vodka dosing no results yet

[NovaSS]

Ive been dosing vodka for awhile now. I will say since august maybe july. Im at 25ml a day on my 300 gallons total volume. I done a 200 gallon water change over 4 days in october and it brought my nitrates down to around 20ppm. Now there back up to around 30-40 with a seachem test kit. deep red on the api test kit. But i know if have anything over 20ppm the api will read off the charts.

Im running filter socks that I chance every 2-3 days and Im thinking the problem might be the skimmer socks causing the problem or maybe my skimmer. Its a g2 with a mag 7 and fills up in a few days. Here is the skimmer after 24hrs. Should I upgrade the skimmer to something like the sro6000 or something around that size?

 

[Subsea]

I am more familiar with drinking the vodka and dosing with vinegar. Most methodologies continue increasing dosage rate in stages until they get reducing nitrates. Once nitrates stay reduced that is your baseline number to dose with.

It sounds like you need to increase your dose rates.
Patrick

 

[Subsea]

your skimmate looks to be very weak. With sufficient carbon dosing it should be much darker. In a round about way, your skimmate is a type of water cahnge. How much volume of skimmate are uou accumulating each week. Your large water change merely dilluted your nitrate concentration and did nothing to address the source of the problem, insufficient biofiltration.
Patrick

 

[wildman926]

Has your skimmer output changed since starting the dosing? Your skimmer is a tad small for your volume.

Ever thought of running an ATS (algae turf scrubber)?

 

[NovaSS]

I do think i have medium bio load on the tank. the dp tank is 8Lx3Wx2H with a 40 gallon sump and 20 gallon refugium. I been thinking about getting sro6000 or somthing in that range. But i dont want to put that kind of money in a skimmer if it isnt going to help with my problem. The tank has grown cortez ray, voliton lion, coral cat shark pup, fox face and a 4" harlequin tusk.

I notice the skimmer pulled really dark brown foam and dark green skimmate about half way threw the dosing. I had to adjust the skimmer because the filter fell down on the tube and it wouldnt pull anything. I see most people use a g2 and even g3 on 50-90 gallon tanks.

I took a pic this morning of the skimmer. So i empty the skimmer every 2-3 days.