Lets talk about Vodka/sugar dosing

Two nights ago, my tank got cloudier and cloudier. I was really afraid I was getting a bacterial bloom after all. I checked everything and the equipment and parameters were fine.

Then I saw it. My BTA was spawning. :lol:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13132734#post13132734 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
Grats on the spawning! I hear it can become a mess to clean sometimes.

You have no earthly idea. :(
 
It has never been that bad in my various tanks. I had it happen in the 29g years ago, and it was very cloudy. My concern for two nights ago was that one spawning anemone would trigger the others to join in. There are 4 in my reef, and one more in the angled tank that is plumbed into the same sump. Fortunately, only the one was in the mood. ;)
 
IMHO, K is something that needs to be watched with using probiotic methods....

Stony, you know I have been really thinking along these lines recently. I put in several montis recently and all of them have been getting lighter compared to all the other acros in my tank. I use Reef Crystals salt, and I have been thinking about switching to Seachem just to see if the close to NSW levels of K+ in the SCRS will make any difference.
 
Update - I've completed the four weeks of dosing. This week I'm dosing 4 ml per day. Nitrates appear to be 25+ppm, Phosphate .25ppm.

I'm trying really hard not to make radical changes that I want to make because I want to see what the Vodka can do. At the same time, I just feel like doing a water change every other day, add a ton of sand to the refugium, etc. It's hard to just sit on my hands and wait.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13133993#post13133993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Update - I've completed the four weeks of dosing. This week I'm dosing 4 ml per day. Nitrates appear to be 25+ppm, Phosphate .25ppm.

I'm trying really hard not to make radical changes that I want to make because I want to see what the Vodka can do. At the same time, I just feel like doing a water change every other day, add a ton of sand to the refugium, etc. It's hard to just sit on my hands and wait.

What does your skimmate look like? It should be turning black at this point. 4mL at 80 proof is comparable to what I dose on my tank. Though my tank is only 200 gal.
 
It is very dark, but not nearly black. I just washed the collection cup, so I'll have to remember to get you a picture in the next few days.

Alkalinity 9 dKH, btw.

The tank looks good, nothing seems amiss.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13133871#post13133871 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chrisrush
Stony, you know I have been really thinking along these lines recently. I put in several montis recently and all of them have been getting lighter compared to all the other acros in my tank. I use Reef Crystals salt, and I have been thinking about switching to Seachem just to see if the close to NSW levels of K+ in the SCRS will make any difference.

In some tanks, I've seen it, others (dosing vodka or ZEO), I've not.... The big thing with K+ is to test, some users that have dosed KCL, have overdosed and killed quite a few corals in the process....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13133993#post13133993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Update - I've completed the four weeks of dosing. This week I'm dosing 4 ml per day. Nitrates appear to be 25+ppm, Phosphate .25ppm.

I'm trying really hard not to make radical changes that I want to make because I want to see what the Vodka can do. At the same time, I just feel like doing a water change every other day, add a ton of sand to the refugium, etc. It's hard to just sit on my hands and wait.

I think this is the potential "negative" with any of the probiotic methods... each system is different and will take different amounts to get to ULN. It takes time, and most people (myself included) like to "hurry things up". There is a faster vodka method, but it does involve causing a deliberate bloom, this is where I believe many Europeans got into trouble, or at least what the boards say...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13134029#post13134029 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
What does your skimmate look like? It should be turning black at this point. 4mL at 80 proof is comparable to what I dose on my tank. Though my tank is only 200 gal.

Is that your lowering dose, or your maintenance dose?
 
I'm down to about 30ml a day now, and it's been a little under a week since I started dosing ZeoBac, ZeoAA, and Coral Vital. So far visually outside of PE around the time I dose AA & CV. I haven't seen any difference. I do have 0 algie in the tank, but my frag/fuge still has Macro growing. My skimmate is on and off.. It's hard to say.. I also got the OZONE back online, but I doubt it's as affective as before (I just dropped the end of the hose into my Filter sock (with carbon), no longer does it get it's own private skimmer.. My ORP is back up to about 380-400 (from 230-240). Tonight I will do a full test.

On the Subject of K, I dosed what appox should have raised my K by a 100. I haven't tested, the results are unknown as I did many other things at the same time. I am still doing 90g (20%) Water changes a week.. (Which is a giant pita). Hopefully If things work out I'll be downgrading from a 500g system to about 130-150. Which will make things much more manageable.
 
I just read the article, once the levels drop to undectable, do you remain at the maintance dose every day? Do you ever stop dosing?
 
I read the reefkeeping online article and decided to give this a go:

I have a 240G SPS reef w/ 500G water volume total. I run a sulfur denitrator and a custom mesh modded needlewheel skimmer. I typically pull out light brown skimmate, about 3/4 gallon per week. I have nitrates of around 2.5-5ppm (salifert). I have only briefly had 0 nitrates, but have had 20-30ppm NO3 before building the sulfur denitrator. The Sulfur Denitrator keeps the tank low, but not totally devoid of nitrates. I will report my results weekly or sooner if anything of great note is taken. I do have fairly bland coral coloration, so I expect that I can see a great change there, but do not expect miracles otherwise.

day1- 2ml/day 80proof vodka
 
Just a mini update. Still dosing 4ml daily this week, and quite a number of spots of cyano are on a serious retreat. Sweet.

A number of Montipora look really unhappy (faded). Everything else seems okay. I got my new Dart pump in, so I have no more excuses not to build the manifold finally and get all the stray electricity out of my system finally. That should make those Montis happy.
 
Been dosing VSV for a months now. I dose 0.8ml for my 120G daily . i found some of my acros have burned tips. I've read i should drop my ALK to 7dKH but thats what i've been running for months. Any advice. I've stopped dosing for the time being.

thanks
 
Just a mini update. Still dosing 4ml daily this week, and quite a number of spots of cyano are on a serious retreat. Sweet.

That's what's been driving me from continuing regular dosing of the vodka, is that my cyano was going crazy. Once I backed off of VSV the cyano receded a bit. I'm going to try just vodka again, as someone before mentioned that just vodka will keep the cyano from coming in, that it had something to do with VSV (Which I don't think is the case, but what the heck, I'll try just vodka).

Been dosing VSV for a months now. I dose 0.8ml for my 120G daily . i found some of my acros have burned tips. I've read i should drop my ALK to 7dKH but thats what i've been running for months. Any advice. I've stopped dosing for the time being.

I've been dosing 2ml per day on my 120g. I've also never had detectable nitrates, only phosphates. My alk always hovers around 6-7 from my calcium reactor, but calcium has always been in the 420-440 range. Magnesium tonight was 1170, so I'm bringing it up to 1350 over the next few days with Randy's 2 part #3A mixture. I think that should bump up my alk a bit and/or lower calcium, or something like that.

I have not had any burnt tips with my alk and dosing vodka.

It's nice hearing everyone's experiences. Thanks for sharing!
 
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