Hey gang, with all the Threads started out there with how to lower Nitrates and Phosphates, thought maybe I'd throw down with my own thread.
I've been dosing Vodka for a few years now, so my experience with it, well, its pretty good. I can get people started pretty quickly, and have Nitrates down relatively fast, other than going by whats been read elsewhere. you have to keep in mind that whats read out there was done as a test, just to see how long it would take, and to document its affects on the tank.
Now, when I first started out, I took this one persons tank that was being dosed, figured out what he finished up dosing with, and took my tank size, did some calculations, and figured where I would be when dosing was completed. So I went off that number, to start with only, I didn't go by the numbers given to up the dosing because I didn't want to take 7 months before I saw any relief. You can actually jump pretty high without any issues, using vodka, you'd almost have to dump in the bottle to really mess up a tank. So, I start out using the 3mls, jump to 5mls in 5 days, then every 5 days jumps another 5mls. I split up the dosing after I hit double digits, making it half in the am and the other half in the pm. I've never burnt anything, nor killed anything, fish, coral or otherwise, going this route. I've also, changed skimmers, getting bigger, or using 2, and trying to stop dosing, testing 2 weeks later just to find out OOPS, Nitrates went through the roof. So I Start the dosing out at my last dose, and jump it up by 5mls as usual, until I see them drop, of which I can pretty much call when thats going to happen now.
Bonus plan to using vodka is, you get to keep Nitrates where you want to keep them, not where the tank wants. I only test the nitrates in my tank once a month, if that. You test the water, watch where those numbers are, and adjust your dosing off of that, you either go up, down, or stay par. Depending on what your keeping, I generally keep my tank around 10-20, API testing kit.
Down side: Ya gotta stay on top of cleaning the glass, at higher dose rates. Very low dosing does not cause bacterial growth on the glass, that I've seen in others tanks that I've helped on. But on mine, at 34mls a day, I see the bacterial growth rather quickly, lets say, about every 4 days you can see it. But, you just wipe the glass and the water is crystal clear. Also speaking of water, I roughly only change 55g of water out every 6 months, and I really couldn't tell you why I do it then, probably just guilty conscience, not out of need.
SeaKlear:
Came upon this, reading up on Lanthanum products, being as I was initially using Brighwell Phosphate E, and well, a bit expensive if your using it to clear a 240g tank weekly, so I went about trying to get something that would either be the same price but have more of it, or lower price with the same amount of juice. I happened across articles using SeaKlear. So, this is an industrial strength pool phosphate remover, able to be used in a reef tank. So, industrial strength??!! WOW, just using a capful a week in my tank, keeps it nice and clear of phosphates, well, at least now it does.
Starting out, now, if you just run a FOWLR, go nuts, this stuff will literally remove all your phosphates in one day, and you aren't going to be using the whole bottle to do it with. Anyone with a Corals, be careful, you remove to much at a time, and you can tick off all your corals, thats a sure bet, I don't know that you will kill anything, but my softies definitely got mad at me for removing it all in just 3 days. I don't do things according to directions, usually, because I know the directions are there so you don't kill anything, I experiment, I want to know the thresh hold for not killing things, that way when I give advise I know I'm not going to kill anything in any ones tank.
I first was free hand poring, I watched to tank cloud up, to much the first day, lost track of the fish for a few hours, doesn't seem to bother the fish at all though. Second day, a bit less, still a bit on the, HEY where did the fish go, third day, lil cloudiness, after clearing in a few hours I tested.....0 Phosphates.... Oops, to low, didn't want to go that far, just for good measure I watched the softies get mad at that one......They pout too, if you haven't already seen them do that. So, After I got them to 0, I slowly started using capfuls to find out where the bar minimum I could get away with using. It even removed all the leached phosphates from Marco Rock, 50lbs I threw in the tank, leached like mad, phosphates were above 10.00, I was like, " this ain't good!! " Had them gone in 3 days also.
Heres the catch using this stuff:
You should run a canister filter to catch and hold the bound phosphates, I know you've read that you only need a skimmer, trust me, canister filter works better at holding the snot that this stuff makes. Now, with high readings, this stuff creates some nasty looking snot, but not to worry, it won't leach back into the tank, just remove it, and off you go, clean out the filter, skimmer cup, what not. After you get the levels down, you won't see the snot build up, you will just see a bit of it in the canister, what ever the tank will produce, it will end up there. Tank runs crystal clear with this stuff, and its cheap, for a 1qt bottle only running $32 on ebay. Same with using vodka, you keep the phosphates where you want to keep them, at 0 or at .05, its entirely up to you. Nothing else natural needed. It can and does remove it immediately. I've been using SeaKlear for over a year now, and am only on my second bottle.
So, you figure between the cheap Walmart vodka, and the cheap SeaKlear, my tank runs smooth and simple, but runs, and it runs the same as the big boys tanks do, but I spend nothing compared to what they spend. I leave it up to you reading this, what are you using, and how much does it cost you a year to keep up? There are alternatives, believe me, and they don't have to break your wallet to keep up a beautiful tank. Take a look at my tank pics, theres proof in the pudding for you.
Best Wishes and thanks for reading. Anything I missed, just pop a question, and I'll be glad to answer.
I've been dosing Vodka for a few years now, so my experience with it, well, its pretty good. I can get people started pretty quickly, and have Nitrates down relatively fast, other than going by whats been read elsewhere. you have to keep in mind that whats read out there was done as a test, just to see how long it would take, and to document its affects on the tank.
Now, when I first started out, I took this one persons tank that was being dosed, figured out what he finished up dosing with, and took my tank size, did some calculations, and figured where I would be when dosing was completed. So I went off that number, to start with only, I didn't go by the numbers given to up the dosing because I didn't want to take 7 months before I saw any relief. You can actually jump pretty high without any issues, using vodka, you'd almost have to dump in the bottle to really mess up a tank. So, I start out using the 3mls, jump to 5mls in 5 days, then every 5 days jumps another 5mls. I split up the dosing after I hit double digits, making it half in the am and the other half in the pm. I've never burnt anything, nor killed anything, fish, coral or otherwise, going this route. I've also, changed skimmers, getting bigger, or using 2, and trying to stop dosing, testing 2 weeks later just to find out OOPS, Nitrates went through the roof. So I Start the dosing out at my last dose, and jump it up by 5mls as usual, until I see them drop, of which I can pretty much call when thats going to happen now.
Bonus plan to using vodka is, you get to keep Nitrates where you want to keep them, not where the tank wants. I only test the nitrates in my tank once a month, if that. You test the water, watch where those numbers are, and adjust your dosing off of that, you either go up, down, or stay par. Depending on what your keeping, I generally keep my tank around 10-20, API testing kit.
Down side: Ya gotta stay on top of cleaning the glass, at higher dose rates. Very low dosing does not cause bacterial growth on the glass, that I've seen in others tanks that I've helped on. But on mine, at 34mls a day, I see the bacterial growth rather quickly, lets say, about every 4 days you can see it. But, you just wipe the glass and the water is crystal clear. Also speaking of water, I roughly only change 55g of water out every 6 months, and I really couldn't tell you why I do it then, probably just guilty conscience, not out of need.
SeaKlear:
Came upon this, reading up on Lanthanum products, being as I was initially using Brighwell Phosphate E, and well, a bit expensive if your using it to clear a 240g tank weekly, so I went about trying to get something that would either be the same price but have more of it, or lower price with the same amount of juice. I happened across articles using SeaKlear. So, this is an industrial strength pool phosphate remover, able to be used in a reef tank. So, industrial strength??!! WOW, just using a capful a week in my tank, keeps it nice and clear of phosphates, well, at least now it does.
Starting out, now, if you just run a FOWLR, go nuts, this stuff will literally remove all your phosphates in one day, and you aren't going to be using the whole bottle to do it with. Anyone with a Corals, be careful, you remove to much at a time, and you can tick off all your corals, thats a sure bet, I don't know that you will kill anything, but my softies definitely got mad at me for removing it all in just 3 days. I don't do things according to directions, usually, because I know the directions are there so you don't kill anything, I experiment, I want to know the thresh hold for not killing things, that way when I give advise I know I'm not going to kill anything in any ones tank.
I first was free hand poring, I watched to tank cloud up, to much the first day, lost track of the fish for a few hours, doesn't seem to bother the fish at all though. Second day, a bit less, still a bit on the, HEY where did the fish go, third day, lil cloudiness, after clearing in a few hours I tested.....0 Phosphates.... Oops, to low, didn't want to go that far, just for good measure I watched the softies get mad at that one......They pout too, if you haven't already seen them do that. So, After I got them to 0, I slowly started using capfuls to find out where the bar minimum I could get away with using. It even removed all the leached phosphates from Marco Rock, 50lbs I threw in the tank, leached like mad, phosphates were above 10.00, I was like, " this ain't good!! " Had them gone in 3 days also.
Heres the catch using this stuff:
You should run a canister filter to catch and hold the bound phosphates, I know you've read that you only need a skimmer, trust me, canister filter works better at holding the snot that this stuff makes. Now, with high readings, this stuff creates some nasty looking snot, but not to worry, it won't leach back into the tank, just remove it, and off you go, clean out the filter, skimmer cup, what not. After you get the levels down, you won't see the snot build up, you will just see a bit of it in the canister, what ever the tank will produce, it will end up there. Tank runs crystal clear with this stuff, and its cheap, for a 1qt bottle only running $32 on ebay. Same with using vodka, you keep the phosphates where you want to keep them, at 0 or at .05, its entirely up to you. Nothing else natural needed. It can and does remove it immediately. I've been using SeaKlear for over a year now, and am only on my second bottle.
So, you figure between the cheap Walmart vodka, and the cheap SeaKlear, my tank runs smooth and simple, but runs, and it runs the same as the big boys tanks do, but I spend nothing compared to what they spend. I leave it up to you reading this, what are you using, and how much does it cost you a year to keep up? There are alternatives, believe me, and they don't have to break your wallet to keep up a beautiful tank. Take a look at my tank pics, theres proof in the pudding for you.
Best Wishes and thanks for reading. Anything I missed, just pop a question, and I'll be glad to answer.
