Lets talk about Vodka/sugar dosing

[Paul_PSU]

That's what I thought. I really love clown gobies and was going to put 3 in my 75 gallon when someone brought it to my attention that they love nipping at polyps.

I am sort of opposite of you guys with algae on the glass. My nitrates are zero but I had to clean my glass almost twice a day. I am now only cleaning it every other day. I am trying to find the magic number so I can go 5 days or so without cleaning the glass.

 

[southstar066]

About once a week I have been getting diatom blooms, pretty bad actually, powerheads and glass get covered, but once I clean it I don't see it for another week or so. Hopefully this goes away. I'm one a month of dosing now.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14272816#post14272816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul_PSU
That's what I thought. I really love clown gobies and was going to put 3 in my 75 gallon when someone brought it to my attention that they love nipping at polyps.

I am sort of opposite of you guys with algae on the glass. My nitrates are zero but I had to clean my glass almost twice a day. I am now only cleaning it every other day. I am trying to find the magic number so I can go 5 days or so without cleaning the glass.

Yeah 3 would pretty much destroy an sps 75g tank. May take them awhile but I bet they could do it.

Have you looked at potential other reasons for this buildup? I had a DI resin filter after the membrane that was making my life miserable. A simple disconnect and my tank improved over time. For some reason the DI resin starts to leach back into the RO water once it ages.

 

[newsalt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14272508#post14272508 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
This is what I see after 4 days of not cleaning my glass. Is this what you are talking about?

From the photo it kind of looks like coraline algea, but if those are brown spot that are easily scraped off, then yes that's what I have.

 

[Paul_PSU]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14272950#post14272950 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Genetics
Yeah 3 would pretty much destroy an sps 75g tank. May take them awhile but I bet they could do it.

Have you looked at potential other reasons for this buildup? I had a DI resin filter after the membrane that was making my life miserable. A simple disconnect and my tank improved over time. For some reason the DI resin starts to leach back into the RO water once it ages.

yep already checked the ro/di filter. I had issues in the past with DI resin and I got the stringy stuff on my corals. My film on the glass isn't brown but green.

 

[Paul_PSU]

I forgot. I also dose biodigest. I am thinking about skipping 2 doses (1amp/15 days) and see what happens.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14273286#post14273286 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newsalt
From the photo it kind of looks like coraline algea, but if those are brown spot that are easily scraped off, then yes that's what I have.

The light brown dusting around those spots. The pink spots are coralline that have deposited since I last scraped the front of my tank a few weeks ago.

 

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14273392#post14273392 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul_PSU
yep already checked the ro/di filter. I had issues in the past with DI resin and I got the stringy stuff on my corals. My film on the glass isn't brown but green.

Do you have a picture of this?

 

[Paul_PSU]

I could try and get a pic. My digital is broke, I will see if my camera phone can get a good pic or not. It looks just like your pic but green.

 

[RandalB]

Hey All,
When I saw this thread I tended to run up the BS flag. I've got an 1100 Gallon central system supporting 2x Display tanks. System is less than a year old, but I filled it with well established LR and LS.

I've been having problems with hair algea and cyano in a couple of the tanks, Nitrates have been hovering around 10PPM with detectable phosphate levels. The Nutrient export systems are not fully online yet, Skimmer and Fuge running but not all the way up yet and the RDSB is still waiting on the right sand.

So, that being said, I was scraping glass daily and fanning the sand on the 240 to get rid of the cyano (Closed loop is not running yet...). I read the thread (yes, all of it..) and decided to give it a shot of sugar (I've been dosing Blood, Sweat and Tears for 3 years of planning and setup..) just to experiment.

I dosed: 1.5 Tablespoons of sugar for 4 days. No cloudyness, Nitrates at 1PPM, Phosphate, No reaction on Kit. All the Cyano turned white and has blown away and the Diatoms are completely gone. Hair Algea has turned yellow and is fading away. This was over a week's time. The skimmer has been working overtime with a light white foam filling the cup regularly.

At this point I have discontinued dosing and we'll see if the levels creep back up.

I have also lowered the BS flag...

RandalB

 

[melev]

Makes me want to try using sugar for a few days, RandalB. I've been dosing vodka for almost 7 months now, and the last time I tested my nitrates, they were still around 15ppm. PO4 is .03, and I do have a little cyano I really would like to nuke.

What to do...

 

[Reefski's]

i have the opposite problem.

i have been dosing Vodka now for about 3 months. i am up to 54 ml on my 1700 gallon system.

i am dosing 2X day, 27 ml, and increasing 1 ml every third dose or 2 ml every 1.5 days.

my pO4 is still 0.35ppm today and nitrates are 2.2ppm. down from as high as 0.78 just a couple of weeks ago when i discovered that my top off water filter was passing unfiltered tap water with high PO4. at that time nitrates were about 6.5ppm

my skimmer is putting out about 1 gallon per day of dark skimmate, and my ATS needs to be cleaned every 3-4 days.

should i just stay the course? increasing like i am doing? i am frustrated that it is not dropping faster.

can my level of nitrates limit the PO4 reduction?

i have tried GFO but always have problems with alk levels and my acros so i have quit using it.

Carl

 

[RandalB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14356383#post14356383 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Makes me want to try using sugar for a few days, RandalB. I've been dosing vodka for almost 7 months now, and the last time I tested my nitrates, they were still around 15ppm. PO4 is .03, and I do have a little cyano I really would like to nuke.

What to do...

I couldn't believe it myself Mark, I am certainly a skeptic when it comes to stuff like this but watching the troublesome crap turn white and blow off convinced me. I haven't changed any other aspect of the system recently either....

RandalB

 

[sigster500]

Ive been dosing Sugar now for just over a week i had 20ppm of Nitrate at first i now have 2ppm Nitrate - I have a 200g system
My additions of sugar have been one teaspoon every night for 3 days not much happened so i boosted it up to two teaspoons every night thereafter,
Not had any benifits of phos reduction tho.

 

[Marklu]

Is there any known advantage of using vodka instead of sugar? I think I would like to start dosing a carbon source and sugar is cheaper and seems easier (no liquid measuring).

 

[Reefski's]

sugar may be cheaper but i don't think it is easier to measure the incremental increases unless you have a gram scale and that seems like more work than the syringe i use.

 

[Genetics]

RandalB, I'm sorry you had to lower your BS flag. At one point I remember thinking this was crazy also...

Reefski, that is pretty high phosphate even now. GFO is rather harsh on corals, though I still use a little for insurance. I remember reading that people complained of hitting a wall when they got down to zero nitrates but still had a phosphate issue.

melev, small amounts of sugar works pretty well. The problem is measuring out that small amount. I started playing around with some two months ago in combination with vodka. I am nowhere near what people state using on RC as I see too many people eventually have problems but so far so good. For the record, I would never use more than 1/8th tsp for 200g of water. I feel even this much can be hazardous to sps corals.

 

[melev]

Hmm. Well, I tested NO3 again today, and it seems to be less than 15ppm. I'm using the API test kit. And while I stood there waiting for the 5 minutes to count down, I started to think that the 5ppm hue of orange was darker than the 10ppm. I'm losing my mind.

When I got that kit, I opened up Reagent #1 and dripped in 10 drops. After shaking #2, I tried to drip the next set of drops, but nothing came out. The bottle was sealed, so I got something sharp and poked it out, assuming that was how they ship but wondering how the heck would I know if the item I used to poke it open was the right diameter to assure I get the right drop size??? That was month's ago. I wonder if my NO3 is 0 :lolspin:

I doubt it. I will say this: Reagent #2 doesn't always let me squeeze out all 10 drops. I don't know what is in that bottle, some type of particulate, or the plastic I poked out, or what. But perhaps I need to get a new kit or at the very least let my LFS do a comparison test.

My macro algae is starting to look a tad weak. Oh baby, could this be it?!

 

[graveyardworm]

Well I never did give up the booze, I just couldnt do it, I'm hooked. Besides with a support group like this how could I. I stopped for a couple days but started right back up where I left off with no problems. I've finally got some newly added snails to survive so I think perhaps it was just a couple bad batches or there's something about the chemistry of my water which is very different from that of the LFS.

Anyway my Nitrates are undetectable now, and PO4 has been undetectable for awhile. I took a toothbrush to the HA and scrubbed it down as much as I could. While scrubbing I could see alot of detritus was released. The scrubbing brought renewed interest in my fish to graze on it, and I think its finally receding. Now I need to figure out how to get the color back in my corals.

I've been dosing 8ml in 200g's for about 3 weeks ( started much lower and this is what I've worked up to ), thats the dosage where I began to see some decline in my Nitrates, so I figured I'd stay there. I'm not sure now if I should cut my dosage in half, just keep going with 8ml till the HA is gone, or just consider this my maintenance dose and stick with it for good. Maybe I can start feeding my tank more now?

 

[jacob30]

I have had the same problems with snail deaths in my tank. I am leaning toward a toxic algae. It could alos be Magnesium I am not sure. A few died and I removed the lot. Dying snails are one of the foulest smelling creatures!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14360941#post14360941 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by graveyardworm
Well I never did give up the booze, I just couldnt do it, I'm hooked. Besides with a support group like this how could I. I stopped for a couple days but started right back up where I left off with no problems. I've finally got some newly added snails to survive so I think perhaps it was just a couple bad batches or there's something about the chemistry of my water which is very different from that of the LFS.

Anyway my Nitrates are undetectable now, and PO4 has been undetectable for awhile. I took a toothbrush to the HA and scrubbed it down as much as I could. While scrubbing I could see alot of detritus was released. The scrubbing brought renewed interest in my fish to graze on it, and I think its finally receding. Now I need to figure out how to get the color back in my corals.

I've been dosing 8ml in 200g's for about 3 weeks ( started much lower and this is what I've worked up to ), thats the dosage where I began to see some decline in my Nitrates, so I figured I'd stay there. I'm not sure now if I should cut my dosage in half, just keep going with 8ml till the HA is gone, or just consider this my maintenance dose and stick with it for good. Maybe I can start feeding my tank more now?

:eek2:


I am up to 7 ml in a 450 gallon system. HA is fading and phosphate is .01 ppm with Hanna. Nitrate is 0 with Salifert.