Who's dosing vodka? And why?

spleify

spleify

Premium Member
Hi all, I am trying to gather some information on who is dosing vodka, and why you are dosing? Is it to lower NO3 and PO4? Or to try and get the most out of your corals?

What drives you to want to think outside the box and try new things? Did you do this after reading the Reef Keeping article a couple months ago, or do you know someone who also dose's? Did you get the idea after reading a thread?

I have been dosing VSV on and off for a while now, right now I am ON, and plan on keeping going like I am. My main objectve is to try and get the most out of my corals, while being able to everfeed my overstocked tank. I have been successful with this, so far.

I believe there is A LOT more to it then just dumping alcohol in your tank and thinking corals should glow, then being disapointed when they don't.

I am not saying this is for every tank and every person, as there are probably more NON carbon dosed tanks out there that look better than most carbon dosed tanks. I just want to hear about your experiences, and your dosing, feeding, husbandry, and parameter habbits.

Thanks all, and any and all information is greatly appreciated.

Spleify
 
I am curious as to how the dosage and adavantages as well. Sorry, cant help you out, but you get a bump out of it :)
 
i'm dosing 3mL/day, i've seen major reductions in algae, coral color is great! nothing died due to the vodka, either.
 
I could NEVER keep any SPS alive in my tank. I got a very nice sps frag pack from rocktscientist, and 4 died within a day or two. I gave them to a buddy of mine to hold until I could get things straightened out. The night he gave me my corals back, they looked outstanding. There were colors on them I never expected. I also could not get my phosphates down to 0, and my nitrates were a little high, so I figured what is there to lose?

I started dosing only .4ml a day, and things started getting better, Ive actually been able to keep my SPS alive. I also read that overfeeding is infact encouraged, and with anthias, I figured that was a great combination.

So far all my corals are alive, and popping. Theyre in fact, starting to encrust a little. Ive never had any success with SPS, but now theyre still alive at least. Looking at the skimmer, its amazing how much gunk is pulled out. I have a WM AS200, on my 112g, and it fills the collection cup with dark nasty gunk every 2-3 days.

Id recommend it. I dont think I'll ever stop dosing vodka.
 
Thanks for the replys everyone. This is exactly what I am looking for.

Glad to hear its working for you Jflip2002. How much are you dosing? And for how long? Is it on your 115?

chimmike, how long have you been dosing? WHat are your feeding habbits, and params?

Thanks
 
Im dosing 3.0ml now on my 112g. Id say Im a good 12 weeks along. Im very bad on water changes, also. So Im continuously doing a small 1/2g a day water change, with the way the skimmer is pulling out gunk.

Im not sure if it makes a difference really, or not, but I dose amino acids, also. I feel that since I do lack on water changes, thanks to the vodka, that I should be putting something besides calcium in the tank for the corals to feed off of.

After the first day or two, you can certainly notice the polyp extension improves, along with improved water clarity. We'll see how it turns out in the long run, but so far, so good.
 
What I don't understand about the whole vodka dosing thing is this: if the reason you are dosing vodka is for the alchohol, then why not use Everclear brand grain alchohol? Vodka has additional ingredients, and is only 40% alchohol. Everclear grain alchohol is just what it says it is: grain alchohol, 95% or 190 proof. So I would think that dosing everclear would be the way to go, and hey, it'd be cheaper too! :) But a word of advice, don't ever do a shot of this stuff... tastes like jet fuel... burns about the same too...
 
You could certainly use everclear, I would imagine. You would have to adjust the dosage. Youd just need ~2.5x more vodka, than you would need ever clear. Cant complain about the price of the vodka, though. I bought one pint of Potters ULTRA PREMIUM vodka, for $3, lol. Im still on the first bottle, and its only about 1/2 way exhausted.
 
Sorry if i sound stupid. But is the vodka you all talking about those that you drink shot of it in a club?!:confused: :rolleyes:

And Is it fine for the fishes? Will they get drunk or any side effect to their body?

As we all noe that too much alcohol is bad for us humans so.... dunno about fishes. :p

Thanks
 
The same vodka that those who drink, consume, yes. 3ml in a 115g+ of water is far from enough to effect the fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14523184#post14523184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jflip2002
The same vodka that those who drink, consume, yes. 3ml in a 115g+ of water is far from enough to effect the fish.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jflip2002. Oh, and like what you have say. Why are there people still dosing it? To harm their fishes :confused:

Pardon me, I'm not trying to find fault or whatever, I'm just curious about tis and wants to noe more about the pros and cons. Is my first time hearing people dosing vodka!

And if it's works well, I might try it out as well. That is why I wanna learn more before I decide. ;)
 
These past few replies have got me imagining drunk fish, swimming sideways, smacking into the glass repeatedly and puking on the sandbed... I'm also imagining that beautiful male angel staring through a one-eyed squint at the nearby female toadfish and thinking: "Ya know, she's not that so bad... I'ma hook up with that one tonight!"
 
i really don't understand what vodka dosing does. with a phosphate reactor, denitrate filter (not sure i even need this), a heavy feed load and heavy feeding my corals are doing great....both in coloration and growth. is vodka dosing another way of doing what a phosphate reactor does, or is it something totally differant? with my system i've been able to maintain these parameters... Ca 460, alk 9.6, mg 1450, nitrate 0 - .2 and so far so good.

i might consider vodka dosing if i didn't enough drinking it so much. please don't tell me i have to share my grey goose with my reef!...lol.
 
This is the type of discussion I was looking for. Thanks folks.

Thansk for sharing your experience Jflip2002! Sounds like you are having success with it. Glad to hear. I too am dosing AA's and IMO are important, I know not everyone is using them, that is why I want to see what people are doing after dosing for a while.
Joe what are your current params, and your feeding habbits?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14523557#post14523557 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbles129129
I used to dose ethanol that we bough from a scientific supply store(dads in pharmaceutics).
Click to expand...

What did you use? What was your experience? How lond did you dose? Whay did you stop?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14523780#post14523780 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by macreefster
i really don't understand what vodka dosing does. with a phosphate reactor, denitrate filter (not sure i even need this), a heavy feed load and heavy feeding my corals are doing great....both in coloration and growth. is vodka dosing another way of doing what a phosphate reactor does, or is it something totally differant? with my system i've been able to maintain these parameters... Ca 460, alk 9.6, mg 1450, nitrate 0 - .2 and so far so good.

i might consider vodka dosing if i didn't enough drinking it so much. please don't tell me i have to share my grey goose with my reef!...lol.
Click to expand...

Well IMO/E PFO reactors and denitraters are only going to take you so far. The params you maintain are great! I also always had great params before I was carbon dosing, but I just wanted more. I wanted to take things to the next level.

I also dose VSV, vodka sugar vinegar. I like the diversity of the bacterias, and it makes me feel better to know I am adding different carbon sources.
 
What I don't understand about the whole vodka dosing thing is this: if the reason you are dosing vodka is for the alchohol, then why not use Everclear brand grain alchohol? Vodka has additional ingredients, and is only 40% alchohol. Everclear grain alchohol is just what it says it is: grain alchohol, 95% or 190 proof. So I would think that dosing everclear would be the way to go, and hey, it'd be cheaper too! But a word of advice, don't ever do a shot of this stuff... tastes like jet fuel... burns about the same too...
Click to expand...

Lol! Everclear is pretty bad if you drink it yourself. It numbed me from the mouth down the only time I did a shot of that crap. You would have to adjust the dosage, as stated above.

Also, everclear isn't available everywhere. I know for a fact you can't buy it in NY State.


i really don't understand what vodka dosing does. with a phosphate reactor, denitrate filter (not sure i even need this), a heavy feed load and heavy feeding my corals are doing great....both in coloration and growth. is vodka dosing another way of doing what a phosphate reactor does, or is it something totally differant? with my system i've been able to maintain these parameters... Ca 460, alk 9.6, mg 1450, nitrate 0 - .2 and so far so good.
Click to expand...

That's good that you don't really need to dose vodka. Some people don't have the same situation though. Vodka acts the same as a Denitrate filter and phosban in that it removes PO4 and Trates from the system yes. I'd much rather dose 2.6ML of Vodka in my 90 Gallon that go through building or buying a Denitrator.

I also enjoy feeding my fish and corals. I feed a home made mix every other day, and nori everyday. The two tangs in my 90 Gallon, that are moving to my 180 soon, poop like crazy. One of which is a Powder Blue, so I want to keep him well fed and healthy at all times.

Taking my vodka dosing out of the equation. I have a MSX160, and a fuge loaded with chaeto on my 90 gallon. Bi-weekly water changes wouldn't get my nitrates below 25. They would just sit at 25 all the time. I wanted the vodka to get rid them down to zero, without having to increase water changes.
 
how does everyone dose their vodka? manually? drip? dosing pump? i just read the article in reef keeping about vodka dosing..... very interesting to say the least.
 
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