Vodka dosing: how long?

[spinsonic]

So i've been dosing vodka for about 2 weeks now, and havent noticed nitrates or phosphates dropping. I decided to dose vodka since it requires me to replace gfo every week to keep it down to .04 levels. Nitrates has always been at 2, so im not too concern here.

So how long does it usually to to notice carbon dosing is working?

 

[BigAl2007]

It really depends on several factors....

A) how slowly you start the dosing regimen
B) Current carbon levels in your tank
C) how high your NO3 & PO4 really is

in my 34g tank I started very slow (and I'm dosing vinegar) and honestly I didn't see much of a change for the first month but after that WHAMO you could walk by the tank and tell a difference even without testing.

 

[spinsonic]

It really depends on several factors....

A) how slowly you start the dosing regimen
B) Current carbon levels in your tank
C) how high your NO3 & PO4 really is

in my 34g tank I started very slow (and I'm dosing vinegar) and honestly I didn't see much of a change for the first month but after that WHAMO you could walk by the tank and tell a difference even without testing.

well I started out pretty high. dosing 2ml from the beginning. Reason is I dosed the recommended amount few months ago and decided to stop. My N03 is at 2, with P04 creeping up to .15 if I don't replace GFO every week. Basically trying to save some money on gfo here...

 

[jimmy frag]

at high levels of phos and nitrates it can take up to 8 weeks to see any reduction, then it happens over night almost. your readings are not bad. keep with the program, but try to limit the input of phosphates

 

[spinsonic]

okay thank you. maybe i should up the dosage since the tank is 175g, so im thinking 5ml of vodka is not going to cut it anytime soon

 

[bertoni]

I agree that some waiting, and possibly increasing the dose, might be in order.