Tank died…still vodka dose?

[boobookitty]

I’ve had a 400G reef tank (primarily SPS) for 8 years. 4-5 years ago I started vodka dosing and it was very successful: it took 4 months to slowly raise the level, but I finally drove nitrates to zero.

3 weeks ago the tank died. I don’t want to go into detail: I know what happened and how. Suffice to say, total death in about 24 hours.

I’ve cleaned the tank out (so sad throwing away giant dead SPS colonies grown from a frag), and I went through a mini cycle. Ammonia and nitrites are back to zero, but nitrates are elevated (25+).

I plan to rebuild shortly, but I’ve left the vodka dosing going in the hopes that it’ll kick back in. Hasn’t happened yet. It’s a 400G tank so the dosing is around 60ml a day spread out around the clock.

Will it kick back in and drive nitrates back down? Do I need to redo the ramp up (my god that was tedious)?

 

[Reefing102]

While I know the Vodka dosing has been around, I’m not familiar enough with the idea but @cody6766 may be able to help more as I know he’s been vodka dosing recently.

That said, I don’t think it would need to be re-ramped up but I honestly don’t know.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Nowadays nothing we test for regularly should be -0-
Anything above 10 is frowned upon.
It will kick back in though.

 

[boobookitty]

Nowadays nothing we test for regularly should be -0-
Anything above 10 is frowned upon.
It will kick back in though.

Interesting…so ammonia and nitrite at zero isn’t a goal anymore?

 

[Uncle99]

Would starve in zero nitrate, essential for life.
It’s Ok to provide an additional carbon source, but only to a level which keeps nitrates low, but steady and always available.
Same with phosphate, but, at a much lower concentration, say .1ppm area.
I’ve carbon dosed for more than 5 years, from 50ppm to 10ppm, but that’s about as low as I go in a mixed reef.

 

[Reefing102]

To clarify the above, with my understanding, many tanks run 5-10 nitrate and .03-.1 phosphate. Ammonia and nitrite should still be 0 as long as you have steady nitrate.

 

[Genetics]

I’ve had a 400G reef tank (primarily SPS) for 8 years. 4-5 years ago I started vodka dosing and it was very successful: it took 4 months to slowly raise the level, but I finally drove nitrates to zero.

3 weeks ago the tank died. I don’t want to go into detail: I know what happened and how. Suffice to say, total death in about 24 hours.

I’ve cleaned the tank out (so sad throwing away giant dead SPS colonies grown from a frag), and I went through a mini cycle. Ammonia and nitrites are back to zero, but nitrates are elevated (25+).

I plan to rebuild shortly, but I’ve left the vodka dosing going in the hopes that it’ll kick back in. Hasn’t happened yet. It’s a 400G tank so the dosing is around 60ml a day spread out around the clock.

Will it kick back in and drive nitrates back down? Do I need to redo the ramp up (my god that was tedious)?

Sorry about your loss. If it was working prior it should continue to work. A large die off may necessitate a water change or two to aid in nitrate reduction.

You don’t want to expand on the reason for tank death?

 

[griss]

Sorry for your losses, went through something similar years ago. Roughest was throwing out the dead A. Yougeii that was larger than a basketball that I had grown from a 2” frag.