I've read a good amount about the subject,
but would like to know where to start since I'm not sure
if "that place's" dosage per 25 gallons would apply to a nano.

If this is right I'd like to start dosing,
I can't get to the beach to change water more than 30% 2X a month and my nitrates are getting high....

I bought a GFO reactor(knowing that I would not be able to change my water as much as I previously did) so my phosphates are low,
plus the carbon is helping but I need to kill the nitrates...

I skim heavy with a full sized Aqua C Remora,
I'm decently stocked and feed just enough for the fish.

So after being told or the information
below is true about how much to dose,
I'm assuming after a couple weeks my nitrates will drop considerably ?

you still do a water change but i do it like every week and a half instead of a week now.. i do it just to make my fish feel better... it effects my fish a lil especially my puffer... i can tell when his eyes start getting cloudy...

also i heard that ur not supposed to or not adviced to run a gfo in the tank cause of it kill way too much nutrients... the vodka does alot just on it's own...

Also it's possible you may need more liverock.. that helps with your nitrate levels too...

Instead of dosing chemicals, have you thought of a refugium of some sort to grow macro-algae such as chaeto? That's a more natural way of providing nutrient export, plus it can harbor pods and other life that can conceivably provide food/diversity to the aquarium. Just my 2 cents.

I really wouldnt do the vodka in a nano tank. There are several threads on this subject here...search them out.

I MIGHT try this out. I have read some good results on another forum. Too early to know for sure but might be worth tryng.

http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/10/30/bio...ialty/#comments

The main issue is that I may be moving in 3 months,
I have no idea(none at all) and I'm trying to not spent the $120 or so it would be to drill my tank,
and add a fuge.
I'd buy a bucket of salt but it's so expensive...

That sounds interesting,
I'd rather spend the money on a bigger tank or a fuge in my situation than buy that media.
I've read about dosing,
The primary concerns are that you do dose too much and the following can happen.
Suck the nutrients out of the tank(if you know what I mean) thus stunting corals,
cause a bacterial bloom, drop the 02 down enough to kill you're tank and/or cause a crash..

Basically one slip and you've crashed the tank or at best caused a bacterial bloom or stunted coral growth....


For the past 5 days I have been doing slightly less than a smidgen of sugar every day,
my nitrates are 5 PPM from they're former 20 PPM.....
I've got them down, but as it has been mentioned it's a volatile thing to try and I don't want to play Russian Roulette.

I do have an ac 70 sitting around,
couldn't I add that to my 20 gallon tank, add 3 cree leds, reduce the flow then try some macro?
Is that too small of a fuge for my tank ?

The macro I can get needs a crap load of lighting or it takes forever to grow,
since it's intertidal and needs SPS intense lighting.

An AC70 would certainly work on your tank! You could even mod it to have a larger refugium chamber than what most folks with smaller tanks do. And I would bet that theres several people on here, myself included, that would send you some chaeto if you cover the shipping cost, if they have some to spare. Currently I don't, but like I said, I would if I had spare. Once you have chaeto, a 20-30w spiral daylight (6500k) bulb in a cheapo fixture sitting on top of the AC70 would be plenty light, cost for said light setup, probably not more than 15-20 bucks.

It's illegal for anything non native to be shipped to Hawaii other than fish,
I had cheato when I was in Oregon but I've got to use what I have.

The intense lighting is needed since most of the macro I can get my hands on are found 10 feet from SPS reefs(SPS is also illegal) in the intertidal area so it gets blazing sun, without it the growth slows down.

Thanks for the offer though.

I'll go about modding it, probably have to do a 3 cree led light
and trying to fit it on my tank since I have so much stuff hanging off the back as it is

I did the math for a my 20 gal tank and here are the amounts to dose. all measurements are in ml. they only way i found to dose these small amounts is to get the 1ml syringe from the red sea mag test kit it is a 1ml syringe.

80 Proof 15 gal
Week 1 Day (1-3) 0.06
Week 1 Day (4-7) 0.12
Week 2 0.32
Week 3 0.62
Week 4 0.92
Week 5 1.22
Week 6 1.52
Week 7 1.82
Week 8 2.12
Week 9 2.42
Week 10 2.72
Week 11 3.02
Week 12 3.32
Week 13 3.62
Week 14 3.92
Week 15 4.22
Week 16 4.52

Cut it at 1ml/day. I dose 1ml/day once a day (dosed via doser) in a 28g or so system, and SPS colour is good and my skimmer makes espresso.

I had it up as high as 2ml/day, but I found it dulled my SPS colour. I've been dosing for some months now with no issues. NO3 - 0 ppm, PO4 - 0 PPM (I do run 2 phosbans with GAC/GFO and have a 5g refugium though).

I need to get some vodka,
I'm under aged but I think my parents will get it.
Sugar isn't reliable enough to measure unless a scale is used.

first off. YAY for another teen reefer.
secondly... DO NOT VODKA DOSE.
you can achieve all what vodka does with big and frequent water changes, a good refugium, and general good husbandry of your tank!

if you do start vodka dosing there are many things that could go wrong. also its hard to get off of the stuff if you want to stop...i could take up to 6 months to get off of it. there are also many factors which can effect this method from not enough skimming to over or under dosing. it is CRITICAL that you dose the exact same amount every single day...
but hey...its your call.

Even with good husbandry and all the perfect params it's hard to get the PE and growth that you do with vodka... and the growth is way faster then before without vodka... even if you do a very slight dose of 1ml a day your safe and your corals will love you for it... and it's cheap... i had a 3/4" purple birdsnest grow over 4" in length in a months timespan and the branches coming out of it are crazy... even the guy that gave me the birdsnest came over and was at awe due to the growth... but thats just my 2 cents... and the pictures you see of vodka dosing are no lie... it really does boost your corals... you just have to keep you eye on it.. and also another thing all your macros will die... probably within the 2nd week of dosing... but i'd suggest giving it a try... if you feel unsure about it just do small doses... it still helps..