Lets talk about Vodka/sugar dosing

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Gah Marc, awesome coral. I can't wait for my GARF Purple Bonsai to color up. It's been brown except for it's tips. I've been told it's because I've got too much light (250w 10k Reeflux on LAIII mini), but I thought originally it was not enough light, but now I'm thinking that it's not enough actinic, just 10k, so I'm going to fix my VHOs again this weekend.

Anyway thanks for keeping us updated on your experience!
 
Anyone know how long the v.s.v and probidio take to work together until your levels fall? Is it 6 weeks or does it just star happening at some point you will see you test kits change one week. I only do monthly water changes so I do not add to many variables at one time. My next water change is not until the first sunday in august. I guess I just need to be patient.
 
Probably gonna just have to be patient.... :-/

I've noticed my skimmate smelling much worse, but short of that, no changes. I'm also worried about being nitrate limited, as I don't have nitrates (API and Hagen) now, only PO4, so I'm running a PO4 reactor to try to keep the ratios in balance. My PO4 is still present though even with the GFO.
 
Yea I knowI still have PO4 leeching from the LR as well as from the substrate that I am not to worried about its the nitrates I want to see fall to 5 then to 0. I guess when I do I water change I will notice a diference as well. Corals will probably like it but that is still a week and a half away. I will just limit my dosing of other supps then since last time I went in a hurry bad things happened.
 
Hopefully not to stray off topic :). But what do AA really do? Is it something that is beneficial to the corals.? If you are carbon dosing, does it deplete the supply of AA? Will it increase Nitrates and or Phosphates if overdosed?
LOL is it necessary for a healthy tank?
At the present time I have successfully used vodka as my carbon source to lower nutrients in my tank. But my coral growth and color really don't reflect my parameters.

SG 1.026
PH - 8.2 - 8.4
P04 - ND
N03 - 5
Mag - 1380
DKH - 7 - 8


I did have an oops where I depleted my benifitial backteria due to an overdose of amoxicillin. I think that I have passed this issue with 5g water changes every day for 2 weeks. Also have decreased my Vodka dosing from 8ml to 2ml.

I think it is possible that I need to wait it out but I still don't understand the AA dosing and what it does.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12999962#post12999962 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by widefx

I did have an oops where I depleted my benifitial backteria due to an overdose of amoxicillin.
Click to expand...

Why are you dosing amoxicillin?
 
ever since I started vodka dosing I have had nothing but red slime algae. There are no corals just fish. Nitrates were 40ppm and phosphate was 2.5ppm now I am down to 10ppm and .8ppm of phospahte. I have massive amounts of red slime. how can I get rid of it?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13000032#post13000032 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
Why are you dosing amoxicillin?
Click to expand...

Well to make a long story short. I have a Chalk basslet with Pop eye and was soaking its food in amoxicillin and straining it before introducing it into the tank. I went on vacation and the care taker to the tank decided it was not necessary to strain it and just dumped it in, which had a really bad effect on 4 of my colonies.
 
The Red slime will go away with further reductions of nitrate and phosphate. Are you also heavily skimming? You need to be for the vodka to be effective. The only reason I even question is because if it's a FOWLR people frequently think that they don't need to be skimming cause only corals benefit from skimming :rolleyes:

As far as the AAs are concerned, they're only to bring some dissolved nutrients to the water column, since most NO3 and PO4 are being taken up by the Carbon bacteria.

If overdosed, yes, AAs will increase algae through increased breakdown of the AAs into NO3 and PO4, or at least that's what I always understood about AAs.
 
That's very interesting. I've never heard of vodka increasing the occurance of red slime algae.... But I suppose a confounding factor could ruin it all...

I wish I had an answer. I've got some red slime that has been encroaching over the past few months. I started vodka dosing 2 weeks ago and notice no difference in the slime. I'm hoping that it'll get rid of it over time. It would be interesting to find that red slime itself was carbon limited, so carbon dosing increases it's growth rate as well as the other bacteriums. Very interesting... Hmmmm

It's good that you're skimming. I'm sure it keeps the display cleaner and the fish healthier for sure.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13000045#post13000045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyWindyClown
ever since I started vodka dosing I have had nothing but red slime algae. There are no corals just fish. Nitrates were 40ppm and phosphate was 2.5ppm now I am down to 10ppm and .8ppm of phospahte. I have massive amounts of red slime. how can I get rid of it?
Click to expand...

Cyanobacteria, commonly called red slime algae, is usually reported in aquariums that have a few common disproportions. First, they have excess phosphates/nitrates. Second, they have little water flow within the tank. Third, the bulbs in use are not for aquarium purposes. And lastly, they usually have a small skimmer or inadequate region for O2/CO2 gas exchange.

If your PO4/NO3 dropped as a result of the vodka you may just need to increase water flow across the tank. What kind of water movement do you have in the tank? Check the age of your lighting as this needs to be replaced every 6-12 months depending on your setup. You said you have an adequate skimmer for gas exchange.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13000128#post13000128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
If overdosed, yes, AAs will increase algae through increased breakdown of the AAs into NO3 and PO4, or at least that's what I always understood about AAs.
Click to expand...

FWIW, Amino Acids are a "clean food", they will not break down into PO4.
 
Glass box thanks for the correction there. Didn't know that.

As for the cyano, none of the reasons stated help with my small cyano problem. It only shows up on the underside of a few rocks. My only guess is that those rocks have phosphate leaking out of them fueling the cyano. As for flow, its on the front middle of my tank, arguably the highest flow area of my tank. The cyano whips around in the flow. So who knows I guess....
 
Genetics,

1200 gallons, 5000gph water flow,72 inch tall 12 inch diameter Volcano skimmer(needlewheel and alita 40 driven) lights are 8 months old cyano started 3 weeks into vodka treatment. I never had it before. Hope you can help.
 
SunnyWindyClown: There are some out there that speculate that the cyano will utilize the carbon source the same as the beneficial bacteria...cyano is a bacteria after all. I don't recall if there is any HARD evidence to that, but it seems plausible. the guru's over in ZEOland (aka zeovit.com) recommend that cyano be dealt with by mixing the daily dose of ZEOcoralsnow and ZEObac together and dosing to the tank at the same time....they say that this will rid the tank of cyano.

5000gph sounds a little low for a 1200g system. Maybe you could throw a few prop pumps in there to increase the flow....cyano really hates high current!
 
When I first started Vodka dosing I did have some weird algies that started to show up, and I did have cyano but over time that stuff slowly went away now it's all gone.. maybe it just needs to run it's course until
 
Just an aside...

I've noticed that for the past week I've barely had any algae grow on the glass in my tank. That's a good thing. After several days, a little bit built up, but nothing like what I've seen in the past.

My skimmer isn't pulling out more skimmate than previously, but it has only been 9 days so far.
 
Marc, have you noticed a darkening of the skimate, or a noticable increase in stench? We are having a discussion in the reef chemistry forum that partly involves the quantity and "quality" of skimate in a carbon dosed system. Also being discussed is if the total organic load of the system is actually decreased in a carbon dosed system, or if the organics are merely being shifted around and still in the same volume.

Here is the thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1435147&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
 
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