vodka dosing

[tmz]

Sorry ,
I forgot to post this thread earlier:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134105&highlight=organic+carbon+dosing

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

its very fustrating i love my tank its my pride and joy but the never ending cyano is really letting me down

what's your refracto say S.G. is at?

 

[tmz]

I agree salinity is one of the most important parameters for a tank with invertebrates.
Info on the other parameters, particularly PO4( inorganic phosphate) would help too.

Depsite the low feeding and mechanical, chemical and biological filtration you have going on,the tank could have high PO4 which gives the cyano the nutrient it can't make by itself. Often rocks and substrate hold inorganic PO4 and leach it back over time . Keeping the PO4 low in the surrounding water for a period of weeks to months allows the surface bound PO4 species , to equilibrite with the water and ultimately exhaust. Running a PO4 remover such as gfo should help.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

salinity is on the high side 1.026 but everything seems happy there im going to buy a gfo reactor next week. i started dosing the vinegar at night becouse i used to do it in the morning but cyano dies off at night so im hoping this helps.

 

[tmz]

No, that's not good, The vinegar drops ph quickly and should be dosed during photosynthetic periods,preferably over a long period of time. The cyano doesnt die it just withdaraws when there is no light to use.It might just suck up the organic carbon from the vinegar at night if it's there.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

when i read the dosing article i thought it said to dose before lights on or just after lights out. when would you say the best time would be to dose i cant do it all day long so i have to dose all at once

 

[cardiffgiant]

What about a dosing pump and a timer?

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

money is tight right now. i didnt realize it affect ph that much so do you think it would be better to dose right before lights out or right before they come on

 

[tmz]

If you dose it all at once, I'd use vodka instead of vinegar at least for most of the dose. Remember vinegar is 95% water , 80 proof vodka is 60 % water. So vinegar has 5% organic carbon( acetic acid; vodka has 40% organic carbon surce ( ethanol). So take the vinegar dose and divide it by 8 for a vodka equivalent. Dose an hour or so after the lights come on.

If you are going to continue organic carbon dosing which might not be the best idea for your situation I suggest you rad the thread posted in post #21.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

the carbon dosing is not working the cyano has gotten way worse so im going to stop it ad by a gfo reactor next week ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr this **** sucks lol