Carbon dosing (Vodka) questions.

[Scubabum]

About two months ago I started dosing Vodka to try and lower my Nitrate and phosphate levels. I was sitting at about 40ppm Nitrate and .07 Phosphate. I continued dosing until my Nitrates fell to zero and then cut my dosage in half for my maintenance dose. I'm currently dosing only 2ml of Vodka and my Nitrate level is holding steady at .2 to .5 ppm. Phos sitting at 0. I would like to raise my Nitrate to around 2-4 ppm. I'm thinking of cutting my dose in half again to 1 ml to see if my Nitrate will come up to my desired level. Does my plan sound right? Looking for thoughts and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That sounds like a fine plan to me.

 

[bobman]

Sound like a plan to me to just remember when you get to where you want to be you MAY need to increase your dose again a little so it does not keep raising. Its a good plan just keep eyes on the tank regularly

 

[JimWelsh]

I have found that once you get to that spot where you are, cutting back the dose by as little as 10% can have a noticeable effect.

 

[Sabellafella]

About two months ago I started dosing Vodka to try and lower my Nitrate and phosphate levels. I was sitting at about 40ppm Nitrate and .07 Phosphate. I continued dosing until my Nitrates fell to zero and then cut my dosage in half for my maintenance dose. I'm currently dosing only 2ml of Vodka and my Nitrate level is holding steady at .2 to .5 ppm. Phos sitting at 0. I would like to raise my Nitrate to around 2-4 ppm. I'm thinking of cutting my dose in half again to 1 ml to see if my Nitrate will come up to my desired level. Does my plan sound right? Looking for thoughts and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Yup i agree sounds good. When i was carbon dosing i usually kept my maintenance dose a little less so my nitrates would rise slowly up till the day i did my water changes

 

[Scubabum]

Yup i agree sounds good. When i was carbon dosing i usually kept my maintenance dose a little less so my nitrates would rise slowly up till the day i did my water changes

Out of curiosity why did you stop Cabon dosing? How are you controlling Nitrate now?

 

[Sabellafella]

Out of curiosity why did you stop Cabon dosing? How are you controlling Nitrate now?

I was dosing racing fuel a while ago and weened off and everything just did fine on its own for a little bit. Then i started doing more waterchanges and added a huge arid reactor to keep up with nitrate. On my new tank (450l) ive ben dosing just .5 ml for no reason at all and just let nitrates creep up to 8-10 before i do a large waterchange. Honestly i just stopped because i would get bacterial blooms and white globs everywere,and i had having trouble with all the dosing pumps i got, also i didnt have the methanol for 4 days and litterally crashed my tank so i just figured enuff was enuff but hey it works well