vodka dosing

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freetareef

freetareef

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Nov 15, 2007
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arlington, wa
since i am almost done with my diy skimmer, i am interested in starting to dose vodka to lower my no3 and po4 levels so i will be ready to start a sps forest. any experience here with it? of course i have read and read and then i did some reading so i have a good grasp of the theory and app. i am wanting to here about some experiences... thank you!!!;)
 
returnofsid said:
I believe DonW has experience with it. I'm sure others have as well, but that's the only one I remember recently talking about it.
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I use it but caution against it. The tank needs to be stable and there are things you have to know to look for other wise your going to have one nasty looking swamp.

Don
 
I've been dosing 3ml per day for 6mths in my 160g tank. It has never been so clear and my trates and po4 are not detectable. Not that my trates ever were but my clarity is unreal. If you do dose with vodka i think you need to have an aggressive skimmer. Miwoodar is the expert in the field. But like Don said. This isn't for everyone and you must BE CAREFUL. Only effect on corals i've had is my duncan's don't come out to 3" anymore. They are more like 2" now.
 
luke33 said:
I've been dosing 3ml per day for 6mths in my 160g tank. It has never been so clear and my trates and po4 are not detectable. Not that my trates ever were but my clarity is unreal. If you do dose with vodka i think you need to have an aggressive skimmer. Miwoodar is the expert in the field. But like Don said. This isn't for everyone and you must BE CAREFUL. Only effect on corals i've had is my duncan's don't come out to 3" anymore. They are more like 2" now.
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+1!
I have been dosing since October 7th and my tank has never been clearer! In my 60 gallon I took it slow at first, .3ml per day now I am now doing 1.1ml per day. No3 and PO4 have dropped to zero.
 
What kind of Vodka and how much per day in a 75 gallon tank with Fowlr right now next month softies?I have an aggressive skimmer.
 
Its really hard to tell someone how to dose vodka. I can tell you if there are any visable active diatoms or brown algae in your tank then dont do it. If you want to give it a shot start with .1ml per gallon and work your way up. If you have active diatom growth your tank will be mud within a few days. If this happens stop and do lots of waterchanges.

Don
 
Baseball, with softies and fowlr i wouldn't worry about it. IMO its only for sps tanks. Softies and lps do better in a bit dirtier water.
 
luke i finally decided on a 6" recirc skimmer, 24" tall, fed by my overflow, with a mesh modded wp 1000 from odyssea, with a 3/8" diy venturi. do ya think this would be considered a "agressive" skimmer?!?! lol
 
freetareef said:
luke i finally decided on a 6" recirc skimmer, 24" tall, fed by my overflow, with a mesh modded wp 1000 from odyssea, with a 3/8" diy venturi. do ya think this would be considered a "agressive" skimmer?!?! lol
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Vodka dosing has nothing to do with wether or not you have sps or softies, this is what get people into trouble with vodka. Vodka is a carbon source it in simple terms feeds bacteria and forces it to multiply. It also feeds everything in your tank that you dont want to feed like diatoms and other ugly algaes. If a tank is properly maintained and you feed reasonable amounts of food po4 and No3 are not an issue to begin with. Vodka allows you to tip the feeding scale and feed larger amount of particulate foods while keeping nutrients low. We strive for low nutrient system while depriving the water column of particulate matter necessary to feed the animals wether its soft or sps corals. Vodka just helps tip the scale without polluting the water with unwanted nutrient.
I would bump that up to a 8" skimmer if you want to skim "aggressivly".:)

Don
 
Don, agree'd with what vodka does but i wouldn't use it in a lps or softy dominated tank as it is better suited for a sps tank.

And 6-8" diameter it won't matter as long as the neck is wide enough.
 
luke33 said:
Don, agree'd with what vodka does but i wouldn't use it in a lps or softy dominated tank as it is better suited for a sps tank.

And 6-8" diameter it won't matter as long as the neck is wide enough.
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Vodka dosing is very well suited to softy tanks. Its allow you to feed loads of foods like cyclopes, cyclopeze and rods without polluting the water. It also allow you to keep bacteria feeders that otherwise starve in general.

Its to hard to get a fatty neck on a 6" diy skimmer was the reason for my comment. By the time you dink around with the flange the neck usually ends up being to small. 8" is easy to get a nice 5" neck.

Don
 
I just always like to keep my trates at 10-20ppm with softies, they seem to do better and grow faster in dirtier water. Dosing vodka would eat up that trates.
 
hey luke ya think a 3" neck is cool with a 6" x 18" body?

don i had originally wanted to go with a 8" acrylic body but could not find a cone for it... i may still...

can either one of you give me some info or links as to where the heck to get one... or diy one up? pm me as to not clutter the thread....
 
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