How long for vodka to work?

[tmz]

Ok Jonathan ,I think the discussion is about to sink to the bottom of the bucket ,so I'll disengage and won't reply to any more of A"s posts here. There really isn't anything new or useful to garner from it beyond invectives like "irresponsibly" etc. at this point anyway.

 

[Aqualund]

The point of this entire discussion was to help the original poster in their quest to fix their problem. That was my intent and it was maintained through the entire thread. [violation] I, however was merely offering that nothing is black and white in this hobby, and most people incorrectly attribute their wins and losses in the hobby to the wrong things.

My goal was to ensure that the original poster did not spin their wheels on the wrong thing in their quest to fix their problem because somebody enjoys the bully pulpit.

 

[hkgar]

The point of this entire discussion was to help the original poster in their quest to fix their problem. That was my intent and it was maintained through the entire thread. All of my responses to TMZ were because his blatant inability to accept anything less than true obedience to his theories. I, however was merely offering that nothing is black and white in this hobby, and most people incorrectly attribute their wins and losses in the hobby to the wrong things.

My goal was to ensure that the original poster did not spin their wheels on the wrong thing in their quest to fix their problem because somebody enjoys the bully pulpit.

Well as the OP, I am still not sure what to do except continue with dosing and increasing the amount per the schedule I have been following and be real happy when they start going down.

I have reduced feeding, eliminated the sponge and part of the ceramic media.

I have reduced the vodka 25% and replaced the missing with vinegar, And cleaning the skimmer more ofte.

 

[Aqualund]

Thats why its hard within these discussions with so many OPINIONS floating around. However I can tell you that based on the info that you posted, you need to address the root cause of your problem, which is most likely too many dead zones with in your sand bed and filter apparatus giving rise to detritus buildup and increased nitrates. What youve done so far with the sponge and skimmer is a great first step good job!

The cyano will continue as long as you dont address the root causes of your unbalanced water quality and continue to feed it excess carbon.

Like I originally posted...I would address/fix your deep sand bed, because right now it is too thin to offer decent denitrification at the levels you need, but deep enough to allow detritus buildup...then aquascape your rocks to offer more water flow around everything, and do consistent daily 20% water changes until ALL PARAMETERS are in check...then address the proper amount of vodka, vinegar, or sugar you want to dose. When you do your water changes...be sure to siphon the gravel and get all the nasty gunk you can out of it. you do this daily until your nitrates are severely reduced.

Simply dosing carbon at different levels right now..isnt going to do anything except benefit your cyano...you need to fix the causes of your poor water chemistry first.

 

[David Grigor]

Running GFO in addition to attempting carbon dosing might be limiting your reduction of nitrate. Perhaps reduce the use of GFO and increase your carbon dosing amount slowly and see where that takes you.

I agree that carbon dose should be the last resort after you have looked at all the more typical ways, such as your feeding regiment, etc.

 

[hkgar]

My sand bed averages about 4 inches. The clown fish continually disturbs it and as a result some areas are only an inch or so.

I do not have Cyno. Most of the rock is on risers, but I don't know if that reduces the dead spots referred to.

 

[David Grigor]

Hard to tell from the pic the grain size. It's its larger than sugar sized then it needs to be deeper to compensate.

 

[hkgar]

Ok, if I increase the depth of the sand bed, how would I go about it. I would say the the current sand bed is just slightly larger than sugar. Pretty much what you would find on a white sand Carribean beach

 

[Aqualund]

The best option would be to have a 2 inch layer of crushed coral...then a fiberglass screen...then a 1.5 inch layer of aragonite...then another screen...and another 1.5 inch layer of fine sand. the find sand acts to keep big **** from going to the bottom...but the larger stuff below it allows for transport of nutrients and the ability to create a denitrifying zone at the bottom. Even better than that would be to do all of this and incorporate a 1 inch plenum below the substrate. I recon you probably have some denitrifiying effect from youre current setup...but its very limited imho.

And lol I find it funny that you didnt have Cyano yet thats what the bulk of the responses focused on. Cyano has nothing to do with your problem. LOL too funny. Sorry bout that.

 

[Dre59]

Hkgar, make sure you want a DSB Plenum before you invest money..

Here is a picture of mine in day 10.

Here is a recent picture almost 1 year now.

 

[hkgar]

Coming down

Coming down

Hi, OP here and just wanted to report that, at least today, my Nitrates are coming down. They tested at 10 with Salifert test kit. PO4 was 0.0 with Hanna Checker (PPM).

Maybe it is starting tro work. I did switch from just vodka to a 75% vodka and 25% vinegar. Current dose is 19.75 of combined.

 

[fishpoop]

Glad to hear it! I'm still waiting for results myself. I'm going to have to consider going to part vinegar.