Over Active Skimmer due to Vodka Dosing?

[magdelan]

I have been dosing vodka now for one month today. Here is the link to the vodka dosing article.

I have a G4xx skimmer that went nuts yesterday. I have a drain on the skimmer cup leading to a 5g bucket. The skimmer has been producing the same amout of skimmate for the past 4 weeks now (aprox 1g per week).

Well, between Saturday and Sunday, the bucket overflowed and continued producing an abnormal amount of skimmate. The color of the skimmate was/is light tea color.

Is it something other other than my vodka dosing that caused this or is my water beginning to "kick out" the unwanted protiens now?

 

[Steve Canyon]

I've been ramping up the Vodka on my system for a little longer than you Mike. I started at 1cc daily. increasing dosage 1cc each week. Currently holding at 5cc for the last 3-4 weeks. I haven't seen anything like what you have going on yet. Actually, I haven't seen ANYTHING change yet, other than a slimey goo on my overflow box pre-filter foam. That said, I've always skimmed much wetter that most folks. About 1/2 gallon of weak tea color skimmate per day. Maybe I wouldn't even notice a meaningful difference since it's so dilute. Are you adding bacteria and / or amino acids to increase variety of fauna? Perhaps one particular variety had a "bloom".

 

[Piazzon12]

many things could and have caused it, but not necessarily vodka.... vodka will increase your overall skimmate, but shouldnt have a huge jump as you had. Other reason could be spawning, salt buildup in the airline raising the water level, something blocking the outbound water raising the level, or anything else in the water (sometimes aquamend, etc)

 

[tmz]

How much are you dosing?

I've been dosing 26 ml vodka plus 60ml vinegar( equivalent to 8 ml vodka) for 550 gallons for the last 15 months. Skimmate is always thick and smelly. I used to get tea like skimmate before dosing. I've see the skimmer run very wet when I used too much coraline colored epoxy .I don't think the ethanol will cause it. Maybe some thing broke down due to enhanced bacterial activity.

 

[magdelan]

Hmmm.... I have begun my 5th week of dosing and am dosing 5ml per day. My nitrates were more than 200 on day one. I tested yesterday and my po4 is near zero and my no3 isbetween 20 and 25 now. That's a huge drop! Now I just nee dto figure out why my skimmer is going nutzo.

 

[tmz]

Looks like you're doing very well with a low dose. Great results on N and P. 5 ml for your 330 gallons is quite low. For roughly 2x your water volume,I've been dosing about 7x the amount of carbon you are for welll over a year. I dose about 34ml equivalent of 80 proof vodka daily ( 28ml vodka and 60ml vinegar (note: 80proof vodka is 40% ethanol(carbon) and 60% water; vinegar is 95% water and only 5% acetic acid(carbon) ,so vodka is 8x stronger in terms of carbon dosed). I'm probably dosing half or less of what most use even though I have 40 well fed fish in the system. I also use gfo, gac , and refugia and two asm skimmers :a 4x and a 4xx. PO4 hovers around 0.04ppm with NO3 now at between 0.2ppm and 0.5ppm.
Don't know why your skimmer went nuts. Don't see how the ethanol could cause it unless there was some type of bacterial bloom which is unlikely given the low dose .
Has the skimmer calmed down?