loss of color

[M88A2]

i have been dosing vodka since the beggining of july and have brought my nitrates from +-.10 to .02 (salfert test kit). things were looking great at first. browned out corals regain color (green shift then towards original color) but now some of the corals seem to have a more dull appearace than before. i was advised to try adding amino acids and have placed an order. anyone else have other times i could do in the mean time?

 

[mike_cmu04]

MAybe your tank is too clean i would cut back a little and try to get the nitrate up slightly.

 

[rireuter]

What's your bio load like?

 

[DustinB]

Do you feed the tank at all? As in rod's food, cyclopeez, etc...? Something that feeds the whole tank and not just the fish.

 

[beeker]

I would advise you not to dose the Vodka everyday at the point you are at

Dose it 2-3 times a week and feed your tank more, you can add some drops of aminos but only add the aminos when you add the Vodka, if you notice the texture of your corals looking like concrete then back off on the Vodka and aminos, also make sure your Alk is at 7 DKH cause any higher will have a negative affect when you dose the vodka

hope that helps, this is what i've found from my own 8 month trial of vodka dosing so this is from my own personal experience

 

[GhostCon1]

I've not heard of keeping your alk that low when vodka dosing.

But, if you dose vodka you can feed a lot more. My guess is that you are still feeding the way you used to. Feed those guys!

 

[M88A2]

thanks for the replies. my bio load is 2 clowns, 1 firefish, 1 neon dottyback, 2 skunk cleaner shrimps, and 2 fire shrimps. i havent altered my feeding patern since dosing vodka (once every 2 days with home made food and some formula one pellet). i'll try feeding more to see what happenes. also i dont add anything to the tank other than 2 part dose, mag, and the vodka. i'll cut back on the dose and see what happens. thanks again. also my alk floats between 8-9

 

[beeker]

8-9 alk is fine, but i noticed my sps corals started to look concrete after i was dosing everyday for a month straight, thats why you need to back off the dosing and feed a little more

So to fix that i started dosing the vodka 2-3 times a week only cause IMO this was enough to keep Nitrate and phosphate low and keep nusiance algea from growing as well as getting the benefit of corals coloring up and growing faster, when i dosed the Vodka i'd add 1 drop of elo's aminos along with the Vodka but i'd only dose the Aminos when i was dosing the Vodka IMO aminos aren't nesscessary until your sps start to become concrete looking(starved)

this was done on a 29gBC with a 10g sump, so about 30 gallons of total water i dosed everyday for 2 months until i realized that daily dosing of vodka wasn't nesscessary to get good results without the negatives that can happen from daily dosing it

All i dose is B-ionic calc/alk and mag, and tonight i'll be doing my first dosing of vodka to my 200g DD that is about 5 months old in hope that i can get the tank to mature quicker and be more stable as well and i won't be adding any aminos for the first month of dosing until i see a need to add them

rule of thumb for me is 1 drop of vodka per 30 gallons of water and even dosing this to my BC29g once a week when i had it setup still neted good results from my sps without worrying about starving them or getting a giant bloom of cyano bacteria

 

[M88A2]

interesting. your tank is a great reference for me as i have a 29g standard with a 10 gal sump. i'm gonna try to mimic your method and adjust as needed. thanks.

 

[beeker]

if you'd like to read up more about my 29 setup i still have a whole detailed thread on it over on Nano-reef, under the same SN beeker

 

[M88A2]

i'll def take a look at it later tonight.