anyone good with vodka dosing?

[davelink]

so pretty much i read the threads about vodka dosing, all the charts and numbers and blah blah... and all i really got out of it is that im bad with numbers, but want to vodka dose my main tank. was wondering if anyone has any experience with this? and what a safe minimal amount would be to dose a 180 gallon tank? with a 60gal sump and all the liverock and taking displacement into mind.. i probly got about 220 gallons of water in my setup. i have a big frag rack in my tank right up under the surface with T5s on em all day so i end up getting a pretty dirty amount of algae on the rack and on my frag plugs. i rotate them down every couple days to the sandbed so my hermits can munch it all away but im getting tired of putting my hands in the tank everyday, it all looks so much better when i dont have to.

[MedicBMC]

First off what is your PO4 at? I currently dose vodka, but have cut wayy back since I hit 0ppm of PO4. In your current system I probably would start out at 0.8mL or less.

[sirbiggstixx]

when i started:

week1 dose .5ml

week2 dose 1.0ml

week3 dose 1.5ml

week4 dose 2.0m.l

etc.

etc.

 

each new week i would add .5ml to my dose..ive had great success with it and it only costs me like 20 for a few months, depending on how much i dose..you need 80 proof vodka doesnt matter what kind, just need it to be 40% alcohol..not sure why but that is what i read i think on wetwebmedia..i cant find the thread on the guy i got this info from but ill keep looking and then edit this..most of the other places i read about dosing vodka said pretty much the same thing..def check and make sure you need too but if you do its pretty easy..i use just an old little kids measuring cup thing, its the long skinny ones with the spoon, cut the tip off and hot glued a piece of tubing and connected it to a dripper..let it drip about one drip a second or so..another good thing about the measuring cup is the measurements are in milliliters so its makes it that much easier and my girlfriend can do it with no problems while im out of town or whatever..hope this helps, its not hard but like anything in this hobby needs to researched before attempting..good luck with everything...

[Kolohe_Reef]

From the thread title, I thought this was a joke... Never heard of Vodka Dosing other than what I do to myself on Friday Nights

[Geraud]

Long ago, Eric Borneman had written a two part article about that. With scientific perspective. I think you should have a look at it...

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/...ature/index.php

 

(sure, I am biased on the subject, I did translate part I of the article long ago)

[Genj]

Why would anyone put questionable formulations of alcohol along with 60% water that is unknown into their tank? I'm in the alcohol industry and I wouldn't do what you guys are doing. I'm totally uneducated, but I would utilize 198 proof grain alcohol first.

[kthehun89]

I dose vodka in my Solana, check out my SPS growth and colors. I will be switching to bio-pellets tho.

[blasterman]

Why would anyone put questionable formulations of alcohol along with 60% water that is unknown into their tank?

 

It's carbon dosing. It's gives nitrate eating bacteria a leg up and hastens removal of nitrate. Done too fast and it will lower O2 levels too fast and kill all your fish.

 

Frankly I wish we'd get our bio-loads in order and not have to resort to such artifical nutrient dosing, but that would make sense.

[Aquanist]

It's carbon dosing. It's gives nitrate eating bacteria a leg up and hastens removal of nitrate.

 

I think Genj meant that 40% vodka still has 60% other than alcohol, and not all of it being pure water. That's why it would be better to use as pure alcohol as possible. You can always add RO to make it 40% (or just halve the dosage or whatever you feel like.

 

I for one would suggest on using "solid vodka dosing" aka. biopellets. No risk of ever overdosing!

[Genj]

I think Genj meant that 40% vodka still has 60% other than alcohol, and not all of it being pure water. That's why it would be better to use as pure alcohol as possible. You can always add RO to make it 40% (or just halve the dosage or whatever you feel like.

 

I for one would suggest on using "solid vodka dosing" aka. biopellets. No risk of ever overdosing!

 

Exactly. Thanks Aquanist. Depending on your state, you can pick up a bottle of 190 or 195 proof grain alcohol for not much. You might have to ask someone about it at the desk, as they may not sell it on the shelves. Mix it with your own RO/DI. =)

 

Or you could look into this: Drying

[Mojorizn]

First off what is your PO4 at?

 

+1 on that.

 

Assuming your running a big skimmer as well. Do you run GFO in your system? A little of that goes a long way and ya don't have to remember to dose, calculate dosage,but...ya can over do GFO.

 

I run Carbon / GFO in my system and have zero algae problems. My tank is so nutrient low that my chaeto in the sump hardly grows.

 

Just an idea.

Seek out Glennr1978...he was on the Vodka thing for awhile and got good results. He is working on a Bio Pellet system at the moment. Imo, the pellets are gonna replace the Vodka for those in need of nutrient reduction.

 

best-o-luck

[bitts]

one thing to remember about carbon dosing & the reason behind it in the first. place is that the system can easily become carbon limited. therefore the actual purpose is to prevent this limitation within the ecology, it just so happens to have the side effect of lowering levels of nitrogen.