Half-dose of the straight AA’s (Ultra-MinS & UltraAMIN) goes right to the tank, then I wait a little while because I usually see a feeding response shortly after dosing, maybe 10 - 15 minutes. While waiting, I add the remaining doses of Min S / AMIN to the Ultra-Life powder in a tiny amount of RO/DI water, let it soak for a bit before adding a little more RO/DI so I can squirt it around the tank in hopes that the amino acid soaked particles have a better chance of getting trapped & utilized by the corals.

I also tend to (over)feed heavily - fatty oily foods like Rod’s Food, Cyclop-eeze, oyster egg & phyto concoctions, soak in Selcon, garlic extraction, you name it. I rotate what I feed and I keep my fish plump. Not fat, but I make sure they’re well fed. Normally when I feed something like Rod’s Food the skimmer foam dies down and takes some time to regain decent production. With the Ultra-Life, it seems that not only does the foam regain its head in less time, it doubles production. I’ll take some photos soon, before and after, it’s pretty sick.

Fauna Marin claims Ultra-Life also binds ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. I have no detectable levels of NO3 anyway, and I don’t test for the other two, but I can say at least the NO3 hasn’t gone up. Regardless of whether using the Ultralith system or not, I think Ultra-Life could probably find a place in any reef tank. I’d be interested to hear results in terms of NO3 reduction using just the Ultra-Life.

this:

and these:

And after those little guys get used to the tank, I’ll add this to the mix:

The Vortech, yeah. I’m going to upgrade within a year, so I’ll use that as justification. I currently have 2 Tunze 6025’s for flow, which do a great job, but they’re a little intrusive, and the flow pattern is not as dispersed as I’d like. Plus, what the hell…

I’ve not had luck in the past with clownfish. Bought a gorgeous pair of ORA Picassos a few months ago - one of them died within a week, the other very shortly thereafter. I hope these guys do a little better - it is a pair of Solomon Island clowns from LiveAquaria’s Diver’s Den. They’re about twice the size of the picasso percs I got, and look a little fatter / healthier as well. Fingers are crossed regardless. I saw their pic and already had the credit card out for the Vortech.

And the A. soli… Much thanks to the guys at Glassbox for posting random pics of their favorite specimens, again I found myself at the liveaquaria website starting at this little nub of aquacultured Acropora solitaryensis… no justification necessary…

I’ve been dosing the Ultra within the same 30 minutes - a drop of UltraBio, waiting 10 minutes, then .25 mL of UltraBak, and finally another 10 or so minutes before the UltraMin S. Since the weekend is here, I may see about spacing this out over the course of the day to see if I get the reaction from one of the Ultra products specifically.