My Bacteria Driven Journey
- Thread starter Tswifty
- Start date
TriNewbie24
Member
Tank looks awesome!
smokenax
Member
thanks tony thats good to know, as I do have a refugium in line.
docwells
Member
I am looking for a little help. I decided to switch over from the Fauna Marin low nutrient system to a bacterial driven system with vodka dosing. My total water volume is estimated at 65 gallons so I dosed by the 50 gallon chart. Things were going well and my colors were even better than with Fauna Marin. I also had a small amount of nuisance algae while using the FM system and was told it was because I had a bare bottom tank.
Well, now I have hit a problem. I now have an outbreak of brown stringy algae. There is also some green film like algae on the rocks that started the last few days. I tested my phosphate and nitrate and both were zero. Alk and calcium are stable. I check my RO/DI unit to make sure it was not the problem. So I stopped the vodka dosing and kept the lights off the tank for 2 days. When I turned the lights on the brown algae had decreased. That was 3 days ago. Now the algae is back worse. My corals are losing their great color and turning brown. I have even seen some regression on a couple of frags. I had restarted dosing MB7 after turning the lights back on at the low nutrient dose. I also restarted vodka doing at the beginning dose. I am feeding a little more as I do not have a lot of fish and some regression could be due to lack of food. Am I doing this right or have a I missed something. Just looking for help.
Well, now I have hit a problem. I now have an outbreak of brown stringy algae. There is also some green film like algae on the rocks that started the last few days. I tested my phosphate and nitrate and both were zero. Alk and calcium are stable. I check my RO/DI unit to make sure it was not the problem. So I stopped the vodka dosing and kept the lights off the tank for 2 days. When I turned the lights on the brown algae had decreased. That was 3 days ago. Now the algae is back worse. My corals are losing their great color and turning brown. I have even seen some regression on a couple of frags. I had restarted dosing MB7 after turning the lights back on at the low nutrient dose. I also restarted vodka doing at the beginning dose. I am feeding a little more as I do not have a lot of fish and some regression could be due to lack of food. Am I doing this right or have a I missed something. Just looking for help.
Stanley-Reefer
New member
Instead of lugol's maybe you could check into Kent's concentrated iodine. It is to be dosed daily and has the K+ in it you are seeking.
Tony Romano
New member
Why? The damage is done, stay with your current plan. A slight spike is to be expected when making a major change. What does tank look like today?
I have only gone back and forth 800 (or so) times! I forget considtancy and slow change is key to stable tank. Currently I am going back to tighter daily log and less change!
docwells
Member
Tony,
My tank does not look great. The SPS look good. The LPS not so well. I have a outbreak of dinos from the vodka dosing.
I agree with consistency and taking things slow. I did that with this conversion. I extended the vodka dosing schedule and amounts when I was switching over. But as I learned from talking to Sunny X, the vodka dosing needs a sand bed. I do not have that. I am bare bottom. So I think I am going back to fauna marin, once I get rid of this dino outbreak.
My tank does not look great. The SPS look good. The LPS not so well. I have a outbreak of dinos from the vodka dosing.
I agree with consistency and taking things slow. I did that with this conversion. I extended the vodka dosing schedule and amounts when I was switching over. But as I learned from talking to Sunny X, the vodka dosing needs a sand bed. I do not have that. I am bare bottom. So I think I am going back to fauna marin, once I get rid of this dino outbreak.
Tony Romano
New member
I did not know SB was necessary with V dosing. Sounds like you are starving the LPS a bit...odd stuff - I would have expected sps looking bad and LPS looking good!:fun5:
docwells
Member
Tony,
I didn't know the sand bed was needed either. I never saw that mentioned in all my readings. But all the pictures of tanks I saw had a sand bed.
And the LPS are starving. I had a little bit of this problem with Fauna Marin and it continues with vodka dosing. I am going to try the Fauna Marin LPS food and hope this helps my LPS.
And like you, I thought my SPS would look bad. The only thing I can figure is I have made my tank really nutrient poor except for the carbon source (vodka) that I was dosing. And my sps seem to really like nutrient poor water. Now to get rid of the dinos.
I didn't know the sand bed was needed either. I never saw that mentioned in all my readings. But all the pictures of tanks I saw had a sand bed.
And the LPS are starving. I had a little bit of this problem with Fauna Marin and it continues with vodka dosing. I am going to try the Fauna Marin LPS food and hope this helps my LPS.
And like you, I thought my SPS would look bad. The only thing I can figure is I have made my tank really nutrient poor except for the carbon source (vodka) that I was dosing. And my sps seem to really like nutrient poor water. Now to get rid of the dinos.
Tony Romano
New member
Is dino brown film?
I know I'm a bit late replying to this, but I have had the same thing happen. I was dosing vodka VSV HEAVILY trying to eradicated a large turf infestation. 6 weeks I was keeping the tank on the bleeding edge where the water just started to become milky due to all the carbon/bacteria. I finally won and killed off all the turf. (Starved it). the curious thing was that right after the last of the truf went away I started to have the exact same stringy bacterial growth. At first I thought it was dynos but it was not. It was definately bacteria.
I back my dosing way down to sane levels (maintenance) and the strings shrunk a little, but persisted. Finally I stopped the dosing for a full week and at the end the strings dissolved. I started the VSV dising back up to maintenance levels and have not seen a return of the strings.
So, my input is, you are adding too much carbon atm. Cut it down, or knock it off, and start back up and lower levels when it disappears.
Oh and btw I rotate between adding large amounts of rottifers, oyster eggs, and phyto every night or every other night and I still have to spot feed lps. (by large I mean 100 ml of Reef nutrition rot, 60 ml of eggs, 150-200 ml of DT's phyto.. not all each night, but rotating between the 3) In a low nutrient system there simply isn't enough large particulate matter floating around to feed your larger sps. Acon lords, maybe. but no way on Trachys, scolies, ect.
Bt my system is 1000 gallons, although I "trap" the above feedings in the 600 gallon display for 2 hours when I feed. The beauty of a ULNS is you can feed like a maniac and still keep things under control. My fish are pigs and I couldn't maintain control without it (Ie turn algae out of control)
Bt my system is 1000 gallons, although I "trap" the above feedings in the 600 gallon display for 2 hours when I feed. The beauty of a ULNS is you can feed like a maniac and still keep things under control. My fish are pigs and I couldn't maintain control without it (Ie turn algae out of control)
docwells
Member
Thanks for the replies.
I have halted the vodka dosing. I have cut my light length back . I plan on adding GFO this weekend. The strings have started to decrease. I am not sure I want to restart dosing after this resolves. I was only dosing 0.3 ml daily. I know there is room to decrease, but I don't want this problem again if possible.
Glad to know that other people have problems with their LPS in ULNS. I guess I am going to have to feed more and spot feed. I will try it and see how it goes.
I have halted the vodka dosing. I have cut my light length back . I plan on adding GFO this weekend. The strings have started to decrease. I am not sure I want to restart dosing after this resolves. I was only dosing 0.3 ml daily. I know there is room to decrease, but I don't want this problem again if possible.
Glad to know that other people have problems with their LPS in ULNS. I guess I am going to have to feed more and spot feed. I will try it and see how it goes.
jkellyii02588
New member
Is vodka dosing recommended even on smaller systems? Plan to use on 25g shallow.
IMO better off using Vinegar on a small system far easier to target at 8X the does needed to equal Vodka. I use Vinegar on my RSRN 21gal main 7gal sump, I'm at approx 15ml a day for the last year with good success.
