Any vodka users still?

[Reefing Madness]

If your Nitrates are going down, there is no need to dose higher. Also you should not be using this during the natural cycle, as you need those Nitrates built up in the system, until its finished.
And at 150g 2.2mls would not start to bring down your trates, im thinking your more along the lines of a finished cycle, and your water changes are knocking it down faster now that your ammonia and nitrites are down.

 

[saltyhog]

Very interesting thread. Complete newb here with first tank that's 8 months after cycle. Moderate bioload with 15 fish in a 155 gallon tank. I feed a couple of times a day. Always frozen mysis for one feeding usually NLS pellets for the other. Also feed nori a few times a week and once a week nutramar ova. I'm running GFO and my nitrates are zero, PO4 usually 0.02.

Is there any reason for me to consider vodka dosing? Why do I not have the nitrate/phosphate issues I'm reading about? Am I under feeding?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Are you running a sump with macro algae? How big is your skimmmer? How often do you do water changes and how much?

 

[saltyhog]

I have a fuge with live rock but I can't ever seem to get macroalgae to grow there. Tried several times and it just wastes away. Running a Bubble Magus Hero180. 25-30 gallon water changes every 3 weeks.

 

[Reefing Madness]

It wastes away because your water is to clean. Your one of the lucky ones, don't know how you do it, but you've got a hellof a clean system doing what most do weekly to try to get.

 

[saltyhog]

Hmmmm. We'll see if this holds as I add the last couple of fish I have in mind. I have no idea how I got here but I'll file this away in case things change in the future.:smile:

Does it mean I have more denitrifying bacteria than some tanks? Does the quantity and quality of the rock (I have a mix of live rock and dry rock though you can't tell them apart now) have anything to do with it?

 

[Reefing Madness]

With the rock, you'd have to run more than 2lbs per gallon, if you had done that, I'd say yes, thats a major reason why your system is that clean. Other than that, the skimmer.