Does Vodka Dosing lead to Algae growth?

[eisaiasjr]

Hello:

I have been dosing Vodka for 6 months now and I also do religiously 10% water changes, my parameters are perfect with 0 Nitrates and 0 phosphates; however in the last month or so I have noticed that my tank has been growing a large amount of some sort of "film" algae on the glass of my tank...

Is this normal? should I expect this to go away? is increased algae growth a side effect of dosing vodka?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Regards,

Estefano Isaias

 

[MrRyanT]

Dosing vodka, as I'm sure you are aware, is to reduce nitrate and phosphate to help prevent nuisance algae. What you are seeing might be a bacteria bloom. I've heard of this happening with vodka dosing. If you can get a pic of it, then I'm sure we could help you identify it.

 

[eisaiasjr]

Algae

Algae

MrRyanT:

I will take a pic of the tank after 4-5 days and post it here but in essence it looks like a very thin film of algae that forms on the glass. If I dont clean it in 4-5 days it will become so thick that I wont even be able to see the tank!

I have a few good macro lenses so hopefully I will be able to get some good pics. For now is there anything that you would recommend I do?? maybe lower the vodka dose? (I followed the reef keeper mag article exactly)

Regards,

Estefano

 

[Tayler]

ONEWAY stop writing 1 letter responses

 

[MrRyanT]

If it's a bacteria bloom, then yes, cutting back on the vodka dosing will reduce it or make it go away completely.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If it is a greenish film of algae, then vodka dosing is not spurring it at all. green algae do not take up organic foods that way, although cyanobacteria probably can.

 

[eisaiasjr]

Yay Randy

Yay Randy

Randy:

I appreciate you looking at this thread, your input is always welcome...

yes, Its a thin greenish film of algae that forms "exclusively" on the glass, its very easy to remove and clean however it builds very very fast (2-4 days and you cant see through the glass anymore).

I keep testing my system to try to figure out what could be causing this problem and I always come to the same results. Perfect water parameters and coupled this with 10% weekly water changes simply leaves me wondering what could be the problem. The system has been running perfectly for the last 4-5 months and this is why I am really confused about this.

Now, I would like to mention that I keep seahorses in this tank and therefore I have to do heavy feeding on this tank. I feed about 2-3 mysis cubes DAILY, however I have trained my SH to eat from their food bowl and therefore I know that very few mysis are left uneaten by the end of the day... every morning I remove whatever residue of mysis is left of the bowl and I add new mysis for them to eat.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome,

Regards,

Estefano

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd keep up the vodka dosing, or look to other methods of phosphate export, like GFO, if you want to reduce the film formation. But it is normal get get a film in 1-4 days.

 

[ch0ii]

how much vodka do u dose tyour aquarium? how much per galon?

 

[eisaiasjr]

Ch0ii:

If you want to learn more about vodka dosing I would suggest you read this article.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

As far as my actual dose is concerned... I have to say that I dont remember... I set it up on my dosing pump and it been running this way for months. I have recently cut it down to half in order to see if that fixes my algae problem.

I will continue to monitor my phosphates and nitrates, in the event that they start to rise again ill just have to slowly (based on the chart on the above mentioned article) increase my dosing.

Regards,

Estefano

 

[ch0ii]

stef... thank u... uhmmm.. what is vodka for? dosnt ur aquarium need it? even a little?

 

[eisaiasjr]

Nitrates and Phosphates

Nitrates and Phosphates

Choii:

First I must advice you not to try this before reading the article I posted for you, adding too much vodka to your system is probably the single fastest way to crash your aquarium...

That being said...

The reason why a lot of people are using vodka in their aquariums is because it serves as a very good way to reduce Nitrates and Phosphates in your water.

I have been able to successfully maintain my aquarium at ZERO nitrates and ZERO phosphates over the last 5-6 months using this system.

Regards,

Estefano