Lets talk about Carbon dosing

[Aquaph8]

hi Brett thanks for the reply in detail
is the first dosage and others per day or per week.
so for my first week i would add .5ml per day or per week


vic

Your dose is daily but the increase is weekly.

 

[swissgaurd]

got it thanks brett

vic

 

[Aquaph8]

Anytime Vic.

 

[swissgaurd]

Hi Vic,Yeah Vinegar can absolutely help lower nitrates. Just follow the instructions in the first post for Vodka but use 8X the ammount. Go slow and keep an eye on your tank for any changes. So instead of starting at 0.1 per 25 gallons your gonna start at 0.8 ml per 25 gallons. So your dose for week one would be 0.48, I would just round it to .5 and then inrease your dosage by 3ml each week after. You can even bump that first dose up a little faster and be at 1ml going into week two just to make your dosage easier. Keep increasing your dosage until you see your levels coming down, once they start coming down hold your dosage. When you get them to 0 or close to it cut that dose in half. Mine linger around 10 still but thats cause I feed too much. LOL. If your alk is higher than 8, slowly bring that down before you start dosing. Alk over 8 will burn the tips of SPS when carbon dosing. This system should work great with your current bacteria dosing. Just go slow and if you notice anything negative dont hessitate to stop dosing for the time being. Let us know how it works for you and post up some pics of your progress. Sorry for the late reply, I missed your post.

ok Brett
first week is in
gonna start the 3ml dosage tonight


vic

 

[bruno21447]

I am thinking of dosing vinegar but had a question about if you dose other things. Can this be dosed with other additives?

 

[matmatoo]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to drag up a old thread, but I need some help....

Over the last week I have had a couple of upset corals. After water testing every single day, I still cannot find out what exactly is causing poor polyp extension and bleaching on a couple of colonies.

My parameters (which im monitering daily) are:

KH 8.8
CA 450
MG 1280
Nitrate 10ppm (last water change was Friday last week, another one today)
Phosphates 0.8

After talking to a friend, I could only come to one conclusion: issues with my carbon dosing.

Two weeks ago I switched from NoPox to a home made vodka/vinegar recipe and started dosing it in the same measurement per day as I did with NoPox. That was, 12ml per day.

Five days ago, I discovered that the carbon dosing tube was blocked. I then unblocked it and resumed dosing at 12ml of vinegar/vodka per day.

I am not sure how long the tube was blocked for - but I suspect it was for around 5 days, that resulted in no vinegar/vodka being dosed.

I think that this has caused for some unhappy corals. As I did not slowly ramp up the carbon dosing, perhaps the bacteria that usually handled the carbon dosing had died?

I don't want to loose anymore colonies to this, so would really appreciate anyones thoughts on this.


Thank you
Matt

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Perhaps it was an ammonia spike. That's one caution of carbon dosing iirc, gradually reduce dosages and don't stop all together at once because the bacteria that are present need it for food. Stop their food all at once, bad times.

Hope your tank does ok, you might add some ammonia/nitrite neutralizer or such.. Or have you done any testing for ammonia/nitrite?
Also you would probably want to gradually increase the dose rather than all at once. One major finding I've found in wastewater research articles, is ethanol (can't remark on acetic acid) causes very fast growing bacterial masses, so oxygen deprivation could be a caution.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am thinking of dosing vinegar but had a question about if you dose other things. Can this be dosed with other additives?

What did you have in mind?

Did you mean dosing at the same time to the tank, or mixing together for use in a single dosing pump?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to drag up a old thread, but I need some help....

Over the last week I have had a couple of upset corals. After water testing every single day, I still cannot find out what exactly is causing poor polyp extension and bleaching on a couple of colonies.

My parameters (which im monitering daily) are:

KH 8.8
CA 450
MG 1280
Nitrate 10ppm (last water change was Friday last week, another one today)
Phosphates 0.8

After talking to a friend, I could only come to one conclusion: issues with my carbon dosing.

Two weeks ago I switched from NoPox to a home made vodka/vinegar recipe and started dosing it in the same measurement per day as I did with NoPox. That was, 12ml per day.

Five days ago, I discovered that the carbon dosing tube was blocked. I then unblocked it and resumed dosing at 12ml of vinegar/vodka per day.

I am not sure how long the tube was blocked for - but I suspect it was for around 5 days, that resulted in no vinegar/vodka being dosed.

I think that this has caused for some unhappy corals. As I did not slowly ramp up the carbon dosing, perhaps the bacteria that usually handled the carbon dosing had died?

I don't want to loose anymore colonies to this, so would really appreciate anyones thoughts on this.


Thank you
Matt

It may be related, or it may be something else entirely. Anyway, reducing the organic dose seems prudent for a couple of reasons, and then slowly raise it if things seem to get better. Even stopping may be an option. Perhaps you have gotten an undesirable type of bacteria thriving int eh tnak.

Can you say when the coral appearance changes exactly in relation to the stopped/restarted dosing?

 

[matmatoo]

I noticed poor polyp extension a couple of days after discovering the carbon dosing tube was blocked, and resumed dosing vodka/vinegar at 12mls a day. A couple of days after that, I then noticed bleaching of a couple of SPS colonies.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

OK, thanks. I'm not sure what caused the problem since some folks have stopped organic carbon dosing without issue. It couldn't hurt to test ammonia, but i don't suspect it is the problem, not elevating nitrate or phosphate.

Nothing else changed at all? Lighting, top off water, etc.?

 

[matmatoo]

Hi Randy,

I really appreciate your feedback and advice - thank you. Nothing else has changed, in terms of water source, lighting, additives in the water etc from when the corals were healthy and happy.

Except this DIY Coral Snow, that I have dosed a couple of times over the past 3 or so weeks: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/364821-diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity/


Thank you
Matt

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It's hard to know what is best with respect to the dosing (none, lower dose, same as before the block, etc.). I'd pick a middle ground and go for a lower dose than before and hope things begin to look better. If not, I'd stop dosing.

 

[matmatoo]

Hi Randy,

Thanks for your help and advice. This morning I woke up and noticed that overall polyp extension of my SPS colonies was very big, and that most of the colonies looked much better, after some feeding last night and a large water change yesterday. I do really think that halving the carbon dosing helped, and now my nitrates have fallen to around 2ppm. I'll continue to monitor the tank anyway.

Thank you again for your help.

Matt

 

[roblkuhnjr]

Randy,

I have been dosing vinegar for quite a while now and my nitrates do not seem to be going down anymore, I stopped increasing vinegar when I started noticing white stringy growths in my sump along with diatom type growth on my substrate. My nitrates are stuck at 12.0 ppm, P04 is 0.05 ppm, current rate is 96.8 ml/day in 240 gallons of water volume, should I continue to increase vinegar? What would be the max? I have been increasing at a rate of 4.0 ml per week.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Reeferdood]

Randy,
I am dosing Ethanol and I am noticing a lot of mulm in my plumbing. When I change the flow rate the mulm comes loose and a snowstorm erupts. I am only dosing 5ml per day in a 185 gallon system, does this seem normal?
Thank you.
Rick

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi Randy,

Thanks for your help and advice. This morning I woke up and noticed that overall polyp extension of my SPS colonies was very big, and that most of the colonies looked much better, after some feeding last night and a large water change yesterday. I do really think that halving the carbon dosing helped, and now my nitrates have fallen to around 2ppm. I'll continue to monitor the tank anyway.

Thank you again for your help.

Matt

That is good to hear!

Happy Reefing.