boobookitty
Active member
I have a 400G mixed reef, started 3 years ago after retiring my 240G reef, and since zeovit was successful on the 240G, I used it on this one. Unfortunately this time around zeovit wasn't useful; I do have a higher bioload than the previous tank, and over a period of a couple years nitrates and phosphates crept higher and higher. Tank health was decent so I didn't worry, but after a couple years it started to take its toll (diminished coloring and growth, etc.)
So I abandoned zeovit and began vodka dosing, following the method described by Walton/Bjornson in Reefkeepng magazine. When I started dosing back in December, nitrates were between 50 and 100, and phosphates were 1.5+. I followed the method to the letter for the first several months, but when I got no results at all after 4 months I started increasing the dosage more, and at the end was up to 2 ml/day. Good thing too; if I'd stuck to the original dosing it would have taken me 3.7 years to finally see results.
So finally, FINALLY, in the past two-three weeks the vodka dosing kicked in. It started when dosing was around 95 ml/day, but phosphates (my primary testing, since the Hanna gives digital results) really bounced around quite a bit at first, dropping then rising back up, then dropping again, so I didn't know if it was working or just an anomaly and continued to increase the dosing during that period (it's now 120ml/day). I would see drops, then over a couple days phosphates would bounce back up, then start going down again. I'm guessing it has something to do with their being leached out of the rocks; my phosphates and nitrates were pretty high for a couple years as I kept waiting for zeovit to take care of the problem.
Along the way the last 7 months I've tested phosphates daily, nitrates sporadically. Phosphates started out at around 1.5, then dipped to 1.35 and 1.15 where they plateaud at each level for a while. Then dips down to 0.95, then back up to 1.15, then finally a series of drops down to 0.75 today. I checked nitrates a few times along the way, and I could see some progress down as well (they started at 50+).
So I finally checked nitrates again today: they're undetectable on the Salifert kit. Which is great, but now I'm wondering what will happen with the phosphates. From what I understand phosphates and nitrates come down together with vodka dosing, but with nitrates effectively at zero does this mean phosphates will stop going down? Should I cut back to maintenance dosing now (half of current dosing), since one of the two parameters has zeroed out?
So I abandoned zeovit and began vodka dosing, following the method described by Walton/Bjornson in Reefkeepng magazine. When I started dosing back in December, nitrates were between 50 and 100, and phosphates were 1.5+. I followed the method to the letter for the first several months, but when I got no results at all after 4 months I started increasing the dosage more, and at the end was up to 2 ml/day. Good thing too; if I'd stuck to the original dosing it would have taken me 3.7 years to finally see results.
So finally, FINALLY, in the past two-three weeks the vodka dosing kicked in. It started when dosing was around 95 ml/day, but phosphates (my primary testing, since the Hanna gives digital results) really bounced around quite a bit at first, dropping then rising back up, then dropping again, so I didn't know if it was working or just an anomaly and continued to increase the dosing during that period (it's now 120ml/day). I would see drops, then over a couple days phosphates would bounce back up, then start going down again. I'm guessing it has something to do with their being leached out of the rocks; my phosphates and nitrates were pretty high for a couple years as I kept waiting for zeovit to take care of the problem.
Along the way the last 7 months I've tested phosphates daily, nitrates sporadically. Phosphates started out at around 1.5, then dipped to 1.35 and 1.15 where they plateaud at each level for a while. Then dips down to 0.95, then back up to 1.15, then finally a series of drops down to 0.75 today. I checked nitrates a few times along the way, and I could see some progress down as well (they started at 50+).
So I finally checked nitrates again today: they're undetectable on the Salifert kit. Which is great, but now I'm wondering what will happen with the phosphates. From what I understand phosphates and nitrates come down together with vodka dosing, but with nitrates effectively at zero does this mean phosphates will stop going down? Should I cut back to maintenance dosing now (half of current dosing), since one of the two parameters has zeroed out?
. Phosphates were 0.75 again today; I’ll keep the increasing going throughout the weekend to see if that changes or if phosphate doesn’t move. If it’s the latter I’ll move to maintenance dosing and figure out what to do to lower phosphates more.
