Ultralith Users Please Read
 

So a couple weeks ago it was time to change out my ultralith zeolite. Says to exchange 25% of the ultralith for fresh material after 6 weeks (on the back of the ultralith container). Ok so it was 8 weeks but anyways... So I wash the stuff in RO water as it says and put it in the reactor with the 75% old stuff. It was the long weekend and we were away for a few days but upon returning (about 6 days after I had exchanged the ultralith) everything in the tank was brown and two caps looked like they were goners, very pale tissue and no polyps, it looked to me like the polyps had bailed completely but now almost 2 weeks later I can see them starting to poke out). I had a tank sitter while we were away and she reported no poweroutages, chiller and AC unit were both running, I checked my Aquatronica and pH and temperature remained stable the whole time. I'm at a loss to figure this out.

However doing some reading on new Ultralith products, I discovered a new manual online (one you can download, previously I hadn't seen the link). I printed it off and was reading it last night.

So according to this manual now you're supposed to switch out 100% of the ultralith every 6-8 weeks. And you're supposed to prepare it by soaking it in RO water for a week and exchanging the water several times during that week. It says "this makes the exchange less stressful for the corals and keeps the coloration more stable".

But..then in the back of the same manual there is a "short manual Ultralith system" where it states that you should exchange 50% of Ultralith every 4 weeks.


I'm a bit confused. Obviously not rinsing this stuff for a week (or longer than the 5-10 mins I rinsed it for) has been quite detremental to my tank. Yet nowhere except for that manual did it state that you're supposed to soak the rocks for a week. Two caps are looking pretty pathetic and I have white "burned out spots" on several corals ( as well as some major brown which is now slowly coloring up again).

Has anyone else had this happen? If you use ultralith, can you please post your zeolith exchange routine. I'd really like to continue with the system (even though it is doing practically nothing for my tank, but granted I'm only about 10 weeks in so I'm gonna give it a couple more months).

Thanks :biggrin:

Sorry to here what is happening with your tank Christy. When I exchange the lithe I always use tank water to rinse the portion I am keeping and the new lithe together. Basically just stir the lithe in the bucket for maybe 5 mins. Then I put it back in the phosban reactor and put about 5 drops of bio in and get it running again. Have not seen any of these problems or heard of them.
Chris

I happen to think that there was some other factor in causing this issue you have had, I cannot see how this would happen with just changing the ultralith media, I have changed 100% at one time without soaking it with no ill effects. Maybe look into what really happened while you were away! :wink:

Hi Christy

That will teach you. While you were away your corals got together and decided to give you a scare (minor rebellion). You just can not take holidays and be a conscientious reefer.

I know that ZEOvit and ultralith are different products, however for what it is worth. I change my ZEOlites at 12 weeks. I keep about a half liter of the used ZEOlites to seed the bacteria. I add 2 liters of new ZEOlites after lightly washing them in warm tap water. I have certainly never experiences anything like your situation.

I hope it all works out for you.

Tom R

You're like the second person I'm aware of who's had this happen to them with the Ultralith system. Probably not the last either :(

You know Tom, its getting to the point where I can't even leave for longer than 2 days as something ALWAYS happens while I'm gone. Seriously, its ridiculous. Last year I was away for a week and the chiller blew fuses like they were going out of style, resulting in a tank disaster. Granted this isn't exactly a "disaster" but sheesh! Enough already!

Anyway, I talked to the tank sitter. She said nothing out of the ordinary went on. She was to feed a precut piece of nori and pre-measured frozen food, as per the usual what I feed, each day. She checked that the AC and chiller were on and checked the temp via the aquatronica to make sure everything was ok. To her eyes everything was (I can be pretty picky when looking at the tank most times when everyone else is "ooh ahh pretty":razz:).

I've done a couple of water changes which are inline with "the program" to try to get things back in order (or whatever, I'm a believer that water changes can correct most things). I suppose I'll just forge on hoping that things correct themselves along the way. All is not lost, I'm seeing polyps on the caps that I thought were goners and while the tissue is looking rather bleached out I'm sure it will come back. My trusty blue tipped brown stag even has a hint of blue on it today (thats how I know its serious, throughout the years this thing has remained fantastically blue on the tips no matter whats going on in the tank).



Albert, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one and its not just my luck. Crappy that this happens though :neutral:

Really, this doesn't happen with Zeovit? Because my tank took a huge nosedive after I swapped out the zeolites, I kept about 10% of the old and replaced the rest. I have a 1l reactor. Maybe it has nothing to do with the zeolites but the timing coincidence is really hard to ignore.

I've never experienced it, but regardless, I'd recommend reducing your flow through the reactor for a couple weeks after you change.

If I were to stake a guess, it would be that pre-stage 3/late stage 2, most tanks can't handle the abrupt drops in the levels of organics that generally follow zeolith switchouts. That said, I'm finding it more and more suspect that the FM product is, as claimed, safer to use and less aggressive...

For my zeo-vit system when I swap the zeolytes I throttle back the water flow another 75% from it's current rate then slowly increase it again over the course of 2 weeks. I find that you can't really have too little flow through the reactor but it's VERY easy to have too much. Dunno if that works the same with ultralith though.

In my case I never opened up the flow because I never really understood what the criteria was for how to determine when it's safe to increase the flow. So I swapped out zeolites and before and after were both about 75% reduced flow.

Like I said in another thread though I'm not entirely certain that I'm either doing Zeo correctly, or whether something is physically wrong with the additives I'm using. I'm down to basic 4 now (discontinued SP, discontinued CS, discontinued amino acids altogether, etc.) and if anything, anything I do just seems to cause more stress and distress in my tank. I'm at the point where I'm considering discontinuing zeovit altogether but I'm truly afraid to rock the boat now.

I honestly thought FM and KZ were more or less equivalent product lines. It's not like they tell us what's in their magic bottles so it's hard for the end consumer to truly have an informed opinion.. It's hard to remain dispassionate while talking about it because behind the scenes I have a lot of heartache and grief going on with my tank.