So today I started vodka dosing. I'm starting very conservatively with 0.2mls times 3 days. For days 4-7 it will be 0.4mls. Week number 2 will be 0.9mls, and week number 3 1.4mls. I'm watching the inhabitants very closely and there doesn't seem to be any reaction at all so far. Fingers crossed, I'll keep you posted. The starting point of nitrates is 10ppm and phosphate is 0.25ppm, not too bad so hopefully the amount of vodka won't have to go too high to make a difference, only time will tell!
Day one of vodka dosing
- Thread starter rufus2008
- Start date
Big Ray
Has been struck by the ban stick
Hello
go slow, and be patient, and be sure your skimmer is running WELL and you are skimming wet. that will get most of the bacteria out and wont cause secondary Issues. Vodka (ethanol) is a great carbon source for lowering N (no3) but not so great with reducing po4.
If you wish, you could add in your schedule a bit of GAA glacial acetic acid (pure vinegar) which tends to lower po4 more. (you could leave this or next stage)
good luck .
go slow, and be patient, and be sure your skimmer is running WELL and you are skimming wet. that will get most of the bacteria out and wont cause secondary Issues. Vodka (ethanol) is a great carbon source for lowering N (no3) but not so great with reducing po4.
If you wish, you could add in your schedule a bit of GAA glacial acetic acid (pure vinegar) which tends to lower po4 more. (you could leave this or next stage)
good luck .
Well its now day 5 of vodka dosing and not much has changed. My ricordia mushrooms seem to be responding positively for now(getting larger). My torch/frogspawn(not sure which it is)seems to be fading a bit in color(the green tips)but other than that everything else seems fine. I'm going to continue, I'll make notes of any changes.
bm86
Member
watch out with the fading in color that tends to say the you are burning the coral also watch for the fish if they start to stay at the top of tank they are looking for air and you are depleting the oxygen out of the tank. i done vodka dosing right when i started the tank i am now no longer using vodka it has worked very well but it is very touchy. As the rules go for vodka and you get more comfortable with it you will be able to change it around a bit. Also another thing dont not miss a dose once you start do not stop and you are going to have to wean your tank out of it once your done just like a alcoholic detox also on a 108 gal.do not exceed like 5 ml of vodka if its starting to take that much and still cant drop nitrates you have other problems. on my 90 i never had to go over 1.4 ml cant wait to hear how it works for you if possible post some pics please
I'm on day 10 now and still dosing 0.6mls per day. After 1 week of that I'll only move up to 0.7mls per day for 1 week and only increase by 0.1mls per week until nitrates start to go down. Stats right now:
salinity 1.025
magnesium 1250
alkalinity 7.8dkh
ph 8.1
calcium 460
phosphate 0
nitrates 5-10(hard to tell difference in color)
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.1
All tests(except magnesium is a Seachem test kit) are done with Hagen/Nutrifin test kits.
Everything is still looking well, The torch coral has sprouted a new head so probably no worries on it bleaching if its still growing it must be healthy.
salinity 1.025
magnesium 1250
alkalinity 7.8dkh
ph 8.1
calcium 460
phosphate 0
nitrates 5-10(hard to tell difference in color)
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.1
All tests(except magnesium is a Seachem test kit) are done with Hagen/Nutrifin test kits.
Everything is still looking well, The torch coral has sprouted a new head so probably no worries on it bleaching if its still growing it must be healthy.
Big Ray
Has been struck by the ban stick
well as you know, when dosing organic carbon you promote the growth of biofilm, which contains both anaerobic zones and bacteria as well as aerobic bacteria. studies have shown that Ethanol (vodka) does not let certain anaerobic bacteria from growing, and that is the sole reason for ppl witnessing Cyano bacteria when dosing vodka ! JME !
vineagar seems to be feeding these bacteria better and therefore better and more balanced removal of N and P at the same time, to a point where you may need to remove any po4 removers in order to let N deplete
if you like to give Vinegar a shot, (not literally
) it contains 8 times less Organic carbon than Ethanol at 40% (vodka). so IF switching over you should dose 8 times more....many mix the 2, which is the best case IMO.
so if lets say you dose 2 ml of vodka, you can cut that back to 1 ml of vodka (40% ethanol) and about 8ml of vinegar (5% GAA)
continue with your dosing for now, and see how it goes, and monitor everything closly and adjust as needed.
Big Ray
Has been struck by the ban stick
you may wanna invest in a Hanna PO4 checker. good tools
Big Ray
Has been struck by the ban stick
to be very honest with you, I am not sure
I Will look for some documents which may help you here.
in general, I would start slow, and increase, sudden overdose can be lethal. just increase the dosage and watch how everything in the tank responds.
if you search through Reef central chemistry forums, Randy Holmes makes alot of nice comments about this and how he does it. He doses a mix of sugar, Vodka and vinegar, and since we dont have much science for now, he and most others change the dosing amount based on experience and observation. I Will try to find you some good links today
Big Ray
Has been struck by the ban stick
VSV | Achieved through Observation and Experimentation
here you can see how guys at GBD change their amounts to reach optimal results.
also, I personally dont like dosing only 1 carbon source, cause that would promote growth of one specific strain of bacteria, which could lead to mono bacteria and ...
here you can see how guys at GBD change their amounts to reach optimal results.
also, I personally dont like dosing only 1 carbon source, cause that would promote growth of one specific strain of bacteria, which could lead to mono bacteria and ...
so as of dec 19th I started dosing vsv(vodka, vinegar, sugar) The mixture is as follow: 200mls vodka, 50mls vinegar and 1 and ã half tblsp of white sugar. I'm still dosing 0.6mls for the rest of this week. Overnight there seemed to be an increase in the amount of skimmate that my protein skimmer produced. I'll check on the Tank when I get home from work to see if there are any more changes.
well I've had my 1st fatality, its dec 21 and as always I check my Tank 1st thing in the am. I noticed my yellow tang being cleaned by the cleaner shrimp, which is kind of unusual since its 4:30am and all fish are usually in hiding until 11am. so I looked ã little closer and the shrimp had him upside down, so he's ã goner. I did notice in the last week that he was missing some scales off his back end. I've never witnessed him flashing, so I'm kind of concerned about what this may be. I've had this fish for 6 months and his previous owner had him for ã long time before me. could be just old age? I wouln't blame the dosing because everything I've read says it would affect corals. first and I'm just assuming if something went wrong the inverts would probably affected before the fish. any thoughts by anyone?
zigginit
Member
umm.... well i think your right about inverts feeling it first, and how do the other fish look? very weird though.
also one other thing that concerns me, you think it's december 21!!! man its only 4 days from christmas for you so you better get shopping!!!! for me its still november 21st!! lol i bet your just still sleepy and mis spoke....
also one other thing that concerns me, you think it's december 21!!! man its only 4 days from christmas for you so you better get shopping!!!! for me its still november 21st!! lol i bet your just still sleepy and mis spoke....