Quit vodka cold turkey?

[jdogclif]

Just a question about vodka dosing. I‘m up to 32 ml per day in divided doses. It doesn’t seem to be helping my phosphate levels so I’m considering stopping. Will it cause any problems if I just pull the plug, or would it be better to ramp back down?

Here are the details: I have about a 350 gallon system running Triton core7 elements. the 270 gallon display drains into a 40 gallon tank with a tumbling chaeto ball, which then drains into the sump which houses the skimmer. I run GFO in a BRS reactor. About a year ago I had some sps die off, and it turned out my phosphate was off the chart. I did water changes, kept up on the GFO, I don’t overfeed and I only use frozen food. So I decided to try vodka dosing to see if it would bring down the phosphate. I’ve increased the vodka slowly over the past several months, but I am up to 32 ml per day (divided) and still the Hanna checker reads 0.90. I think I’m going to stop vodka dosing because the tank actually seems to be doing fine. My only concern is that the tank is doing fine because of the vodka, thus the question...

 

[josephxsxn]

I have no comments about quiting vodka cold turkey.

As for phosphate reduction check out Lanthanum Chloride, in my opinion its much better then GFO or the other resins promoted.

Did I unlock all the phosphate from 100#s of live rock?

Hi, @Randy Holmes-Farley Several months ago I did a tank clean up. I pulled all the rocks one by one, soaked them in straight vinegar for at least 15-20 minutes, washed, rinsed, and put back into the reef. My question, is it possible that at 2.5ph, the vinegar has unbound phosphate from my...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Breadman03]

It’s been a while since I read up, but I’m pretty sure that you’re supposed to work it down gradually.

 

[jdogclif]

Thank you for the replies! I will work down gradually, and I have been reading about Lanthanum Chloride so I am going to give that a try next.

 

[mdb_talon]

I tried quitting vodka once, but only lasted a few days. However my tank is completely sober.

+1 for the lanthium chloride. If phosphate is the issue it is easy/quick/cheap. Just dont overdo it it is very easy to dose too much.

 

[blasterman]

Just dont switch to Ketelon or Grey Goose. Gets expensive

Never found carbon dosing to do much for phosphate. It's mostly a nitrate feeder.

I would back off slow because its almost a guarantee nitrate will elevate.

 

[jdogclif]

Yeah I backed off slowly and then switched to Lanthanum Chloride. It's working great to get the phosphate down. Now just waiting to see if it perks up my sad monti caps.

 

[Uncle99]

Carbon dosing has little effect on phosphate.
GFO can strip it out in days, so if used, keep a close watch.
Used Nopox for three years, to keep nitrates at 5ppm, didn’t no if it was doing anything so I stopped.

In 10 days, nitrates increased to 15ppm, corals colour started to look drab and was hit with a bout of Cyano.

Restarted the dose and all returned to normal.

Should have known better. When it’s working, leave it.