Vodka, vinegar,biopellets and other organic carbon dosing
- Thread starter tmz
- Start date
bif24701
New member
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
I have never heard that having lights run for less time during the day increase nutrients. Can u explain or post a link with info on this please?
What product would u use to dose nitrates? Any how much?
Just a good skimmer. Change my filter socks every 24 hours or less. I do have a bio block but that's not really export.
rogergolf66
im an addict lol
Test kits good. Red Sea pro test kit measures down to .25 I have double checked with LFS they use salient and read zero. If u want low nitrate to use a low micro filter sock and change it daily. Ure nitrates will be very low with that single maintenance alone.
You are very welcome. Glad you like it.
The vodka article, is posted earlier in the thread. I don't have
the link handy . You can use the chart for vinegar and divide the amounts by 8 for vodka. 80 proof vodka is 40% ehtanol (carbon source) and 60% water. Standard white vinegar is only 5% acetic acid (carbon source) and 95% water.
That's pretty common . Folks tend to ovedo the reduction in nitrogen and phosphate. My corals do very well at 0.02 to 0.04ppm PO4 and 0.2 to 1ppm NO3. Backing off the dose and feeding a little more should help.
I have no idea how less lighting could increase nutrients( ie phosphate, nitrogen and organic carbon) Only organic carbon has any relationship to light as corals and other photosynthetc animals and algae produce sugars via photosynthesis but would do more of that as photosynthesis and lighting increased not less.
thanks
Joel_155
New member
I've only started reading it but you really explain things well. Right now I'm using biopellets but I want to have more control over the whole process so I'm going to transition to carbon dosing via nopox. This thread is a good start to understanding what's actually going on.
bif24701
New member
I have heard good things about NOPOX. I also like the control. I can use as much or as little as I want. I like to over dose my tank every few weeks or so. It clouds my water a bit and clogs the filet socks but for a week or two after my water is clearer than ever, my corals have a growth spurt, pod populations bloom, and algae all but dissolves. Now I have made a dripper I now longer have the PH swings, that was a problem when I dosed just a small amount. My coral polyp extension would disappear, but not any more. My last system I had a 50 ml per hour pump and didn't have the problem then either. So now I can over dose with no draw backs other than the cloudiness and clogged filters. Once I have my tank fully stocked I can report results of this better. However I'm taking that slowly at the moment.
bif24701
New member
For increased bacteria population. I have gotten the above benefits. I don't over dose for an extended period of time, just one day. My skimmer is a downdraft skimmer and processes at least 600 GPH, O2 depletion has not been a concern. Non of my corals seem to suffer any negative effects from a one day overdose, my LPS and SPS still have polyp extension and my GBTA seems normal. Fish don't seem stresses either, no heavy breathing or loss of appetite. Other than cloudy water I see nothing that says my livestock is stressed.
However what I have noted over a one to two week period after an overdose is: a bloom in pod population, coral growth spurt, algae take a huge loss, and a clear difference in coral brightness and polyp extension. I had much more evident success with my old system, it had more nutrients built up and I also saw sponges grow/reproduce. I don't have any visible sponges as of yet.
I had documented the results years ago on my old system, I should try to find and continue. Others tried the same procedure and also had success. If done carefully, dosed slowly, and with a powerful skimmer in sure other can reproduce theses.
bif24701
New member
Once I returned from a three month TDY, (temporary duty) as I'm active duty and I found the system had a terrible cyano, dino, or something outbreak. This was caused by massive over feeding while I was gone, I found a 1/2" of pellet food in my overflows. I cleaned up the pellets and siphoned off the stuff from my rocks but it would come back in 24 hours. So I did an overdose because my usually dosing wasn't putting a dent in it and nitrates where still really high. I also had the idea to turn off the lights. I wish I took before and after photos, it was amazing! My sand gleamed it was so bright and in just 24 hours it was all but eliminated. Nitrates came down a lot from 80 down to 20, and with normal dosing procedures I brought it down further to <5. It never came back.
dirtycontour
New member
I posted this a couple weeks ago and your (TMZ) advice was correct. The snotty gobs went away in a matter of days. However, this past week my tank went cloudy for a few days. I further reduced the dosage down to 25 ml/day. The cloudiness seems to have gone away. I'm guessing it was some sort of bacterial bloom? Any idea why this would happen?
Don't know why aa bacteria blooom would occcur in the water column . they are usually asocited with increases in dosing; Prhoaps removing the bacteria from the back glass had something to do with it in terms of where they set up shop to make up for those removed.
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