Vodka and softies?

[intermision]

I started dosing Vodka about 4-5 days ago and ever since then my Kenya tree has been shriveled up everything else is looking amazing so It makes me wonder what could be causing it. I would think that if there was a problem with the water chemistry than everything would be doing bad.

 

[oldreefer76]

Is there a reason why you are dosing vodka with softies?

 

[intermision]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15116080#post15116080 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oldreefer76
Is there a reason why you are dosing vodka with softies?

I also have some hard corals, and I'm trying to keep the phosphates and Nitrites down.

 

[scottallert]

try to cut down on the vodka.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Im up too .3 ml of vodka in my 50 gallon with a Big toadstoal, green sin, some other unidentified larger softie, some xenia, some kenya tree, shrooms, rics, zoa's, paly's....nothing has changed as far as they are concerned. How much are you dosing in what size tank?

The only thing i have noticed is my coraline has exploded onto the scene. I suspect that is due to the lowered No3 though.

 

[intermision]

Right now I'm dosing .2ml in a 29g tank.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

hmmm...that does not sound like to much.


How are your nutrient levels?

 

[chesterwhite]

Are you putting the vodka straight into the tank?

 

[thirst]

I dose .6 ml of vodka right into a tank 35 gallon tank, 20 gallon sump.. i have lots of leathers, they all seem to be doing fine..

 

[Garage1217]

I am at 8ml a day on about 100G total water volume. System is totally mixed, but focused on SPS with about 65 species. I have toadstools, cespitularia, sponges & none are affected at all & never have been by vodka.

 

[fishaholic911]

What brand of vodka are you guys using? How do you add it? What are the benifits?

 

[hollback]

Here is a good article on Vodka Dosing.

 

[shrimplover]

That article was very good. The vodka dosing sounds pretty intense, I'll just do more regular water changes.

 

[agentgreen]

My xenia is also shriveled after starting a vodka dosing routine. As I don't have a sump or otherwise, I've been adding straight to the tank. Is this the wrong approach? Up to .2mL right now, but today I add another .5mL and keep going up from there. Xenia seems to be the only thing affected, my zoas look just fine.

 

[intermision]

I stopped dosing about 3 days ago and now the Kenya tree is opening up.

 

[agentgreen]

I may stop dosing vodka myself, I upped my water change percentage and it appears to be keeping up with the nitrates. Just bought a new API test kit as well, and it shows different a different nitrate level (lower) than my Seachem kit did (real hard to read anyways).

Going to keep dosing vodka for another week or so just to see though. If nothing changes in that week, my nitrates don't go up incredibly high and another water change keeps the nitrates below 20ppm, no more vodka!

 

[RyanDragon]

intermission, do u have a good protein skimmer ? because in the vodka article, it said that powerful skimmer is an absolute must in prior to dosing vodka.. I'm up to 0.2ML of vodka a day and my colt coral seems to open up alot more and it color changes from brown to brownish pink... I got some LPS and zoas and mushrooms in my tank 2, everything is happy

 

[ReefingintheUSA]

Okay. Vodka, like real vodka? I'm obviously new to this, had my tanks up 6-8 months. What's up with vodka in a fish tank... should i be using...is this common??

I didnt know fish drank! LOL

 

[Jman13]

yea i have no clue as to how this is healthy to any aquatic animal... will someone please explain this to me

 

[rnsmith]

I went through the vodka doing routine from December to about March, and then tapered off to nothing. It was the best thing I have done for my tank in 9 years of dealing with high nitrates and phosphates. I'm now at "0" for both. Since then, my tank of softies has exploded with growth. What were once nubs of xenia are growing like crazy. I can feed without concern for the N & P going up.

My Kenya tree is huge. A Kenya tree will shrink down to nothing once in a while, shed, and then come back even bigger. I think mine did it when I first started with the vodka. Don't worry about it.

The vodka doing does work as advertised. You must have a good skimmer and you must monitor your P and N as the cycle starts and especially as you near the bottom of the N and P range. You want a "soft landing."

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