dosing vodka in an SPS tank

G

Garbis

New member
Hi all, can somebody help me with me with dosing vodka in my reef? i m new to this concept and i just want to know what are the pros and cons of dosing vodka,the quantity that must be dosed,the time difference between each dose,and of course which type of vodka......
 
good call jack. I was going to suggest the search function. There are a lot of threads out there with TONS of info.
 
i have read so many threads on this and i understand exept does it matter where i put the vodka in the main tank or in my sump where i have 2 skimmers . iam worried that if i dose the sump the skimmers will gobble the dose before it hits the tank? where would you dose?
 
i dose in the middle of the sump twice a day. i am concerned what will happen if i dose directly in the DT. like a super concentrated amount of vodka hitting some coral.
 
I'm pretty sure that skimming does not remove the vodka, but the bacteria that consume the vodka and multiply. I don't have anything to site this though... for what I don't think I would dose it in the dt. I've seen "finding nemo", I don't need to see "stumbling nemo" lol
 
i have a wet dry filter i want to up grade (wife wont let me) so do you think this could cause a problem dosing the sump .i am going to move slowly when i start
 
As long as you have a good skimmer to pull the bacteria out, I don't see a problem. I am no expert, but I have doses vodka in the sump. Move very slow, and keep an eye on nitrates and phosphates. Keep the other eye on your fish and coral. For what its worth I turned my skimmer off while dosing to see what would happen and after 4 days I noticed a slime growing in my sump, but no casualties up top. I turned the skimmer back on asap. Good luck, and just remember to move SLOW.
 
I have dosed in the display with no adverse effects, but in the sump is a good idea.

Additionally, you may want to consider using a mixed carbon source. I currently does a mixture of vodka, vinegar and glucose in two of my systems and have had good results. There is significant support for the fact that different strains of heterotrophic bacteria preferentially utilize different sources of organic carbon. Stated differently, using multiple sources of organic carbon promote diversity in the populations of heterotrophic bacteria in the biofilms we seek to support.

I have also added ascorbic acid to the mix in the past but did not see any difference FWIW.
 
well i have been think of this for 6mos or so i wanted to wait until i got my 2nd skimmer i now have that. i just hope i have all the right equipment, this is what i'm going to do i have a 92gal ,15gal sump? with lr,ls .i'm going to treat the tank as a 50gal i figured that would be slow enough
po4 .5
no3 10 api test
all and thanks for all info i know everyone getting sick of seeing vodka dosing threads lol
 
murraycamp said:
I have dosed in the display with no adverse effects, but in the sump is a good idea.

Additionally, you may want to consider using a mixed carbon source. I currently does a mixture of vodka, vinegar and glucose in two of my systems and have had good results. There is significant support for the fact that different strains of heterotrophic bacteria preferentially utilize different sources of organic carbon. Stated differently, using multiple sources of organic carbon promote diversity in the populations of heterotrophic bacteria in the biofilms we seek to support.

I have also added ascorbic acid to the mix in the past but did not see any difference FWIW.
Click to expand...

^^^^This guy knows his stuff.
 
I dose right into display no ill effects either. You can dose into sump but,your return pump dumps it right into your display anyway so it dosent really mater where you put the vodka.
 
You mention in another thread that you run your alk very high at 11+ this might cause burnt tips on your SPS Corals. Vodka dosing should be done with an alk of 7-8 max.
Why are you trying to dose Vodka to your tank if you only have 0.012 Phophates? if it is for the Diatoms you mention in anothe thread after disturbing your DSB then I would wait till the cycle passes and maybe things will improve on their own.
 
There is significant support for the fact that different strains of heterotrophic bacteria preferentially utilize different sources of organic carbon. Stated differently, using multiple sources of organic carbon promote diversity in the populations of heterotrophic bacteria in the biofilms we seek to support.

There is support for it happening, at least in some sorts tests, but none that I've seen that shows that a diversity of bacteria is more desirable for a reef tank. :)
 
it can kill coralline but making your tank extremely low nutrient. when sps corals are competing with coralline algae for nutrients they usually win and starve out the algae.. i have been carbon dosing for a year and this has not happened
 
Thanks, i was dosing about 1.4ml i start very slow but stop thinking it was killing of my coralline.Thinking of starting back up because of the diatoms this time of the year is always bad for my tank.
 
hdelectraglide said:
dosing vodka does it kill coralline ?My lfs says it does im not sure i tried a search and came up with nothing? please help
Click to expand...

No. I have been dosing for sometime now(almost 2 years) and I can't keep up with scraping it off. It the ULNS like deangelr said not necessarily the vodka dosing itself.
 
So far not happening to me, coralline algae maintain good while dosing vodka for 6 months. Have to stop vodka temporarily for a mnth coz my DSB refuge heavily suffer cyno bacteria bloom. Though resulted drop of NO3 from 15ppm to 1-2ppm, PO4 undetectable from initial 0.3ppm. It make me sicked when small patches of cyno taken place in my main tank.
Now am trying for a month+ already, dosing VSV (Vodka, sugar & vinegar) with Biodigest as a pusher for good bacteria strain. So far so good. No cyno in my main tank and small patches in my DSB refuge. All SPS PE good and coloring up.
 
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