Vodka Dosers!!

By "results" do you mean lower nitrates? It depends on how much you are dosing, bioload, existing nitrate level, and whether or not anything is leeching trates into your water(lr, sand, etc.). All of these variables will effect how quickly NO3 levels are lowered from your water column. As a general rule, dosing should be very conservative in the beginning to avoid a massive bacteria bloom.
 
nitrates are at 0 but phosphates has always been a problem, phosphates are at 1 at the moment, running phosphate reactor but nothings happening, saw the vodka idea and thought give it a try, only on 2nd day but im dosing .7ml, and yeah how long untill phosphates start to lower?
 
i saw them around a month or two..once you get around dosing 2.5ml daily or more you should seeing some good things out your tank..maybe a little longer..in about a month my tank had coralline everywhere with NO hair algae or a phosphate or nitrate..plus your corals should gain some extreme color..its def not something overnight or in a week..just keep at it and good things will come and dont rush it..
 
thanks mate, thats what i needed to hear haha, yeah i just started cause i needed to get the phosphates down and you hear about all the other benefits from it, so it sounded like a good idea
 
What test/method are you using to check phosphates? You really need a Hanna checker or similar to get accurate low end resolution on which to base your dosing decisions on.

Nitrates dropped to zero very quickly for me as well. I'm still on the induction phase of dosing after two months. I'm at 4 ML and almost there. Phosphate now at .2, started at 2. Be advised that carbon dosing can actually encourage cyano growth in some cases, so don't let that be your gauge for success. Also, if it's hair algae you're struggling with, be sure low mag isn't your problem first.
 
It concerns me that you have such high P04 while running a reactor. I would cross check you testing with another kit or lfs, and be sure that nothing else could be leeching phosphate into your water.
 
i use natural sea water so i should probably test that, but im sure its not it, at the start we put in some rock covered in hair algea which was not a good idea as you look back on it, and the test kit is sera its good
 
i had bad rocks too, it takes quite some time to clear them of hair algae but your tank might look better than ever before that...
 
now sure whether u had LPS or SPS, but when I vodka dosed I noticed my LPS didnt extend as much, same for softies

also I couldnt get my ph to 7.9 no matter how much kalk I dripped
 
I'm on day 28 or something like that. Phosphates and Nitrates are both low, but not at 0 yet. My Hanna checker gave me 0.12 first time, then 0.00 the next. I'm measuring again today so we'll see where I'm at.

I havent' seen any benefits or problems with dosing yet. I'm currently on 2.6ml and doing about 0.5ml of MB7 per day.
 
I began to see nitrate reduction within a month, My P04 took forever. I finaly was able to bring them down with a combination of GFO, and Vodka. It still took months to get my phosphates under control. Im still in the battle, but atleast ive got it semi under control. Ive got some before pictures in one of my post somewhere here on RC. If i get a chance ill take an updated picture tomorrow. Its amazing how much my tank cleaned up.
 
DeepSeaBeauti said:
I began to see nitrate reduction within a month, My P04 took forever. I finaly was able to bring them down with a combination of GFO, and Vodka. It still took months to get my phosphates under control. Im still in the battle, but atleast ive got it semi under control. Ive got some before pictures in one of my post somewhere here on RC. If i get a chance ill take an updated picture tomorrow. Its amazing how much my tank cleaned up.
Click to expand...

yeah im just hoping vodka will do the trick cause nothing else has worked and hopefully the reactor will help with the phosphate reduction
 
I was unable to get a decent picture this morning. Sorry. But the vodka worked for me, Just make sure you follow the the dose instructions exactly, you dont want to dose too much or too fast. And make sure you check your water parameters often.
 
I'm excited as my parameters are almost at 0 now. My Phosphates have been 0.00 with the Hanna Checker for the last few days, and my nitrates are down to 0.2 according to a SeaChem test. I have a Salifert Nitrate test on the way.

Soon I'll be moving to the maintenance dose on the vodka. Can't wait til effects start kicking in :) My SPS already grows decently, so I hope it accelerates it.
 
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