Trying out the vodka trick...on day 6

I have done it in the past with great success. It definitely does work. Several things to think about. Make sure you have a good skimmer running when dosing. Also, make sure you dose at a time so that you have your lights on for a few hours at least after dosing. Skimmer is essential for keeping O2 up and providing the primary basis of exporting excess bacteria. Lights also help to keep 02 up. Pay particular attention to cloudy water or any white slime build up. In either instance, you are having a bacterial bloom and need to reduce dosing until problems eleviate. Also, when and if you decide to eliminate dosing, do not abruptly stop dosing and gradually reduce dosing so as to allow your system to slowly rebalance. Otherwise, you may have a major cyno problem if you abruptly stop dosing.
 
Great, thanks for the info especially on the stopping part. I am going with the slow formula to hopefully not get cloudy water or the stringy stuff. I have one of those Octo Extreme 300s, pretty good skimmer. It can pull 1/2 gallon of junk every 3 days.

I had been dosing without lights on, will switch that.
 
I have tried this same method 2 times in my tank and every time i have had some problems for my fishes.
They showed strange white dots on their bodies that weren't crypto or odinium but probably parasites or bacteria.
Using this method the quantity of bacteria in the tang grows up greatly and there is the possibility that your fishes could suffer of them. In reef tanks many bacteria are filteres by corals in fact many diseases are more controllable than FO or FOWLR tanks.
Be careful and check very closely your fishes.
Lorenzo
 
I'm very happy with the vitamin c dosing for nitrate reduction & better health of my fish & corals, expecially my "melting' zoas.
 
Sure does! I had my large Mantis shrimp in a tank where the nitrate would go >100 every week, despite 80% water changes. I dose 1/8 tsp, 1x/day & the nitrate remains <10 in there, whether I do WC or not, even after 3 weeks. Nitrate in my medium-sized 40g predator/softie tank remains 0 at all times, as with my main 90g DT.
 
Pufferpunk, let me know what brand you use....very interesting. Will have to look it up. Do you know the formula for dosing?

Lesleybird, they are always drinking like fish!!!
 
Re: Trying out the vodka trick...on day 6

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13900588#post13900588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danorth
I am following the outline from this site:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

Curious to see if my nitrates will actually be other than blood. Will keep this updated as well.
Click to expand...
I'm convinced that sugar or vodka dosing works. Just curious; it sounds like you have a FOWLR tank; unless your nitrates are extremely high, why bother with them? Nitrates, at say 60ppm (or higher), won't hurt fish at all.
 
Ya, but high nitrates do lead to algae problems which can be particularly difficult to deal with in a FOWLR without any clean up crew. Tangs can help. But if you get some algae growth that the tangs do not eat, you can have a difficult problem.
 
Stu has it right, I do have some brown algae despite the big skimmer and tons of flow. I am hoping that it will cut down the bad algae. It is an experiment. If the lack of nitrates, or at least being less than the 1000+ it is now reduces the brown on the floor and back then it is working.

Today I move up to 2.5ml a day.
 
If your concerns are algae and if you are not already doing so, a very cheap and effective tool to combat algae is a fluidized reactor for GFO. I think a dual approach of reducing nitrates through vodka dosing combined with reducing phosphate with the reactor and GFO is very effective. A phosban reactor costs only around $30 US and a small pump maybe $15.
 
I have a phosban reactor, good flow, decent skimmer....0 nitrates for the most part...and I STILL have green hair algae and diatom algae issues.

Drives me friggin crazy. I don't get it. I can't keep chaeto in my fuge because there is nothing to sustain it...it just withers away. I'm thinking about a UV sterilizer...with no nitrates I guess dosing with vodka won't help.

don't mean to hyjack...just venting. :lol:
 
People, feel free to hyjack....I started this thread so if there was any nettequette to follow, I hereby grant permission to vent and stray....especially when I am the one asking about vitamin c dosing. Got a link to a thread puferpunk? If not I'll wait until 4 am when the search engine works....!
 
Holy ****! See, how can a big *** thread and topic like be going on and I have no idea about it? There should be like a RC top action threads list on the home page or something.

I will venture through the pages, but did note the Cliff's Notes version on the dosing procedure. Thanks for the letting me in on this!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
some random questions
Replies
1
Views
221
SantaMonica
S
S
Tank Update & Tentative Stocking Plan
Replies
2
Views
105
griss
griss
Paul B
The Benefit of Parasites
Replies
4
Views
2K
kelly_12
K
Reef Kinetics
Latest ReefBot Lab Updates: Better Testing & Enhanced Features
Replies
0
Views
710
Reef Kinetics
Reef Kinetics
NancyT3
Display tank - algae bloom - (19 wk old 140 gal)
Replies
12
Views
2K
CharleyDavis
C
Back
Top