Ultralith Users Please Read

[christyf5]

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