Vodka Dosing.

9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
Yeah...it just started to grow more rapidly recently. I'd really hate to cut my dosing all the way back to 4.5...It's taken me over 4 months just to get to 9.5..UGH!!
My skimmer is performing VERY well. The collection cup fills with dark, nasty, smelly stuff. I usually have to empty it once-a-week.
I also never thought about the cyano growing, because it is a bacteria. Good point!!
And I use RO water and the tested water pre-tank is O trites, 0 trates, 0 phosphates. I guess i'm just going to have to keep manually removing it. I unfortunately have never beaten cyano in the past except through the addition if Red Slime Remover. But that requires me to stop running my skimmer for a while. I would assume that would be bad to use while using the vodka.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Originally Posted by 9supratt4
http:///forum/post/3260715
.........But that requires me to stop running my skimmer for a while. I would assume that would be bad to use while using the vodka.
Yup would just fuel more cyano growth. Siphon, water changes all the usual suspects here.
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
What if I don't cut back the dosing and just continually keep up with the siphoning of the cyano, will it eventually disappear because the "good" bacteria will use up all the carbon source?
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
How about a hypothetical answer?? If I continuously siphon out all the cyano I see, but continue to dose at the same time...is there a possibility of the "good" bacteria beating out the cyano for the nutrients?
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by 9supratt4
http:///forum/post/3264399
So does that mean the good bacteria should hypothetical cause the cyano to disappear?
yes in theory I found this on the web a while ago you may want to thing about it
Well it takes a plant person to kill a plant, well Cyanobacterial, but they are radically different than any bacteria and also radically different from any algae or embryophyte. I'll call them BGA being a phycologist and aquatic weed person.
So to kill them:
Remove all the BGA you can manually first, clean and scrub filters etc, dead areas. Next do a water change, add 5-10ppm of KNO3 afterwards. If you whine about having high NO3's already, calibrate your test kit against a known standard. Poor test kit readings have caused more misinformation in this hobby than I care to express.
NO3 and PO4 are the two worse.
If you are certain of the levels being high, do a large water change(40-60%). Yes, this maybe a lot and cost a lot in salt, but the make up afterwards will drive growth much better and let you know where you are at.
Reefs do love large water changes.
So after you have done this, trash bags, towels, blankets etc and turn the lights off for 3 days and cover the tank so that no light gets in, feed fish etc, increase skimmer aeration etc.
Wait 3 days.
Remove cover, vac up any left over junk.
Measure NO3, see how fast it is removed and dose to keep 2-10ppm in there each week.
The PO4 should decline as well.
as long as you keep up on the KNO3 dosing(or more food etc), the Cyano should not return.
Do not fight the macro algae, grow the macro algae.
Give them what they need to grow well, other wise something else will grow..............something you do not want....
This method cost nothing(well, the KNO3 which is dirt cheap), takes 3 days, is free and anyone can do it easily.
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
So I'm up to 15mL and the cyano is disappearing, so is the algae on the glass. The skimmer is going completely nuts too.
But some of my corals are not happy. My Ora Green Birdsnest has been slowly dying over the course of 2 months. My Candy Cane is slowly dying and it's tissue is recessing. Is this from the dosing? My other SPS are looking great. Any ideas?
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
as unpredictable as corals are IMO it would be difficult to say with any certainty that the corals demise is due to dosing
 
9supratt4

9supratt4

Active Member
I was thinking that since some LPS rely on a lot of nutrients in the water that may be the cause? Or am I just shooting in the dark here?
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
The reason I started dosing vodka was
"I have my reasons for trying Vodka dosing and explained them in the first post, coral color, polyp extension, ultra low nutrients so that I can feed the coral more to affect growth, and reduction in some of the microalgae in the tank."
I want the water column to remain ULN but want to overfeed, almost, the coral. Just sayin..........
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Okay some recent SPS pictures.
Stylo

I think this is red planet acro but needs to get base color.

I love the polyps on this plate monti

A milli

another milli

Monti digi

Another stylo

All in all nice polyp extension and decent color. I tried using Brightwell MB7 for a while as the heterotrophic bacteria dose but I don't like it as much as the Prodibio products. Did not notice a difference so much in the coral but the water was not as clear and the glass seemed to get more of this whitish mulm looking stuff on it more often.
 
posiden

posiden

Active Member
Originally Posted by 9supratt4
http:///forum/post/3274997
I was thinking that since some LPS rely on a lot of nutrients in the water that may be the cause? Or am I just shooting in the dark here?
I have lost color in my monti, both my chalices, and my candy cane is receding just like yours. IMO Feed your tank. I'm at some weird place with my tank and the only thing I can contribute it too is a lack of nutrients. I don't dose vodka but.........for those that might remember me/my thread on my tank. I won a pack of the zeo system. Not knowing all the in's and out's of it I dosed it anyway. I'm now thinking it is the reason for my slow delcine. I just don't feed enough to use it. I have boosted the feedings and given the tank some Aminos and things are looking better. Just a thought.
I'm not very smart when it comes to this stuff but that's my take. It's based on my tank and my experiences so please take it for what its worth.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
While continuing my reading on the effect of vodka dosing I thought this interesting and worthy of note from Tom over on RC.
"The heterotrophic bacteria you are trying to grow when you dose organic carbon such as ethanol( aka vodka) need: carbon, nitrogen and phosphate to grow. They use these things in ratios specific to the strain but as a general perspective the ratio for marine life is 116partsC to 16 parts N to 1 part P. So, much less P is used than N and C. I'd definitely lower the PO4 to less than 0.1ppm with gfo,lanthanum chloride or whatever method you choose and go from there. "
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Bringing up an old thread to add a new question.........
I have been vodka dosing my two display tanks for almost two years. I have decided to try to do this 'automatically' by adding the Vodka directly to my RODI top off water container. I calculated the average daily amount of top off water used by my systems and added an appropriate amount of Vodka to the 50 gallon container. Anyone see any problems with this versus measuring out the vodka each day and adding to my sump?
Thanks
 
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