Question on Vodka Dosing Skimmate

[AMDphenomx4]

I just have a few questions. Does the skimmate have to smell stinky or can it be easily standable. Is the dark gunk that collects in the neck of the skimmer the bacteria or just leftover food? Usually the skimmate i get is dark but not very smelly. I have an Eshopps PSK-300.

Im dosing 13.5ml in a 180G and nitrate is still over 40.

 

[Pcrain]

That's a lot of vodka to be dosing...

how long have you been dosing..

what did your nitrate start at?

could your test kit be expired?

when was the last time you cleaned your skimmer?

 

[csdavis]

Yeah I agree that is a lot of vodka to be dosing, and from my understanding the increase in skimmate is because of the increased bio load with the new bacteria that is forming as a result of the vodka dosing so it isn't the bacteria but just the waste material. As for the smell, what I have smelt in the past have been very foul but I have heard other that say they just have collected a lot and it smells no different so I guess it is a toss up.

 

[AMDphenomx4]

Ah, thank you. I will go to my LFS tomorrow and get a new nitrate kit. Aside from that, I last cleaned the skimmer cup a few weeks ago when the inside was covered in goo. The skimmer is only 4 months old though. I started dosing 4 months ago with my nitrate at 40. My nitrate kit says i have 80 ppm, which now that i think of it, coral shouldn't be thriving like mine is. The acans have grown many new heads, and the ORA red planet it perfect with great PE. And i have had these corals for atleast 2 months.
As for feeding, every 3-4 days i put in about 4 cubes worth of mysis and 3 of brine aswell as 3 of formula 2 in a glass of ro. This is split between the 180G with 3 tangs, a foxface, 4 clowns, and a diamond goby, and a 40G with 2 clowns.

I know what you mean by the foul smell. I sometimes get it, and sometimes dont.

Ah kit was made September 2007.

Im dosing 80 proof vodka aswell.

 

[Pcrain]

Cut down on the feeding a bit i would say 1 to 3 cubes a week tops and substitute pellets for the rest of the time when your nitrates balance out some more you can feed a little more this is prob where your nitrates are coming from and this is how you could have gotten to dosing soo much vodka try not overfeeding.. i would even say that is a lot of feeding..

I feed frozen in my 100g with20g sump maybe 1 cube every other week and have 11 fish full coral sps`softies etc and a way underrated skimmer i prob do .25 ml-.50ml of vodka dosing a day and maintain under 5 nitrate

 

[AMDphenomx4]

But wont the fish starve? Their not small by any means.

 

[Pcrain]

substitute with pellets... the fish will be healthier having to search a little more for food and are not swimming in rotten food.... feeding a few pinches of pellets twice a day you can even skip a day .. your fish will be fine. pellets are much healthier anyways well formula one is and they don't containment your tank like frozen.. and when you feed brine put in a net and rinse first this helps get the smaller particles out of the mix that the big fish tend to ignore..

and you might actually see your nitrates go down and the best thing about vodka dosing is it calls for a lot of feeding but the amount you where feeding i believe is over the top. just wait to get your dose down slow i would say take it to 9 ml (not instantly progressively over 2 weeks) hold it there practice not overfeeding until the nitrates drop to under 15 ( that's a lot of fish to get under that i wouldn't expect anything but a very good reefer to get below that with that many fish) then try to drop the dosing down more and i don't know what you want to hold you dosing at but testing a lot and slow experimenting can help you find a balance of feeding and dosing. Long story short i would never feed that much anyone else wanna comment am i wrong?

 

[coralmojo]

I would seriously consider dosing bacteria along with vodka...Brightwell's Microbacter 7 or Zeobac should greatly increase vodka's efficiency...

DrMerle

 

[Pcrain]

+1 dosing microbacter7 is similar to the zeolvit method i have heard

 

[AMDphenomx4]

Ok. I will check if my LFS has microbacter7. I'll order some if they dont. Should i refrigerate it?

 

[-RYknow]

Quick little blurb from RC.

As an example, let us assume that your setup contains 100 Net Gallons.
1. The starting dosage is 0.1ml of vodka per 25 gallons (~100 liters) NWV daily continued for three days. For 100 Net Gallons, your dosage would be 0.4ml daily during this period. It has been suggested to cut the daily dosage in half and dose twice daily for more consistency.
2. Days 4-7, double the daily dosage to 0.2ml of vodka per 25 gallons NWV. Your example dosage would be 0.8ml daily during this period.
3. Each subsequent week add an additional 0.5ml of vodka regardless of aquaria volume. At this point your example dosage during week two would be 1.3ml daily. If you do not see nutrient levels decrease during this week, the following week add an additional 0.5ml for a daily dosage of 1.8ml daily.
4. When your NO3 and PO4 levels start to drop maintain the current dose. For example, if you were on week two when NO3 start to fall on 100 Net Water Volume you would add 1.3mL daily at this time for the continuing weeks until the NO3 becomes undetectable.
5. When your NO3 and PO4 levels drop near undetectable with your test kits cut your current dose in half. This will be your starting maintenance dose (if the levels drop during week 2 then the dose after reaching undetectable levels would be 0.65ml daily [1.3ml divide by 2]).
6. Continue to test for NO3 and PO4. If levels become detectable in the future increase your daily dose by 0.1ml increments per week until the levels start to decrease. If you maintain that dose the levels will eventually drop back to undetectable. This would become your new maintenance dose.

-RYknow

 

[sedor]

If you are changing your skimmate regularly you shouldn't notice "much" of a smell. As it sits the organic matter starts breaking down which in turn results in the nasty funk.

I wouldn't cut down much on the feeding. One of the benefits of vodka is the ability to way overfeed the tank. In fact, its a good thing because it allows your system to maintain some levels of NO3 and PO4 which are in fact needed for the growth in corals. If your nitrates have stabilized at 40, you may just need to keep slowly increasing your dosage until they start coming down. Did you stop increasing the dosage just because it sounds like a lot?

As far as microbacter7, I use it and don't have anything negative to say about it. I have been using it for months and still haven't noticed much of a difference. It wouldn't hurt to try it on your system and see what you think, but keep in mind it is not absolutely necessary. Basically what it does is supplies the system with bacteria that will reproduce due to the vodka and the theory is there will be more bacteria to consume the nasties in your tank. Basically its just like overdriving the vodka. Of course as with everything, there is debate on whether or not it is possible to maintain living bacteria cultures in a bottle on the shelf so some tend to think it doesn't do what is claims. There are also a lot of people who swear by the stuff. Me? I will probably use the rest of the bottle I have and then stop. If I don't notice a change (and I don't think I will) I probably won't continue using the product.

 

[AMDphenomx4]

My thoughts exactly on ability to overfeed. Nitrate isnt going up much at all so i will add microbacter7 when i get it and dose 14ml on wednesday. How much are you dosing? Well i didnt stop. I just was wondering why they werent going down at such a high dose.

 

[AMDphenomx4]

Ok. Update time. Test at my LFS read nitrate of >20 and phosphate 0. Maby my kit was old. Ive also been dosing Microbacter7. The skimmate is really foamy now. 17Ml of vodka now.

 

[hk855]

I have been dosing vodka and MB7 for about 2 months now. MB7 at 5ml 2x a week and it seems to do fine, doesn't need the 5ml/25g, started with 10ml/day for a week to begin with. I started my vodka dose at 10ml/day on my 180g after the ramp up(about a week, I've done it before and didn't want to take a month) and didn't see much going on in terms on nitrate or phosphate reduction. I then ramped it up to 15 for a week+ before xmass, phosphate dropped to 0, and then up to 20 after. I was steady at about 40ppm nitrate and wasn't going anywhere. When I started 20ml I also started to dose phosphate as I though it was limiting my nitrate reduction. I added 1/8tsp of baking powder to 50ml of water, shake and dose 1ml 2x a day, should be about .01ppm for 150g water volume. It took about 10 days to go from 40 to 0 nitrate and phosphate was never detectable. I have stopped the phosphate addition and now just dose vodka and my nutrients are at 0. The way I see it is I only added a tiny ammount of phosphate over a week to week and a half and got a big NO3 drop. I was also running GFO earlier(why I though I was PO4 limmited) and haven't done a water change in 3 or 4 weeks so reduction is all off dosing. I have had my skimmate smell and not smell, not so much anymore since I drain it almost every day.