Vodka Dosing?

[ReeferReefer]

Does anyone dose vodka or organic carbon? It's essentially the same concept as a biopellet reactor right? Give bacteria more food so they can break down nitrates? How did you decide to start and how mature should a tank be before you start?

[isaacharry]

Hey there, i have done vodka dosing and would be glad to help, what size is your tank?

[ReeferReefer]

I have a 95 gallon but with filtration it's about 80 in volume. About 80 lbs of rock too, I'd say at Keats 1/3 the volume is rock. I have nitrates around 3 ppm and the tank is about 5 months old. Is it too soon to dose? I'm running a BH 2000 Skimmer. I'm going to start running a Gfo reactor after Christmas, so I should I wait till after that?

[markalot]

Too soon, wait until Nitrates are a problem ... say above 10. Also look into vinegar, same thing and harder to overdose.

[isaacharry]

why don't you just use red seas NO3PO4X?

[Tamberav]

I have a 95 gallon but with filtration it's about 80 in volume. About 80 lbs of rock too, I'd say at Keats 1/3 the volume is rock. I have nitrates around 3 ppm and the tank is about 5 months old. Is it too soon to dose? I'm running a BH 2000 Skimmer. I'm going to start running a Gfo reactor after Christmas, so I should I wait till after that?

 

Why do you want to dose if your nitrates are 3ppm? I have vodka dosed, vinigar dosed, and have use biopellets before. I really liked it for certain situations but if you use it when it's not needed, it has the potential to really screw up your tank. Besides, too much filtration IS a bad thing.

 

I basically used it to feed obscene amounts of food.

[Red_Blenny]

3ppm of NO3? Damn, I'm lucky if I can even get to 1ppm of NO3 (hence, I have to dose it).

 

I say you don't need to dose it Vodka/Vinegar. Heck, NO3 is useful for corals; no NO3 = starving corals = poor color/dying corals.