Question to vodka dosing reefers!

[Bpb]

Honestly this hobby is what works for you. I'm just stating my experience..

That much we can totally agree on. I was simply stating my experience. Everybody budget and schedule are different. Some people think a 5 minute water change once a week is outrageously expensive and time consuming, but that automating the rising of 15 unique elements and mailing off a $50 test every month is better. Head scratcher to me, but it is what it is. While we are on the topic. The number one most annoying piece of maintenance in the hobby to me is maintaining a gfo reactor. Some people would never consider operating without one though.

 

[EW_Fish]

That much we can totally agree on. I was simply stating my experience. Everybody budget and schedule are different. Some people think a 5 minute water change once a week is outrageously expensive and time consuming, but that automating the rising of 15 unique elements and mailing off a $50 test every month is better. Head scratcher to me, but it is what it is. While we are on the topic. The number one most annoying piece of maintenance in the hobby to me is maintaining a gfo reactor. Some people would never consider operating without one though.

I honestly dislike filter socks. That's just me. Vodka dosing does work and it works well but I found it easier for me to run a fuge over vodka.

 

[mcarroll]

Algae carbon doses my tank? What do you mean?

And I may just do chaeto instead. We'll see

Sugars are one of the two main byproducts of photsynthesis and the plant never really needs as much as it produces – they "leak" the rest. Predictably, this carbon source attracts bacteria and a whole subchain of the microbial food web is "born".

Painting with a broad brush....

Sugars from algae "cause" a chain of microbes that are unfriendly to corals and friendly to them.

Sugars from corals "cause" a chain of microbes that are friendly to them and unfriendly to algae.

Spots of algae and immature corals have very little of this effect, BTW. Established stands of algae or corals can have a significant effect though.

This is what makes algae something to stay on top of even if it's not something really to worry about. It also makes regular harvests of refugium and ATS algae more important.

These long, interrelated food webs anchored to the corals and algae are also what makes mature reef tanks very, very stable.

If you're going to grow algae, consider macro algae, but also consider the many forms of ATS...some are much more compact and much easier to maintain.

 

[mcarroll]

The number one most annoying piece of maintenance in the hobby to me is maintaining a gfo reactor. Some people would never consider operating without one though.

I'm with you. It seems like some folks may be more into maintaining GFO reactors (etc) than they are into their reef.

(As far as alternatives, I love the mesh post-filter bag on my Tunze skimmer. Makes running media completely sane. I remove the whole thing when I'm not running media, which is 99% of the time.)

 

[Bpb]

I'm with you. It seems like some folks may be more into maintaining GFO reactors (etc) than they are into their reef.

(As far as alternatives, I love the mesh post-filter bag on my Tunze skimmer. Makes running media completely sane. I remove the whole thing when I'm not running media, which is 99% of the time.)

I messed with them for a good number of years before I had enough. I’ve really enjoyed the simplicity of phosphate rx drops in the skimmer. I find I don’t have to use them ALL the time. So dripping some in a 10 micron sock as needed really fits with my ideal maintenance regiment

 

[Grsfish]

I tried vinegar first and went up slowly and started having some corals getting brown patches. Then a couple months later I started dosing vodka very slowly and over a month my nitrates went from about 20 to close between 0 and 5

 

[Tajaba]

Honestly, Imo carbon dosing is the best thing to ever happen to the reefing world. Wouldn't even consider another reef tank without it. But I went a more balanced Carbon + Fe dosing route to maintain a stable Nitrogen/Phosphorus ratio in my reef tank. Only problem is now I have undetectable levels of both and have to dose KNO3