals. Anyone have any ideas how to keep the tank lit up but yet have the brightness not show up in the photos? Any advice would be appreciated.

Here is the left side.

Here is the right side.

Also, I am starting to get what looks like cyano or a browning of the sand in a couple spots. I have never had this before in my tank. Is the tank just getting used to the ultralith? How long does it take for the tank to balance out? Or is it always different? Just wondering if anyone else has had this stuff happen to their tanks while introducing ultralith to the system?

I have not done a water change in 3 weeks, so I am going to do a 25gallon water change tonight. I normally do it every ten days, but I have been busy and lazy lately. :uglyhammer:

Existing Livestock

AlanM — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:35:50 GMT

Enough about the system - what's it all there for? Ah, livestock, better list that then.

Fish:

2 clownfish and 13 green chromis

Motile Inverts:

2 cleaner shrimps, 2 peppermint shrimps, a handfull of red legged and blue legged hermits, a couple of handfulls of snails of various types

Corals:

Large sarcophyton sp
sinularia
and a few different SPS frags to try and see if they like the lighting and flow, just a bunch of prunings from a local reefer but they do appear to be getting on and growing so not all bad.

I'll edit this later to do a better coral list.

Startup parameters

AlanM — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:31:04 GMT

What readings did I start with...

NO3 - 0.2ppm, Salifert test kit looking through the side get's it almost as tinted as the 2.

PO4 - < 0.08ppm, Merck and Salifert at x4 both agree that it's hovering about the 0.08ppm but not quite there. I have been experimenting with using the salifert kit in the merck tubes. 20ml gets you a depth which is about x4 the normal depth for the salfert kit.

Ca - 420ppm, Salifert
Alk - 8.4dkh, Salifert
Mg - 1300ppm, Salifert

NH4, NO2 - minute trace

So, in terms of NO3 and PO4 there isn't much room to play with so it will be interesting to see what else the ULNS can do with the system

ULNS details

AlanM — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:24:11 GMT

And then in the sump is the Grotech ZF110 reactor currently in startup phase, following the 3 on / 3 off cycle.

In it is 500g of UltraLith with a flow rate of about 200lph.

Once a day the skimmer is turned off for two hours about an hour before lights out, it's manually stopped but automatically restarted, one of those arrow button program things on the Aquatronica.

After the skimmer is stopped I dose phyto into the sump return section so it's spread over the tank, and UltraBio goes into the main sump section where the ULNS reactor sits.

And also dosed is UltraBAK, this is done through the Aquatronica dosing pump. As on my system I estimate I need between 0.8ml and 2ml I have diluted the UltraBAK with RO so that a good amount needs to be dosed daily and that it's spread through the day. At the moment I have diluted 10ml of UltraBAK with 990ml of RO, so 1:100. Then I am dosing 100ml/day, so in effect 1ml/day and dosing in 0.01ml amounts.

Current Details

AlanM — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:59:06 GMT

Well, best place to start is the system to which I am adding the ultralith.

The display tank is a Juwel Trigon 350, that is the quadrent style tank with the curved front with a radius of about 85cm (just under three foot).

There is a weir which goes across the back corner to to create a triangular section and from there the water flows down into the sump. The sump is a 200L braceless tank on the other side of the wall in the garage. There is about 100L of water in the sump, part of it is partitioned off as an RO store, and on the rest the water level is less that full height.

In the sump is a Deltec APF600, currently pump fed but will be moved over to being gravity fed. I also have an AP850 which I may use instead, however space is a bit tight and so that may no happen.

About to be turned off in the next few days is a fluidised reactor with RowaPhos, it will be changed to containing carbon instead as I currently don't have any in the system.

1-22-08

jmuzzey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:22:54 GMT

Well, it has been a little bit since I posted. Sorry about the delays, but I am back to work and working some long days.

I tested and wrote down all my water parameters. Here they are:

Alk-using Salifert test kit: 8.3 DKH
Calcium-using Salifert test kit: 380ppm
Ph-using pinpoint Ph monitor: 7.73-7.77
Temp: 78 F
salinity- 1.026
Phosphates: 0 using red sea test kit. I do not think it is accurate.

In a couple of weeks, I will be making a trip out to Dark Lord Corals, and will take a water sample with me to be tested by them.

With the corals growing larger, they are using up calcium rather quickly. I used to be able to maintain a calcium level of 430 to 450ppm, and am struggling to get it to 400ppm. I am using kalkwasser for all top off, along with dosing Seachem reef advantage calcium.

I calibrated my Ph probe 4 weeks ago, and it has been steady the whole time. I not pay too much attention to the numbers, as much as how stable the numbers are and have been. there have been no large swings in my Ph.

I took a whole mess of photos. I will post a few of them here.

Here is a close up of the super blue vermiculata showing the awesome polyp extension I am getting.

More awseom extension and color from the polyps on this Acropora granulosa:

This acropora is growing and coloring up nicely. I can not remember the name of it, I iwll find it and let you know later if you want.

This is my chips acro. Once again, great color and extension. this has always been a "hairy" coral, but it seems like the polyps are stretching out to get at something. Just awesome.

a couple mroe to follow.......

not a good week...

jmuzzey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:22:52 GMT

Well, I am back to work finally, which is good news, as it has been slow for me, but in a matter of three days, my xbox 360 got the red ring of death, so it has to be shipped back to microsoft. Then my ballast, which is only a couple months old burnt out, and has to be shipped back to the manufacturer tobe fixed or replaced, so a third of my tank is in the dark everyday now. I am switching my lights over so each day it is a different section that is dark. Just kind of sucks.......

Then I noticed the nasty snot algea starting in the tank. It is only in 3 small spots, but it is there. It has not gone away yet, and that brings me to my question. I have fauna marin ultra phos in a phosban reactor and it is due for a changing. Do I put new media in it? or take it offline?

The ultra lith is supposed to help remove phosphates, and I do not want to bleach out the coral, so I just do not know what I should do. If anyone has any information on what they think I should do, please post in the comment section or send me a private message. I do not have a "good" phosphate test, only a standard hobbiest test kit, and it shows zero, but always has shown zero phosphates. So I know it is not accurate. I am running fresh carbon, which was changed out last night, and I change every 10 days. Any thoughts or comments?

Jay

1-13-08

jmuzzey — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:30:55 GMT

Hello again all,
I went out to Dark Lord Corals today and bought a 3L ultra lith reactor. Trying to use a phosban reactor just doesn't work right, and is a real pain to shake or agitate the media properly.

I hooked it up tonight and have it running in my sump. I still have the 500g of media in it, and I am letting it just basically spill right back into the sump. No plumbing really other than a 90 degree elbow at the outlet to prevent splashing and a bunch of salt creep. So the 90 allows the water to come out below the water level, no splashing or bubbles. Mixing the media is very easy to do now.

I have been dosing the same amounts, 8 drops of ultra bio, 1.5ml of ultra bak, and 2ml of ultra min s.

Today I noticed soemthing though that I did not like. I had a couple small spots that appear to be dinoflagelettes(sp?) in my display tank. I have never had it appear in my display, but I have in the past had it in my sump. I got over it and all was well.

When starting the ultra lith system, I turned off my uv sterilizer, so I am hoping this did not effect anything negatively. According to the manual that comes with the Ultra lith system, it says that if you notice a green film appearing on the rocks or glass, to cut back on the ultra min s, being that it is a potent concentrate of coral food, and too much of it will/can cause an algea outbreak. So I did not dose the ultra min s tonight.

I do not know if that was the cause, or if it is something else. I had over the last 2 months raised my Mg to 1600ppm, trying to get rid of what I thought was bryopsis. I kept it that high for only two weeks, and realized I did not have bryopsis, it is a similiar looking algea, that is known as fern algea. Other than manual removal and low nutrients, I do not know of any other way to get rid of it. It does not look bad, but it does spread rapidly, and can attach itself to coral tissue and choke out the coral. Anyways, during this time of high Mg, the only thing that it affected was the snails. I started to lose astrea snails in the tank, so I let the Mg drop on its own. I also did my regular weekly 20 gallon water changes.

I do not know if the stress from the high Mg is causing this now, but over the last two days, I lost three more snails that were about an inch or so in size. My Mg has been back to 1360ppm for a couple weeks now, so I do not know if they died from stress, from natural causes, or not sure. I can not say starvation, due to a film that is constant on the back wall of the tank. It is the bright green film that I always brush off the viewing glass with a mag float. The slimy dinos was appearing near where the dead snails were laying. So maybe it was the decaying carcasses that caused it, or the ultra min s, or I am not sure.

I want to make sure I get it under control, and get rid of it as soon as I can. Other than that though, the corals are all doing very good, with great polyp extension. I have a small red milli frag that is starting to grow like mad. It will be fun to watch this frag grow up and color up.

Well, that is all for today, I will probably take more photos next weekend, or the following weekend. I want photos every two or 3 weeks to see how things are going. Happy reefing all,
Jay

1-8-08

jmuzzey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:58:14 GMT

Well, I took some pics today of individual corals. Once again, tehya re not the best, but will work for what I am doing. I dosed tonight the same as yesterday, 8 drops ultra bio, 1.5ml ultra bak, and 2 ml ultra min s.

I did do it a little differently though. I dosed the display tank rather than the sump. I have my skimmer running in from the sump, and without turning it off, I am afraid it is sucking some of the doses out of the system before they have a chance to do their work. So I figured I owuld dose the display and see what happened. I know results are not overnight, and take time to be seen, but I did notice something.

Within a minute or so of dosing, Half of the polyps on my acroporas closed up. I do not know if they were angry, or taking in food from the ultramin s or ultra bak. But about 15 minutes later, almost all polyps were back to being extended, along with some longer tentacles coming out of the tips, more than normal. I do not know if they were messenterial filaments, or jsut greater polyp extension reaching for food. It was interesting though to see. If anyone else has experience with this, can you offer an explanation on what it may be?

Here a some photos.

This first one is a blue tort from YZ reef on the right, and an acropora ? from DLC on the left. They were bought recently at a fragswap. Not sure what kind of tort, maybe YZ will chime in, and not sure of species of acropora form DLC, maybe they know.

This an aquacultured coral I picked up from DLC last week. It is the newest addition and still on frag rack, not into display tank yet.

The front coral is the paletta blue acropora and the back is an uberfrags A. tenuis.

Super blue vermiculata

1-7-08

jmuzzey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:52:56 GMT

Here are 3 photos of my tank, showing left to right. The camera I used did not work out well for me, as there must be a smudge or something on the lens that is causing a blur on the laft side of every shot. I will borrow the dslr I was using last month, and get some better pics. I tried taking many to get some good ones, and really am not happy with any of them. This at least gives you an idea of my display tank. I have a lot of frags and small colonies, so tracking growth should be easy. I will take close up shots within the next day or so.

This is a full shot with lights going out from about a month ago.

Jay

Starting Ultra lith system 1-6-08

jmuzzey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:48:56 GMT

Hello all,

I thought I would start a blog to record the information and progression of my reef tank using the Ultra Lith system, which I am getting from Dark Lord Corals.

First, a little tank information. The display is a 125g AGA tank. That tank drains into the basement, where it goes into a 75g AGA tank turned into a sump. The display has a closed loop system, along with a korallia 4 and the main return for water movement. I am turning over roughly 5600 to 6000 gallons per hour. The korallia and closed loops(2 of them) are on a wave maker. I am running an octopus 200ddnw recirculating skimmer. I have 2 phosban reactors, one is now running the ultra lith until I get the ultra lith reactor, and the other has ultra power phos media in it.

I also have a remote deep sand bed, 35gallon, and it has grape caulerpa and cheato in it. I will see if this sand bed and macro algea survives, or if I end up taking it offline. I have read that since the ultralith makes the system very low on nutrients, the macro will not survive. If I notice a decline in growth, all I have to do is turn off a pump to take it offline. That is the nice thing about a remote bed.

So I have a total system volume of roughly 185 gallons, when you consider rock and sand displacement. My tank contains mostly Acroporas, Montiporas and a couple different LPS corals, such as frogspawn(2 of them), 2 acan lowdhowensis small colonies, a chalice, and a lobophyllia(brain). The tank is dominated by the sps corals though.

I have a yellow tang, a blue tang, a pair of saddleback clowns, a dragon goby, a lawnmower or algea blenny, a 6 line wrasse, and three evansi anthias. There are also 3 turbo snails, many red leg and blue leg hermits, astrea snails, stomelid (sp?)snails, and other small inverts. Basically the usual clean up crew.

Now to the ultra lith information. I started with 500g of the zeolite rock, per instructions, and will go up to 1000g after a month. 500g almost fills the phosban reactor, and there is not much room to be able to shake the media, so I will be getting the fauna marin reactor made for the system.

I added 14 drops of the ultra bio to the media itself in the reactor, and 8 drops to sump. I have always run a 40w uv sterilizer on my tank, and this had to be turned off. Well, of course, I forgot to turn it off, and noticed this morning, so after dosing the ultra bio, the uv stayed on 8 hours, and will now be turned off for good. I will leave it plumbed into my tank just in case it is needed at a future date. Since it was left on, I do not know if any of the bacteria survived, but I will be dosing 8 drops a day for the next two weeks.

I also added 1 1/2 ml of the ultra bak, and 2 ml of the ultra min s. This was added to the sump, near the return for the main tank, that way it will mix with all the water quickly. I always dose anything in an area with high water movement.

I will take some pictures of the tank today, a full tank shot, some closer more detailed pics of a couple corals, and a shot of the frag rack. I would like to update the photos every 2 weeks, to keep track of any color changes, polyp extension, and growth. I think this will all help show a detailed step by step on what the results of using ultra lith will be.

I am using 3 luminmax II pendants, with 400w 12k reeflux bulbs, with coralvue electronic ballast. The frags are under a sunlight supply pendant, not sure of model, and a 400w 10k hamilton se bulb. I currently use kalkwasser for all top off water, which is automated using a jbj controller and floats. I am hoping that between the strong lighting, high calcium, good husbandry, and using the ultra lith system, that I will get good growth with great color, and healthy livestock.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask, and I hope some of you will enjoy following along and seeing the progression.

Jay