shelburn61
New member
Is vodka any better than gin or other clear liquors?
Vodka dosing and BB tanks
- Thread starter Wiskey
- Start date
I had been dosing vodka for 4 months .
Over the last 2 months i changed to isopropanol as it is much purer and dose not have other elements like vodka.
The results have been pretty good as i notice none of my leathers and muchrooms close, when using vodka some of my leathers closed.
I would try it as it does work well and is not as harsh as vodka. get isopropanol and dilute with 50% water
dose rate 1ml/100L
Over the last 2 months i changed to isopropanol as it is much purer and dose not have other elements like vodka.
The results have been pretty good as i notice none of my leathers and muchrooms close, when using vodka some of my leathers closed.
I would try it as it does work well and is not as harsh as vodka. get isopropanol and dilute with 50% water
dose rate 1ml/100L
Wiskey
New member
Thanks everyone for the great information!
Tangblack, isn't Ispropanol a poison? I know that people can't drink it, and I think they put something in it so people don't try.
I was thinking about Everclear for the purity, but I think I will use what has been tried first, then experiment later, if I want, once I get this down.
Thanks,
Whiskey
Tangblack, isn't Ispropanol a poison? I know that people can't drink it, and I think they put something in it so people don't try.
I was thinking about Everclear for the purity, but I think I will use what has been tried first, then experiment later, if I want, once I get this down.
Thanks,
Whiskey
Wiskey- have you started dosing yet? How's it going so far? I'm thinking about Vodka too. I just re-read Borneman's articles and I'm a little nervous. I want to understand the concept completely before going ahead with it. The whole idea really seems to make a lot of sense. Why are so many reefers against it?
Wiskey
New member
my2girls said:
Yes I have, at 0.35 ML/day for 80 gallons total water volume. Frankly I have not noticed anything yet, the water may be a little clearer, but I already run a BB system so it was perty clear to start with. I don't know if I will ramp this up much more, because I am still a little on the fence about this and I may stay at the lower level for a while.
HTH,
Whiskey
zapata41
In Memoriam
ok now correct me here but, if you are running a bb system that was properly setup, cooked rocks, crazy flow, skimmer that is ginormous, then why would you have any po4 or anything like that. i mean i have nice bare bottom ( my tank that is you sick o's) and everything is setup up properly except i didnt cook the rocks and dont see any po4, i have just started running ozone and didnt see too much a difference in water clearity.
Tim
Tim
Wiskey
New member
I don't have P04 (that is inorganic and detectable by a test kit), but I do have nitrates (detectable at somewhere around 2.5). I just put my LR back in (after cooking) and I am hoping between the de-nitrifing of the LR and the vodka that can drop to 0. Plus even if nitrates do drop to undetectable, perhaps the vodka will alow me to run lower nutreants, which for sps is a great thing, and it alows me to give my fish a little more food.
Whiskey
Whiskey
wrassie86
Premium Member
You guys that are starting to use it.just watch for a lightning of the corals and make sure your not starving them or the new water clarity is not bleaching them.the starving part i push more twoards the BB guys.Altho the guy that came up with this said DSB tanks can go south pretty fast also. Just go slow.More is not better.
wrassie86 said:
When you say watch for lightening of the corals do you mean watch out for bleaching? I'm looking for a general lightening of the corals (most of my SPS have a slight brown cast). I go BB and do a 10% water change per week.
About the yellow tint to the water when using vodka... do you need ozone or will carbon (passive in sump) work as well?
wrassie86
Premium Member
my2girls said:
Bleaching from better light penitration/starving or stn/rtn.You should not have a yellow tint in the water from using vodka.Vodka makes the water cystal clear.Not sure about ozone the guy that invented this method, i belive said not to use it.but carbon should be used and changed out every couple of weeks.
It sounds to me like you have a organic/phos problem,making the SPS brown.or not enough light.
I've used both the vodka method and zeovit.At least with zeovit you had a rough out line for feeding the corals.and brought levels down slowly.vodka is very efficiant at taking down nitrate and if you go for the bactirial bloom can do it very fast.But just like zeovit if you have a crappy skimmer dont bother with vodka the vodka is only as good as your skimmer.JMHO
Out of both of those methods, i choose a aquamedic nitrate reductor, rowaphos, ozone.
Wiskey
New member
I noticed I had to cut my lights (MH) back to 8 hours, from 10 hours, after going BB because of bleaching, I have my eye on things very closely right now to see if I need to cut back more.
What is the carbon for? Carbon removes DOC, and what I thought we are trying to do is introduce some DOC, (along with sugers ect,) for the bacteria to feed on and remove nutreants. Do I have the wrong idea here?
I have a Turbofloater 1000, I run it wet (I made a new collection cup to alow me to do this more constantally) and pull out about 1/2 gallon every 3 days. This skimmer is rated for 250 gallons, and I have it on 80 gallons of water with the upgraded ocean runner pump.
One thing that worries me though, I only have 150 GPH going through my skimmer sump. I drilled my tank myself, and due to a couple of "on the fly" piping mods I think I may not be able to push much more. Is this something I should worry about, or is 150 GPH plenty for what I need?
Thanks,
Whiskey
What is the carbon for? Carbon removes DOC, and what I thought we are trying to do is introduce some DOC, (along with sugers ect,) for the bacteria to feed on and remove nutreants. Do I have the wrong idea here?
I have a Turbofloater 1000, I run it wet (I made a new collection cup to alow me to do this more constantally) and pull out about 1/2 gallon every 3 days. This skimmer is rated for 250 gallons, and I have it on 80 gallons of water with the upgraded ocean runner pump.
One thing that worries me though, I only have 150 GPH going through my skimmer sump. I drilled my tank myself, and due to a couple of "on the fly" piping mods I think I may not be able to push much more. Is this something I should worry about, or is 150 GPH plenty for what I need?
Thanks,
Whiskey
Thanks wrassie, good advice.
I'm pretty sure one of the Germans said plan on using ozone with vodka (because of yellow tint). I don't get it either. If vodka clears the water, how is it yellowing it? You can see the the quote at the end of the 33 page thread on vodka lowering N and P. Sorry don't have the link.
I'm pretty sure one of the Germans said plan on using ozone with vodka (because of yellow tint). I don't get it either. If vodka clears the water, how is it yellowing it? You can see the the quote at the end of the 33 page thread on vodka lowering N and P. Sorry don't have the link.
wrassie86
Premium Member
You want the carbon to reduce the organic load on your tank.When you add vodka your feeding the bacteria a carbon source to eat up the nitrate and phosfate.thus the need for a good skimmer to pull them out before they release the items again.At some point your levels would drop.then the rocks would start to leach what they have stored.good or bad.you should use carbon to catch the organics that will be produced by this also.
Also if you start to see bacterail mats forming cut back on the amount your using.
if the big vodka thread has not been read,it might be good idea there is alot of good info there, altho scattered.
Also if you start to see bacterail mats forming cut back on the amount your using.
if the big vodka thread has not been read,it might be good idea there is alot of good info there, altho scattered.
Mark
Premium Member
I don't feel ozone is necessary. I still use it, but I only run ozone once a month, similar in the way some people run carbon only a few days a month.
It does kill bacteria, but if you are only supplying it to the skimmer, then you are only killing the bacteria that is in the water being skimmed. This is the same bacteria that you are trying skim out anyway, so I don't see much harm. There's also a safety net with ozone: An accidental overdose of vodka can cause a major bacterial bloom. These blooms can starve your tank of O2. I believe the Ozone helps in these circumstances, since it will prevent a bacterial bloom by killing them in the skimmed water. But, it's not a necessity. A powerfull skimmer alone usually keeps O2 at adequate levels during a bacterial bloom. I endured a vodka induced bloom once without the use of Ozone. My skimmer is adequately sized, so I didn't see any fish or coral suffer from low O2. It took about 3 days for the bloom to clear. This happened back when I first started.
It does kill bacteria, but if you are only supplying it to the skimmer, then you are only killing the bacteria that is in the water being skimmed. This is the same bacteria that you are trying skim out anyway, so I don't see much harm. There's also a safety net with ozone: An accidental overdose of vodka can cause a major bacterial bloom. These blooms can starve your tank of O2. I believe the Ozone helps in these circumstances, since it will prevent a bacterial bloom by killing them in the skimmed water. But, it's not a necessity. A powerfull skimmer alone usually keeps O2 at adequate levels during a bacterial bloom. I endured a vodka induced bloom once without the use of Ozone. My skimmer is adequately sized, so I didn't see any fish or coral suffer from low O2. It took about 3 days for the bloom to clear. This happened back when I first started.
