carbon dosing skimmerless

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

I'm going to be documenting my carbon dosing skimmerless using this forum. My purpose of carbon dosing is NOT to reduce nitrates but to feed the bottom of the food chain, such as bacteria. hopefully testing if the method is even possible to keep NPS alive. I also have a youtube channel so you can get a better view of my set up and all the changes as they come. The only test equipment I have is Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and ph test from API. Currently running an aqua tech 5-15 filter with a makeshift algae scrubber. 7 watt led light , 5 gallon acrylic aquarium and currently using reef crystals salt. Current tank stock includes ,green hand leather, xenia ,ducan, 2 margarita snail 1 clownfish 1 trochus snail, blastomussa, acan lord, mini maxi anemone, torch, emerald crab, toadstool leather, yuma mushroom(i think), montipora, and a gorgonian menella(i think). Now the gorgonian is NPS and i believe i got it too soon as i just started but i will attempt to keep it alive. My dosing scheduled is 1 drop of vinegar per day which is approximately .05ml per day. I am contemplating removing filter floss and only using carbon- for chemical war- when i upgrade my filter and algae scrubber.  I am a novice and the tank has only been up for approximately 7 months and this is my first reef tank. this video is the most up to date of what is currently going on in my tank. my nitrate is currently high at 40 ppm but i plan on bring it down with water changes slowly  Any ideas and recommendations are welcome. any questions ask away!

 

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

started dosing 2 drops per day

[Bingo1213]

I have been carbon dosing my large reef for 4 years now.  I found early on that vinegar seemed to feed cyano more than vodka.  I switch to vodka and the seemed to clear up a number of issues.  I ran mine skimmer less for about 2 months partly out of curiosity and partly out of laziness.  I found that towards the end of the 2 months my nitrates still remained at 0 BUT I was getting large amounts of bacteria build up.  It looked like long strings of snot everywhere.  It was growing in pipes, under corals, in my sump literally everywhere.  It didn't seem to hurt anything but it was very unsightly.  Also I am not sure if it would have started suffocating coral or if it would have just stayed to the underside.  So I started the skimmer up again and in about 3 days it all cleared up.  My theory is that the vodka grows the bacteria which consumes the nitrates.  Then the skimmer removes the bacteria and effectively then removes the nitrates.  Without the skimmer the bacteria was not being removed but was continuing to grow, reproduce and eat up the nitrates.  Granted this was just one experience.  I will be interested to see what your results are!  

[markalot]

In my opinion the o2 levels will be an issue at dosing levels that will make a difference so I would at least aerate somehow if you have a fish in there.

 

I mix vinegar with my Kalk to make it more potent in my 40 gallon.  It has a skimmer but it doesn't really work so I suppose I've been carbon dosing very small amounts for years now.    

[Bingo1213]

Like I said I did it for about 2 months without o2 issues.  I even ran my calcium reactor that whole time without a problem.  But I do have a sump that provides some surface agitation.  I also have lots of macro algaes in the sump.  My return lines also point straight up at the water surface as well.  One other note.  What will completely screw things up is if you are inconsistent with your carbon dosing.  If my tank misses a dose due to an empty vodka bottle (mine is on a dosing pump that runs twice a day) my nitrate levels can go from 0 to 5 rather quickly.   It seems to me that once corals are used to 0 nitrates going to 5 is pretty stressful on them.  Set a timer and stick with it or get a dosing pump.  

 

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

Spoiler

 

I currently have no O2  problems just using my hob filter at 2 drops per day. i dose the two drops in the morning when i turn lights on since o2 will be highest when lights turn on. my gorgonian has not opened in a while. not sure whats wrong.( has been moved around a lot since it wont attach to anything). also got me thinking that a (small) feather duster might be better to use to test this. 

On 3/14/2018 at 1:15 PM, Bingo1213 said:

 I found early on that vinegar seemed to feed cyano more than vodka.  I switch to vodka and the seemed to clear up a number of issues.  I ran mine skimmer less for about 2 months partly out of curiosity and partly out of laziness.  I found that towards the end of the 2 months my nitrates still remained at 0 BUT I was getting large amounts of bacteria build up.  It looked like long strings of snot everywhere.  It was growing in pipes, under corals, in my sump literally everywhere.  It didn't seem to hurt anything but it was very unsightly.  Also I am not sure if it would have started suffocating coral or if it would have just stayed to the underside.  So I started the skimmer up again and in about 3 days it all cleared up.  My theory is that the vodka grows the bacteria which consumes the nitrates.  Then the skimmer removes the bacteria and effectively then removes the nitrates.  Without the skimmer the bacteria was not being removed but was continuing to grow, reproduce and eat up the nitrates.  Granted this was just one experience.  I will be interested to see what your results are!  

how much do you dose per gallon? what benefits did you see from vinegar to vodka? i chose vinegar because it is much less concentrated since my tank is only 5 gallons

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

Iight died and wont get a replacemnt till next week so i am temporarily stoping the carbon dosing 

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

So i started carbon dosing again at 1 drop per day as i have got a light. before my light went out and i was dosing two drops per day my duncan coral seemed to react negatively over, closing up and releasing  somthing zooxanthellae maybe?  but there could of been other factors such as high nutrients. all the other corals were fine though. Now the nps gorgonian , which i can confidently say is a menella sp. , is doing ok i think. im using the gargonian as an indicator if vinegar dosing is an effective way to feed it. i was having trouble getting it to attach to anything so i let it drift onto a random spot which is now under my rock. it seems to be opening up though = feeding response? it also attached to a small peace of rubble under that rock = growth? still need way more time to confirm all this though. im also assuming that an nps would not survive in a 5 gallon tank with out direct feeding.

i also upgrade my filter to quiet flow 50 to increase flow from 100 gph to 250 ghp,and upgraded the algae scrubber.

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

I have stopped this project a while ago as I traded the gorgonian since I came to the conclusion that this is not enough to sustain nps however i am thinking of starting up this test again. 

[Aquatic Spendthrift]

i realized i cant prove much with these test however i have been dosing 4-5 drops per day with no negative effects. i have also noticed a lot of worm-like tube structers growing in my hob that were not there before- I always had a lot if pineapple sponges in the filter pre-viniger dosing