Hadonni carpet and vodka dosing. Ok?

[Ohio]

I have a 46g tank with a 30g sump. Wanted to start vodka dosing to deal with a cyano outbreak but I have a carpet nem and do not want to stress him. I have had my carpet for a couple months and he is doing well.

Has anyone else with this type of nem done vodka dosing?

 

[Toddrtrex]

JMO, I would NOT do this.

About 5 months ago I tried a new salt, TM Bio-actif (( or however it is spelled )), it is very similar to vodka/sugar/carbon dosing. It was too late when I realized what was happening, but I lost both a red Haddoni (( had it about a month )) and a blue Haddoni (( had had it for 3+ years )). Both of them were slightly stressed -- the red one from being new, and they blue one because it never fully recovered from a stress induced spawning event a year ago. They were in different systems with other Haddonis that weren't stressed at all. The "healthy" ones even started to look "off" when the blue one and the red one died.

Talked to Randy in the chem forum about this, and had a similar experience with an H. Crispa with vodka dosing. We (( mainly him )) decided that the dosing increased the bacteria, but both "good" and "bad" and that was too much for the anemones.

There are a lot better/safer ways to deal with cyano, and vodka dosing isn't worth the risk.

 

[Flems]

If anything the vodka dosing could also contribute to the cyano as the odd person has noticed it appearing while dosing.

 

[Ohio]

JMO, I would NOT do this.

About 5 months ago I tried a new salt, TM Bio-actif (( or however it is spelled )), it is very similar to vodka/sugar/carbon dosing. It was too late when I realized what was happening, but I lost both a red Haddoni (( had it about a month )) and a blue Haddoni (( had had it for 3+ years )). Both of them were slightly stressed -- the red one from being new, and they blue one because it never fully recovered from a stress induced spawning event a year ago. They were in different systems with other Haddonis that weren't stressed at all. The "healthy" ones even started to look "off" when the blue one and the red one died.

Talked to Randy in the chem forum about this, and had a similar experience with an H. Crispa with vodka dosing. We (( mainly him )) decided that the dosing increased the bacteria, but both "good" and "bad" and that was too much for the anemones.

There are a lot better/safer ways to deal with cyano, and vodka dosing isn't worth the risk.

Todd -thank you. I was hoping that you might have an opinion one way or the other.

I have decreased feeding, siphoned and removed from sand bed and rock, performed 20% wc every 2 to 3 days, and just started adding beneficial bacteria to hopefully tip the scales to the good stuff. The bacteria i am using is cycle, which i am sure is not the best but it is what was avail at lfs. I was going to order either microbacter or microbelift special blend, any thoughts on either of these products?

Any other ideas(must be gentle on my carpet nem) to battle this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to assist me,
Jenn

 

[Toddrtrex]

Let's start with the basics, and go from there.

Parameters -- with numbers
Are you using RO/DI water, and if so, what is the TDS?
Is the livestock in your sig correct?

 

[Ohio]

Let's start with the basics, and go from there.

Parameters -- with numbers
Are you using RO/DI water, and if so, what is the TDS?
Is the livestock in your sig correct?

sg 1.025
dKh 11.5
calcium 400
ph 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 15
phospate .1

I use ro/di water. kh and gh are at 0

Livestock is correct except for the scooter blenny, somehow he ended up on the floor behind the tank a couple weeks ago.

I will note that my Nitrate/Phospate tests are junk. But they are both at detectable levels and I have confirmed that they are accurate thru my lfs, they just don't reveal small changes(I use Red Sea). I run a fuge with macro algea for reduction of these. I also determined that I was feeding too much several weeks back and cut back to a very small portion every other day. The affected area is expanding in my tank despite this change.

Let me know if I missed anything or you need any other info.

 

[Flems]

Whats the flow like in that area?

 

[Ohio]

Flow is good, in my opinion. Strands of it blow back and forth. I have 3 koralia hydor 720. It is a 46g display

 

[Ohio]

If anything the vodka dosing could also contribute to the cyano as the odd person has noticed it appearing while dosing.

I had noticed that this could happen. I intended to use beneficial bacteria as well -to hopefully keep that from happening. After what Todd advised, vodka dosing is pretty much off the table.

 

[Sangogo]

Talked to Randy in the chem forum about this, and had a similar experience with an H. Crispa with vodka dosing. We (( mainly him )) decided that the dosing increased the bacteria, but both "good" and "bad" and that was too much for the anemones.

I don't have cyano, but this worries me. I have been dosing vodka/vinegar for months (based on the positive experiences I read on here several months ago), and it doesn't seem to affect most of my anemones. I drip dose it several times a day at about a dose of 10ml each time. The water has been the clearest it has been, and overall, it seemed like a good thing.

However, my initial lighter blue carpet (which wasn't in the best condition when I bought it) just continues to go downhill and I wonder if carbon dosing is contributing to this. I'm tempted to stop and see if this is the case, but I'm guessing that I need to wean the tank off its carbon dependency before I could do so.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I don't know about having to ween (( when I stopped using that salt, I just switched and didn't ween at all )), but I would stop dosing if you have an anemone that is showing any signs of stress.

 

[Ohio]

Let's start with the basics, and go from there.

Parameters -- with numbers
Are you using RO/DI water, and if so, what is the TDS?
Is the livestock in your sig correct?

My response is about 6 posts up. Let me know if you have any advice.

 

[Toddrtrex]

What is the TDS of your RO/DI water?

I would be a concerned if you are getting a phosphate reading, since most of the time it is fixed within the algae. Are you running any GFO? How often are you feeding, and what are you using?