Carbon dosing

Dbrown4183

New Member
I have been away from the hobby for a little while and was trying to find out the current thinking on vodka/Carbon dosing. I have nitrates hovering around 40 and it is driving me nuts. Protein skimming, algae scrubbing, water changes with ro/di water and reduced feeding have not reduced the nitrates to where I want them to be. Just trying to get them low enough for soft corals and shrimp
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
There are many many publications on vodka dosing on line,check them out i have dosed with vodka and it works
 

Dbrown4183

New Member
There are many many publications on vodka dosing on line,check them out i have dosed with vodka and it works
Thank you, I have seen and read quite a few of the online articles. Most were dated a number of years back so I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any new information that there was long term issues. Thank you so much for your quick reply.
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
If the only thing you're trying to do is get nitrates down but otherwise fish and corals are fine, I would not carbon dose. But then I don't recommend it anyway.

What could be happening is the algae is consuming ammonia directly for nitrogen and foregoing nitrates. Once the tank builds up more aerobic bacteria the algae will consume nitrates for nitrogen because the bacteria is consuming the ammonia.

my .02
 
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