Sugar OD?

A

akwtampa

New member
I'm just wondering what the results are from a sugar overdose? I was making up a batch of top-off the other day, adding CA/Alk suppliment and PH buffer, and I have been adding 1 TBSP sugar per week lately in an effort to help feed my bacteria..

I was joking with my son about the sugar, and when I left to let the water stir/aerate, I think he might have added more.. Yesterday, I came home to find my tank is a solid opaque color.. I've heard of a calcium precipitation, but I'm not sure that's what this is.. My tank parameters are:

Temp: 80 F
PH: 8 - 8.2
Ca: 480
Alk 10dkh
Nitrates: 9ppm
Nitrites: 0
Amm: 0

My new ASM G4+ is skimming like MAD and I've turned both of my 40watt UV's on as of late last night.. I'm wondering if I shouldn't run some carbon as a precaution.. Any ideas? I'm despirate to get this tank back on track..
 
If it's what I think, you have a bacterial bloom. It is a very well documented and fairly common event. Your skimmer should solve the problem. Using ozone and activated carbon will accelerate the process. The problem with bacterial blooms is that they consume most of the dissolved oxygen in the system
 
I ended up adding a second skimmer to help add some O2.. A friend let me borrow his ASM G3.. So I'm hoping between the two that the oxygen will be ok..

Well that, and I've done 3x30 gallon water changes..
 
You'll be fine if you have added more air. I did the same thing, and when it clears you'll have crystal clear water, and no nitrates or phosphates. Your skimmers will go nuts for a while though, and you'll get a film covering the glass and other surfaces, also be sure to blow the added detritus off the rocks.
 
hmm, maybe a new twist to sugar/vodka dosing, a one time treatment(overdose) added with extra skimming to remove the organics. let us know how you make out after things settle down.
 
Well.. Thus far, I've lost one fish, my powder blue.. Also, there was a little weirdness with my clams, but they've settled down..

As far as water purity, it really seems to have settled down quite a bit better than what it was.. I'm getting a Salifert kit today for Nitrate, but with my current kit, the Nitrates are down to 5ppm from around 12ppm..

Also, there was a problem with the PH for a few days, but I increased my kalk dosage and it really helped with that..

All around, I'm not happy about it, and wouldn't do it again..
 
Eek. :( Tangs are pretty susceptible to low O2. Did you ever verify that more sugar (lots, I'm guessing) was added? Because 1 TBSP/week on a 180 gal isn't nearly enough to cause this, IMO.

Sugar dosing does lower pH as well, so that's more evidence that that is what happened.

jds
 
powder blues live right in the surf where most of the oxygen is...

I started dosing vodka... a capful every other day and at the same time lost a previously very healthy gorgonian. Coincidence?
 
My gorg shrank down pretty bad.. but looks as though he'll pull through..

I'm peeved about this whole episode, especially the Powder Blue.. I wish I had thought to put the extra skimmer on there earlier.. This may have saved my fish..
 
a good idea would be to spread your dosing out across the week rather than once...1 tbsp/week with only 1 dose is markedly different than 1tbsp/week over say 4 or 5 doses
 
That's one of the risks of adding sugar/vodka/etc. With a big enough bacterial bloom, I'd kiss everything in the tank goodbye ;)

Glad to hear that there was not too much loss of livestock. Good luck.

cj
 
Gorgonians might be fairly susceptible to sugar/vodka dosing. Using such methods can increase cyano problems. Cyano can be very harmful to gorgonians. If you are going to use carbon dosing, then you might consider quarenteening them or perhaps doing daily washings in RO water.
 
Gorgonians are known to get "choked out" by cyanobacteria growing on them. Adding a carbon source, aka sugar/vodka dosing, often leads to cyanobacteria blooms if your skimmer isn't able to take out the excess crap. The sugar/vodka provides a food source for the cyano just like it does for other bacteria in the tank, this is why that method tends to increase cyanobacteria issues.
 
Why would gorgonians be more sensitive to cyanobacterial overgrowth than other corals? Given that cyanobacteria are photosynthetic, why would they respond to increased DOC?
 
cyano bacteria is just that bacteria. one of the risks of blind carbon dosing is you dont know which bacterias are present and how they will respond to the C source you dose.

cyano should not be a problem with correct nutrient export, but with some it is...usually those tanks have inadequate skimmers, not enough flow, and nutrient problems...all adding to the problem. if the bacteria consume nutrients, but are not exported via skimming there is no point...

are you sure the gorgonian just didnt close of from a big meal of bacteria? i highly doubt that cyano smothered them as suggested.

jmo.
 
It was not me that said the cyano consumed my gorg. It just happened to close up around the same time that i started dosing vodka.
 
cyano bacteria is just that bacteria.

Hmmm, this is a bit of a stretch to make. Yes, they're in the domain eubacteria along with everything else we call bacteria, but cyanobacteria are not necessarily much if anything like some of the other bacteria in our tanks, namely those that bloom with the addition of labile organic carbon. By analogy, a tree and a dog are both eukaryotes, but I doubt anyone would argue that a tree is a dog is a mushroom, if you understand my meaning ;)

if the bacteria consume nutrients, but are not exported via skimming there is no point...

But again, what would make us think that cyanobacteria would even care about labile organic carbon in the water column? They're photosynthetic. They produce so much of the stuff that they tend to leak it pretty profusely. Why would they care if there's a bit more in the water?

cj
 
perhaps i am wrong but i thought despite being photosynthetic and aerobic that they are able to reduce/use carbon and nitrogen. would the discriminate against sugar versus carbon dioxide...? i wouldnt think so, but i am far from an expert.

i suppose in tanks that harbor large amounts of cyano, they could careless...but in low nutrient tanks where carbon is added its been noted that cyano pops up...

as for your second comment, that was not in regards to cyano, but "bacterioplankton" that we hope to produce and reduce nutrients. it will fail without a skimmer to export the biomass...
 
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MCsaxmaster, you make a good point that we don't know that cyanobacteria reacts to the addition of sugar/vodka etc. simply because it is a "bacteria." However, you don't really give any evidence that such an addition does not increase cyano. I come from direct experience that adding an organic carbon source has led to cyano blooms, sometimes drastic ones. Granted, these were by no means experimental conditions. However, I have good reason to believe that one led to the other (if not directly, than indirectly via some other means). Perhaps it had to do with an insufficient skimmer, I don't know.

As far as the issue of whether gorgonians react adversely to cyano blooms, I'm just referring to issues I have read in the literature and have heard from other experienced hobbiests. I have not observed the direct causal relationship, but it makes a lot of sense IMO that it could lead to this.
 
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