Who's dosing vodka? And why?
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Gatorfan
New member
I've been fighting this nasty algae the last couple months in my 20L. Brown/stringy/bubbly(dinoflagellates most likely) crud that started to cover just about everything... I've always used RO/DI water on the tank and have done at least 10% water changes a week. Tank has a MP20, Remora skimmer, and 250w halide.
I started dosing vodka four days ago, started at 4 drops and upped it to 7 drops today and it's working wonders! Abour half of the algae on the rocks and sand has died back and about 1/4 of the glass. Will probably just keep it at this low dose(~0.2ml) since I'm seeing results.
I started dosing vodka four days ago, started at 4 drops and upped it to 7 drops today and it's working wonders! Abour half of the algae on the rocks and sand has died back and about 1/4 of the glass. Will probably just keep it at this low dose(~0.2ml) since I'm seeing results.
I'm dosing 90cc/day on my 1200 gallon system. Nitrates are 4.4. I don't see much of a reduction in phosphate and still have to run GFO. My nitrates were in the mid-20's after stopping vodka dosing for 45 days while my skimmer was offline for a week, then I decided to re-start to get the nitrate down.
As an experiment since my nitrates were coming down so well, I took my GFO offline and it climbed from 0.03 to 0.11 within a weeks time. So, I think the vodka works good for nitrate, but not so much for phosphate. I have been dosing 80-90cc/day for quite some time now and my nitrates are staying right at 4.4, so I am just maintaining at this point with the current dose.
It looks like skimmate production is finally slowing down a bit and I have a lot of brown slimy gunk inside all of my plumbing pipes, pumps, etc. I feed very heavy and I have about 70 fish total in both tanks.
So, this method of nitrate reduction is working for the time being, but I keep waiting for something bad to happen as this is still a new area for reef hobbyists like myself. I am not dosing anything else besides the vodka. I have NO problem algae and my fuge algae is still growing at current dosing regimen. Corals and fish all look great, even getting good growth on the softies which I thought might slow down.
As an experiment since my nitrates were coming down so well, I took my GFO offline and it climbed from 0.03 to 0.11 within a weeks time. So, I think the vodka works good for nitrate, but not so much for phosphate. I have been dosing 80-90cc/day for quite some time now and my nitrates are staying right at 4.4, so I am just maintaining at this point with the current dose.
It looks like skimmate production is finally slowing down a bit and I have a lot of brown slimy gunk inside all of my plumbing pipes, pumps, etc. I feed very heavy and I have about 70 fish total in both tanks.
So, this method of nitrate reduction is working for the time being, but I keep waiting for something bad to happen as this is still a new area for reef hobbyists like myself. I am not dosing anything else besides the vodka. I have NO problem algae and my fuge algae is still growing at current dosing regimen. Corals and fish all look great, even getting good growth on the softies which I thought might slow down.
trueblackpercula
New member
Ok I am up to 2.8 ml a day of vodka and will be testing the water like clock work tomorrow to see were N and P are at.
All sps look great and the water is well let's just say there looks like there's no water
Michael Anthony
All sps look great and the water is well let's just say there looks like there's no water
Michael Anthony
KillerReef
Wrasse-a-holic
I'm up to 4ml, 8 weeks I believe. No change in my no3, still around 50. PO4 is now detectable, but that is probably because I have changed all my filters on my RO/DI and changed salt mixes...
But, though my nitrates are still too high, my water clarity is as TBP said "there looks like there's no water". When this initially happened, I was having a cyano breakup dues to high water params. I turned off my lights for 4 days and it was gone. Now 2 months later, there is no nuisance algae in my tank. I attribute it to the vodka. Hopefully, soon, my NO3 will drop, too...
But, though my nitrates are still too high, my water clarity is as TBP said "there looks like there's no water". When this initially happened, I was having a cyano breakup dues to high water params. I turned off my lights for 4 days and it was gone. Now 2 months later, there is no nuisance algae in my tank. I attribute it to the vodka. Hopefully, soon, my NO3 will drop, too...
Dave, FYI and FWIW
My system is similar in terms of fish load. Your observations are similar to mine.
I have 550gallons and over 40 well fed fish including a fair share of tangs ,rabbits, butterflies and many corals of different varieties including sps sofites ,lps, gorgoniania and a few non photosynthetics.
I dose a bit less 24ml vodka and 2ml vinegar per day. Been doing that for over 6 months . I also use about 700g of gfo changed every 5 weeks and rox gac and chaeto. Nitrates at 2 to4 ppm per salifert. PO4 right around .05ppm hanah photometer.Both have been pretty consistent at these level.
I'm also anxious about something bad happening but so far so good with dosing levels under the curve ,heavy skimming and gac. I get some but not much of that brownish mulm as well as some slight patchy cyano and small amounts of here and there shortlived hair algae. Water is crystal clear.Livestock doing very well. A couple of lobophylia (not all )darkend toward purple within the first month or two of dosing but no other odd effects.
I'm thinking of reducing gfo or reducing the carbon dosing or upgrading organic carbon removal with some ozone and gac as a next step. On one hand I don't really like adding all that organic carbon and all of that bacterial growth and on the other I don't like buying all that gfo.Maybe I'll sip a bit of the vodka and just think about it and keep doing what I'm doing for a while.
My system is similar in terms of fish load. Your observations are similar to mine.
I have 550gallons and over 40 well fed fish including a fair share of tangs ,rabbits, butterflies and many corals of different varieties including sps sofites ,lps, gorgoniania and a few non photosynthetics.
I dose a bit less 24ml vodka and 2ml vinegar per day. Been doing that for over 6 months . I also use about 700g of gfo changed every 5 weeks and rox gac and chaeto. Nitrates at 2 to4 ppm per salifert. PO4 right around .05ppm hanah photometer.Both have been pretty consistent at these level.
I'm also anxious about something bad happening but so far so good with dosing levels under the curve ,heavy skimming and gac. I get some but not much of that brownish mulm as well as some slight patchy cyano and small amounts of here and there shortlived hair algae. Water is crystal clear.Livestock doing very well. A couple of lobophylia (not all )darkend toward purple within the first month or two of dosing but no other odd effects.
I'm thinking of reducing gfo or reducing the carbon dosing or upgrading organic carbon removal with some ozone and gac as a next step. On one hand I don't really like adding all that organic carbon and all of that bacterial growth and on the other I don't like buying all that gfo.Maybe I'll sip a bit of the vodka and just think about it and keep doing what I'm doing for a while.
Stanley-Reefer
New member
Week 5 here along with MB7 and tanks already seeded with prodibio.....2.6ml in the 90 and 3.4ml in the 175 daily.
90 started off at 40ppm (dipstrip) and 175 was at 20ppm Nitrate
Now the 90 is at 20ppm and 175 is between the 10ppm and 0 reading on the strip.
The stips are very accurate often displaying the same color as an actual # on other tests.
90 started off at 40ppm (dipstrip) and 175 was at 20ppm Nitrate
Now the 90 is at 20ppm and 175 is between the 10ppm and 0 reading on the strip.
The stips are very accurate often displaying the same color as an actual # on other tests.
noahm
Active member
Just though I would throw in my update. Its been several months, and I am up to 8 mL on my 125. I had a sump failure a month back and replaced most of the sand with a 4-5" DSB, so that has probably affected things a bit. Went through a 3 week very minor cyano bloom in the fuge after. I have to say, that the results for me have come a lot slower, but are now really showing some improvement.
I finally started getting good skimmate production at about 6mL (somewhere around 5 months) and seem to be keeping nitrates at 5-10 ppm. Never had a real HA problem, since my CUC lets nothing start, but have some in the sump that is still actively growing. I did have a period where my zoas all started closing up and some melting, but still had 10 ppm nitrate reading. I attribute this to the zoa flu as it went from colony to colony and polyps closed for a few days in kind of a sickly way and then the colony would recover. I don't think it had anything to do with the dosing and only two colonies actually had permanent damage, while others are actively growing and happy, but it did make me second guess dosing. I am happy I just kept with it.
Well thats about it. Seems to be that i am reaching the goal. Been feeding about 5 days a week alternating pea sized Rods and reef chili. Hoping to reach the time to change to maintenance dose soon, so I don't have to budget too much for vodka
Good thing I don't drink. I imagine some dosers double dip.
I finally started getting good skimmate production at about 6mL (somewhere around 5 months) and seem to be keeping nitrates at 5-10 ppm. Never had a real HA problem, since my CUC lets nothing start, but have some in the sump that is still actively growing. I did have a period where my zoas all started closing up and some melting, but still had 10 ppm nitrate reading. I attribute this to the zoa flu as it went from colony to colony and polyps closed for a few days in kind of a sickly way and then the colony would recover. I don't think it had anything to do with the dosing and only two colonies actually had permanent damage, while others are actively growing and happy, but it did make me second guess dosing. I am happy I just kept with it.
Well thats about it. Seems to be that i am reaching the goal. Been feeding about 5 days a week alternating pea sized Rods and reef chili. Hoping to reach the time to change to maintenance dose soon, so I don't have to budget too much for vodka
Good thing I don't drink. I imagine some dosers double dip.
trueblackpercula
New member
Have a question about dosing vodka....I have 100 gallons of water and I am up to 2.8 ml a day and the nitrates are stuck at .15 they will not go any lower. At what point do I stop increasing the .5 dose if it never gets to zero?
Just want to here others thoughts on that.
Michael Anthony
Just want to here others thoughts on that.
Michael Anthony
Sisterlimonpot
Premium Member
Michael Anthony,
what was your nitrates before starting the vodka dose? 2.8ml seems like you just started but your already down to .15 with a 120. Somethings not adding up for me.
what was your nitrates before starting the vodka dose? 2.8ml seems like you just started but your already down to .15 with a 120. Somethings not adding up for me.
trueblackpercula
New member
Ok i use lamotte test kit when I started this new project. I checked my nitrates every Saturday and this is the readings according to the lamotte . It is less the the what the first box reads on there octet comparator that's says 0.25 the color is very light pink so I estimate it to be around .15 is that the wrong reading and i should be reading it as 0.15 well in any case is that bad or good
Michael Anthony
Michael Anthony
melev
Well-known member
I don't know that you are reading it wrong, but most of us tend to discuss measurements as parts per million (PPM). Your kit probably has a statement in the instructions that will convert it over to PPM.
This is similar to Europeans discussing distance in Kilometers and we tend to measure in miles. If we are told that a place is 1200 kilometers away, we couldn't quickly state how long it would take us to get there. If we converted it with some math 1.6k = 1m, it would be 750 miles. Divide that by 60mph, it is roughly a 12.5 hour drive. Unless of course you know your metric system and read the Kilometer gauge on your dashboard, then you'd know you normally warp along at 100kph, and it would take about 12 hours to get there.
Aaaaanyway, that being said, you want 0 nitrate and thus it shouldn't have any color at all with that particular kit.
This is similar to Europeans discussing distance in Kilometers and we tend to measure in miles. If we are told that a place is 1200 kilometers away, we couldn't quickly state how long it would take us to get there. If we converted it with some math 1.6k = 1m, it would be 750 miles. Divide that by 60mph, it is roughly a 12.5 hour drive. Unless of course you know your metric system and read the Kilometer gauge on your dashboard, then you'd know you normally warp along at 100kph, and it would take about 12 hours to get there.
Aaaaanyway, that being said, you want 0 nitrate and thus it shouldn't have any color at all with that particular kit.
I have been doing Vodka dosing for about 4 weeks now. So far, the results are pretty good.
Im doing my 75 and 29 at the same time. The 29 is still maturing so I will leave it out of my opinion for the moment.
lately, I ahve had outbreaks for the brown/green/red (dark) slime algae at the bottom of the tank- even in high flow areas. Colors of coral was just so so before dosing. I took pictures for a before and after.
As of right now- I think the colors are much better- and the extension of the corals is better. No ill affects noticed- skimmers are busy churning away. I probably am getting about a good dark cup to 2 cups of skim every day- depending if I put my hands in the tank or not. Very happy with it so far. I will post pictures in another month.
Im doing my 75 and 29 at the same time. The 29 is still maturing so I will leave it out of my opinion for the moment.
lately, I ahve had outbreaks for the brown/green/red (dark) slime algae at the bottom of the tank- even in high flow areas. Colors of coral was just so so before dosing. I took pictures for a before and after.
As of right now- I think the colors are much better- and the extension of the corals is better. No ill affects noticed- skimmers are busy churning away. I probably am getting about a good dark cup to 2 cups of skim every day- depending if I put my hands in the tank or not. Very happy with it so far. I will post pictures in another month.
trueblackpercula
New member
Ok melev I look up the instructions on the Lamotte web page and this is the way the have it written down.
Does this help any????
"Octa-Slide. Scale is 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 ppm Nitrate Nitrogen."
Does this help any????
"Octa-Slide. Scale is 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 ppm Nitrate Nitrogen."
trueblackpercula
New member
great news so when the color gets to clear not pink it's at zero. Does anyone ever not get to zero that you know?
trueblackpercula
New member
Hahaha
