No I haven't lost it.... I have started dosing sugar!!

[Mr James]

I have read about this on and off for many years. I decided last night to try it and continue for the next few days. Some threads on RC date back to 2002ish talking about dosing sugar or vodka. Personally, I believe that sugar is safer and costs less to boot.

I am no scientist and don't fully understand ALL of the scientific mumbo-jumbo that makes sugar work, but here are the basics. Some have said they dose sugar or charcoal filtered vodka to reduce nitrates and phosphates. They say it's cheaper than doing multiple water changes. I am going to try it and test along the way. I'll post my results.

I have seen many recipies and am dosing 2 teaspoons a day for six days. I am on day one.

 

[Home_Depot]

thats is just going to make your tank a little sweeter...ha ha get it.

 

[dedex]

IF I had a tank to try it on, I'd try the vodka just to see the difference in outcome...It'll be interesting to see what happens. Are your nitrates high?

 

[GoingPostal]

It'll be interesting to see the outcome, I don't have any nitrate/phosphates problems in my tanks, do you have a fix for lack of space instead? I just ordered a red and blue lobo off diver's den that's getting here tomorrow and don't really know where to put it. I'll just shove some stuff over.

 

[Mr James]

by dedex
Are your nitrates high?

I had an outbreak of fluffy hair algae for some reason. I think they are. So I am trying a few different things to rid it of my system. Less feeding, remove the canister filter from the system (used for running carbon)(back to pantyhose and shopping at Victoria Secret!! yay!), wet skimming, a few water changes and dosing sugar.

 

[MN. Reef crzy]

how old are your RO cartridges?

 

[Mr James]

by MN. Reef crzy
how old are your RO cartridges?

My TDS coming out of the RO is 14ppm, the DI measures 0 TDS. The cartridges are 4 - 5 months old.

One of the things I am trying to do is remove the excess detritus from my system. I just ordered and received two additional powerheads that I plan to modify with the MJ Mod .... My other one works so well I had to do a couple more. Gonna blow the detritus around a little and let my skimmer suck it up!!

 

[MN. Reef crzy]

yeah i am also having a little detrius problem, but i got a fish that likes to eat snails. So That is my problem.

 

[Home_Depot]

I had a couple of extra MJ1200's I could have traded you for the koralia 4. did you alreaddy order the powerheads?

 

[Mr James]

by Home_Depot
I had a couple of extra MJ1200's I could have traded you for the koralia 4. did you already order the powerheads?

Home Depot: Believe it or not, the MJ1200's are too strong for my small tank, using the MJ mods. Can you believe it?? Wish I would have tried them on my 180g. Yes, I bought the Mj600's used already.


MN Reef: what kind of fish do you have that eats snails??

 

[Home_Depot]

OK sounds good. I see Val was looking at a skimmer on TCMAS that would be a good one and is cheap
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5325

Check it out and see

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11601904#post11601904 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr James
Home Depot: Believe it or not, the MJ1200's are too strong for my small tank, using the MJ mods. Can you believe it?? Wish I would have tried them on my 180g. Yes, I bought the Mj600's used already.


MN Reef: what kind of fish do you have that eats snails??

 

[Swanwillow]

so hows the sugar?

 

[Mr James]

by Swanwillow
so hows the sugar?

To be honest, I haven't tested since the first day. BUT, I have notice some portions of the algae missing, like totally gone. Hmmm. I am dosing two teaspoons per day. I think that is a good dose, but I am going to go back and look again. On the 5th day I will test nitrates again and see if there is a difference.

 

[Home_Depot]

Your fish are going to get diabetes with all the sugar you feed them.....LOL

 

[Mr James]

I can definitely see a difference. My skimmate isn't as dark, but the cup fills fast and it's stinks to high heaven. And I think I see a thinning of the HA. And I have doubled the dosage of sugar to 4 teaspoons instead of 2.

 

[Mr James]

by Swanwillow
so hows the sugar?

My trial period is over and I think it was successful. I said I would test and as promised...I didn't. Sorry. My idea of testing is watching for problems in the system. I took my canister filter off line, add some filter socks and my skimming has really taken off. I have read the skimmers fire up and remove more organics while dosing sugar. I am going to do some more reading and see what people dose now that the trial period is over.

Temp on upper right, pH on lower right and time on upper left:

 

[Mr James]

by MN. Reef crzy
how old are your RO cartridges?

Going to order a few more of these 1 micron sediment filters.... and below that, you can see my DI resin (color changing from The Filter Guys) is near the half way point and TDS is still at zero.