Ultra Clam review thread
 

Hi

We are pleased to announce the first of a series of food reviews starting with the highly rated Ultra Clam.

Let the review begin ;)

I'm first up to bat. :biggrin:
Ok well got my trial stuff here today, all pumped, I know that all my milli's have PE which who's milli doesnt have PE. I do have a few acros that don't have the PE like I would like. Now I have dosed the first ammo acid in the tank of 2 ML. It calls for 3-5 ML for a tank that is 250 gal(1000L ) but since its the first time i opted for 2 ml since my tank is only 170 strong if that. so on with the testing and reviews I will try to take pictures of certain key corals that don't havethe PE so i dont bore you with all thses Pic's i will start taking the Pic' after the completed 2 days of trial's

Thanks again Mike for the Trials to test.

DEC 22/08
dosed 2ml of Ammo Acids.
mixing the clam food now. will target feed the tank tomorrow.

How many times do I add the Ammo Acids just in the morning I take it

Good move with the MinS as you are not running any extra bacteria such as Ultra Bak, keep checks on negative paremeters and algae so 2ml is fine.

Amino acid once a day ;)

whats PE?

Steve

Formerly known as Physical Education, I believe the more popular phrase now (at least among reefers) is Polyp Extension.

Cheers,

take your hand and hit your self Stircrazy.

well ok day 2
Dec 24/08

The amino acid supplied in the review was for the food not to dose in your tank, at the levels you are dosing directly into your tank you will see only slow changes and will take about two weeks

Supernatant is the stuff you accidently dosed into your system and threw the food away. ;)

Supernatant is the residue left from the paste after mixing, this can be mixed back in, if left overnight and you still have the residue mix it back in, this also is a sign you added too much minS

You got the directions from me :( maybe should of left you with the ones on the bottle, quite simple to follow, mix then leave in fridge basically.

The paste should be dispersed into the tank by putting in front of a power head, alternatively you can target feed.

This is day one for you after the mixing error so impossible to see results so early on. It will take 10 days to 14 days to see results of continual use, then you really will see results if used as directed.

If used as directed no your nutrients will not go up, however if you continue to use the MinS on its own to dose you tank as well then please watch your nutrients. This second part was not part of the review but am happy for you to continue with dosing your tank with the MinS as you will see results in polyp extension an colouration if used correctly.

Dosing recommendation for Clams and photosynthetic corals (Hard corals etc.):
Mix UltraClam and UltraMin S to a stiff MASH. Add as much UltraMin S until a small (1-2 mm) supernatant forms and leave standing the food over night. The next day the supernatant should have disappeared. Now add more UltraMin S until you have a small supernatant again, and leave the food standing for a few hours. You can store the food mix for about a week.
For every 1000 L (250 gal) add 5 - 10 ml of the food mix several times per day. To disperse the food, drop it slowly into the outlet of a pump. The total amount of food is depending on the nutrient concentration in the aquarium, the lower the nutrient concentration, the less food is necessary.

I wanna see some pictures!

What does the food smell like? Do you keep it in a sealed container in the fridge, or would something like plastic-wrap be sufficient?

A dealer in the USA that swears by this stuff, mixes a load up and rolls it into a sausage and then freezes it.

if you also want to try it as well, and also review it here please let me know

I'm debating it. Although things like this are a huge battle for me because I worry that its just one more thing to do every day. I'm really curious as to how this will play out. I think its a very interesting product from what I've read.

Hi catherine

As a clam lover I promise you it would not be something you would regret, if you wish I can put you in direct contact with our guy in Michigan that feeds all his imports on it. Also we have another clam lover in Ottawa that cant get enough of it. He was the first to try it, and has not looked back.

This is one product that does not need marketing hype, used correctly you WILL see results. :)

Do you know what kind of results people see? I think its something I will try, however it obviously has to wait until the new year. I'm very cautious about additives and such, a) 'cause I'm lazy and don't want to do daily dosing if I don't have to, and b) a lot of companies won't disclose what is in their products. Clearly though you guys don't fall into category b.

I'll definitely watch this thread for a couple of weeks and see what pops up. I usually do my dry goods ordering for the year in January, so maybe I'll add it to my list and see what happens.

The initial results appear within about 10 days these being greatly extended polyps and following on from that enhanced colouration.

Long term benefits are increased growth rates, desease fighting strength and for nearly imported clams, a much quicker recovery period.

When you say polyps are we talking SPS polyps?

Sorry, I was giving a broad range expectation, as the Ultra clam has MinS in it some of this will be absorbed by the SPS and you will see increased polyp extension and increased feeding activity from any filter feeder

A bit further advise from guys using it, they have seen greater results by cloud feeding and only feeding directly now and again, this then enables the whole tank to benefit from this fine filter food.

Ok i thinkI have this sorted out with the stuff pretty easy.
Dec 24- dosed 2 ml of Ammino Acid. first thing
made up some paste, ultra min clam food sucked out the blue liquid then dosed a bit in the tank. im only using around 1 ml every time I feed thou I dont want to over feed.
Dec 25 dosed Ammino Acids again
and fed 2 times with the clam food.
Dec 26 same thing. Noticed that hte huge Squamosa has a brighter color today , may be its just me.:biggrin:
Dec 27 going to take some pictures of the clams and the sps with their PE
on my Bule tip stag the PE is crazy to.

Just one question. Can I dose the Ammino 2 times per day say 1.5ml in the morning and 1.5 ml in the evening?
What happnens when you dose to much ammino acids to the tank.
Oh ya does the filter sock have anything negitive effects on the tank wil it catch all the food?

As expected it does not take too long to get results from this stuff ;)

Ok looks like we have two reviews in one here so will break them down seperate so not to confuse.

First the Ultra Clam - You are doing everything right, and the colouration you are seeing is not your imagination. Some mixing advise obtained from the big Clam keepers over the boarder, they mix the goo up, leave for 24 hours and then mix the surface residue back in, this makes a stronger mix and also gives even better results, so if you have been dont drain this off, just mix back in. You can make up sausage like amounts and freeze into feeding portions and defrost on use. I would stick to the amount you are feeding for now and just keep a close eye. You will know if you are over feeding as your nutrients will rise. As for the filter sock, if possible divert for 2 hours after feeding, if not, I am sure it will not have much of a negative effect.

Now the MinS - MinS is the first nutrient building block for the ultra Lith System, (Faunas Low nutrient system). As it is a strong amino supplement any tank fed with this will see big differences in polyp extension and also growth, colouration also to a degree, although the Ultra Amin and power traces provide higher colouration. Things to note when using MinS on its own is just nutrient levels, as you have not increased your bacterial activity to cater for this big positive shock, so again watch the levels and keep in mind you already are putting MinS in the system with the Ultra Clam.

Photos welcome.

Just one question. Can I dose the Ammino 2 times per day say 1.5ml in the morning and 1.5 ml in the evening?
What happnens when you dose to much ammino acids to the tank.
Oh ya does the filter sock have anything negitive effects on the tank wil it catch all the food?

HI

Yes you can dose it twice a day
and if you dose to much you will get a bacterial bloom greenish white on you glasses. If oyu add more then you see your corals turn into brownish coloration.

No the particles are to fine to catch by an filtersock
greets claude

ok 29Dec
dosing the amino 's in the morning and the afternoon all seems great so far the clams that i had doubt's about are coming along very nicely. will get pictures to follow when i cant get some good feeding pictures too..

the clam food it starting to work, IMO the colors on some of my clams are showing great finally. the squamosa is looking deeper in color......

This is great, a real testimant to the product doing exactly what it is supposed to. :)

You will continue to see improved results over the next two weeks and then stabilisation in colour from then on as well as long term increased growth rates.

If you want to really get the SPS to colour pop then consider the Ultra Amin and Power traces to go with the MinS

Just need photos now :lol:

photos to follow today just working on getting my laptop sorted out :lol:

Ok I have been dosing and mixing the ultra Min S with the clam food in the morning and night time i find feeding in the early morning and late at night the clams have been really enjoying thier food. I have been seeing more colors in the clams and some of the sps are coloring up more everyday some of the acros are showing Huge PE too. I will focus on the Acros next week getting some better shots.
the pictures are from BEFORE and AFTER the TRIAL.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05648.jpg
and here is the lips of Big Bertha and look at my purple tip milli to what PE i have now
and look at this Milli
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05743.jpg
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC06048.jpg
and here is my turbina too
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...L/DSC05745.jpg
and here
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...LL/turbina.jpg

i think there is results Im liking it too..
Mike if there is any other stuff you want me to start trailing for ya ,well you know what to do Pm and i will gladly start it for ya ...

For the record, I'm not one for doing my corals with food , but this stuff is freaking amazing...... if you can get some stuff wow so far in the past 10 days the corals are coloring up IE SPS, and CLAMS, i will post some more here in a couple of days to get the best pictures out for you guys and gals to see the difference.

Awsome review ;)

Pictures just prove everything you say about these products, as with all fauna stuff, it does exactly what it says on the bottle and more so :) no gimmicks just pure marine biology at work.

If you want to do a review on a full Ultra Lith system you are more than welcome, we have a successful one already running on Canreef but two would not hurt. Bearing in mind the commitment to it though.

Spread the word of your success, there are many out there that will love to hear about this

Keep up the good work!

Just talked to Claude at fauna about expanding this review for you and really getting those corals to pop

We will send you

Ultra Amin
Ultra power trace 1,2,3,4
Ultra Bak

We will need to know your tank size, volume and all parameters to give you exact dosing of this.

Up for it ;) ??????

oh ya baby ok lets see
150 gal 60x24x24
30 gal sump with 20 gal of water
bubble king skimmer mini 200
P.H 8.2
CAL420
Alk 8.5-9.0 DKh
mag 1300
Nitrates 1-2ppm
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
I run a kalk Reactor
24/7 dripping 1 drip every 3 sec to maintain CAL and ALK of above.
5 gal water change every Sun INSTANT OCEAN, bringing the CAL in IO from 350 to 500 in 5 gal so basicly i add 2 tsp of REEF complete from Sea chem.

any else that you need.

take a sample of tank water, heat to 80 degrees C and then do a phosphate test with the water hot and then let cool and do again and post your PO4 reading this is important

Well don't Beat me for this Mike but i dont test for Phosphates. :redface: I never have tested for them. I dont have any algae in the tank other then a couple of bubble algae's here and there. I run Phosban alot too. so I just nevered thought that crossed my mind to test for PO4.

It is highly important to do so, you have some very ssnsitive creatures that will be prone to phos, so please test for it.

I can still get you up and running with the extended review in the meantime, but do need to know this reading for dosages of Bak

Well im on my 3 batch of food with the Ultra clams and the ultra min S mixed feeding 2 times per day or 3 depending if Im not at work...:lol:

All is going great so far. the polyps are getting there, Im seeing a bit of Red turf algae coming back from the 120 where i had it bad... I hope when i get the other stuff that Mike is sending me to trial that the bacterica will eat away the big phosphates that i have I measured and my
PO 4 was like .01 so not to much but enough I guess ....

looking forward to trying out the new trial stuff....

Cut back to feeding once a day and also stop the extra MinS in the system, the corals can take what is already mixed in with the Clam mixture.

Too much feeding can lead to a build up of nutrients, the Ultra Bak I am sending will build up your bacteria levels to burn this off.

I assume you are doing maintenance water changes ;)

Other products being sent tomorrow - 24 hours snow storm here today!

yes i have 150 total gal and i do 5 gal every Sun

Fauna recommend for any system 10% a week or 25% every two weeks. this is irrelvant if you are using their products or not

ok then its 10 per week that i will start then starting this Sat morning with my Daughter.:mrgreen:

This will help reduce your PO4.

Red turf algea reacts to raises in PO4 so before you do your water change on Saturday do another PO4 heat test. Then next week you will have the Bak and can start reducing those nasty nutrients. ;)

Getting some Turf algae now on the rocks, Mike at Aqua digital told me that PO 4 will cause Red Turf then so once i get the new Trial stuff like BAK and other stuff I will start to dose that that has been stated to me and ease off on the Min S to 1 ml to allow the BAK to eat away at the PO4 the little that i have i guess is making a huge mess in my tank........

so Doing is been put on hold for the separate Ultra min S and i will be just feeding 1 time per day with the clam food and Ultra Min S added to mix the food.

Yep.

The clam food is fine you can carry on, i was not aware you were feeding up to 3 times a day, so apologies for not picking that up and please carry on normal dosing once a day.

So Combine the O/D on the food with any extra Min-S added to the system and you will raise your nutrients. The first thing that will transpire will be Algea, namely those associated with PO4 deposits.

As the PO4 heat test showed you did have a level to start with so the seed was there. So to bring this back down you are being given Ultra Bak ;)

Argh are you see where this is going now :mrgreen:

Basically you have the building blocks of an low nutrient system ;)

A Low nutrient system is

1. A bacteria carrier (zeo lite rock)
2. A high bacterial food (Ultra Bak)
3 Replacment positive nutrients (Ultra Min S)

Now that does not mean you have to have the full works but you can play with key ingredients in the Fauna Marin Ultra Lith system to meet the needs of your tank, in your case a slight high nutrient level that can be brought in check just by using Ultra Bak!

I am pleased to see where this review is expanding, I think there is a lot to learn from this. So far we have seen how amazingly well Ultra clam works (lets brush over the over feeding for a minute :redface: ) and we have seen how well a system reacts to just one element of the fauna Ultra Lith system, that being Min-S. Now everyone can see how Ultra bak can be used to bring slight algea issues back under control.

lets not detract too far from the main review point, that being the ultra Clam, but I do think this is a damn good evaluation of how versatile the Fauna range really is :)

I'm curious thou I have been seeing that soem people out there are saying that they do a 25% water change on there tanks either weekly or semi monthly and they are using the Fauna Marin supplies. but when you look at that when you are doing 25% of your system worht in NSW wouldnt using the Fauna not really matter. your getting all the proper supplements from NSW then why would you be using the Fauna Marin, if you are taking the PO4 and the NO2,3 out with the water changes

Good question and worthy of a lengthy explanation :lol:

Water changes - On any system you should be doing a minimum of 10% a week so on a 150Gallon tank you should be changing 15 gallons weekly, however a lot of people do 25% changes or some even do a lot less.

Why water changes with Low Nutrient Systems - Well as the question highlights "low Nutrient" so to help in the nutrient reduction, more so when first starting with the system, water changes are the best way of reducing free radicals (water bound nutrients), but it does not remove structural bound nutrients as will be explained below.

Why not just do large water changes instead of LNS - Simply put, all you are doing by changing the water is removing the bad nutrients that have been picked up and bound into the water. However 90% of all nutrients are soaked into the fauna and scaping of your system, such as rock, sand (biggest culprit) and even glass, pipes pumps etc etc.

So what LN systems do is build up huge levels of positive bacterias to"EAT" away the nutrients held in the systems structure, this then eliminates the bad nutrients at source.

So by adding the Ultra Bak you are putting a very powerful bacterial food into the system that will literally burn off the source of pollutions. This is where the Zeo Lite rock comes in as it creates a very large porous home for these bacteria to live in and as such you create a far great stable area for the baceria to continually thrive.

Simply put -

Water changes just remove the result of the high nutrients
LNS removes the source of the Nutrients.

Back to water changes - Depending on the system you are using with fauna depends very much so on the water changes you do. If using the balling method to stop the risk of ionic imbalance 10% water changes weekly are recommended unless you add mineral salts. In regards to Ultra Lith systems, once the system is mature, you only need to do the 10% weekly water changes that are required in any set up, this is just to "freshen up" the water as new salt puts back in a lot of goodness.

The other thing as in your case, many of fauna's foods are very powerful and as proven work extremely well, but with all foods you can produce a nutrient sink in the water IF you over feed ( :redface: ), this is what algea feeds off of, so if you over feed then your nutrients rise and by doing the water changes removes to the water bound nutrients BUT not the structural bound ones and as highlighted this is where the fauna LNS range comes into play.

And this is what is so attractive with using the fauna system, it is made up of parts that you can use as you so choose, you can use the full Lith System for optimal stability OR in your case pick and choose the parts that will help your system, in this case the Bak.

Everyone can benefit from fauna, you dont have to be an LNS nut to use it, if you want to rid your tank of structurally bound nutrients then employ a dosing regime of Ultra Bak, and then replace the bad guys with Ultra min-S

So what is Ultra Bak? - It is not a bacterial additive, but a specific VERY powerful bacterial food, Bak is so strong it will boost your tanks own bacterial count immensly all on its own and as such is best deployed gradually. If you stop using it after a period of time your system will reduce down to its pre Bak dosing levels so it is not a product you have to always use once started, however to achieve the best result in nutrients for your system a background level is very beneficial, but always remember to add MinS as well so you do not starve your system of ALL nutrients.

So What is Min-S? - Min-S is a specific amino acid nutrient, it has been developed to put into the system only positive nutrients. The product is packed full of all the food building blocks that corals and clams etc need to thrive. On regular use you will see a massive difference to your corals, in basic colour and growth, and in animals such as clams the colour will be enhanced significantly.

Remember all these products are natural so you are only putting into your system what is found naturally in the oceans

Hope that explains everything :)