thinking about a vodka regament

[a49panhead]

Since I defeated a bad red slime out brake 2 months ago i cant stop the green here algae and brown algae from growing. i read that vodka keeps down nitrate and phosphates down. I was going to use .1 ml per 25 gal for 3 days then dubble the dose for 3 days then add .5 ml on day 7 for 7 days. then .5 ml every 5 days till my levels drop. Im only having a problem with phosphates, no matter what i do they wont drop. I have a RODI filter and i checked the levels and they are all 0. I also use a phosphate out in my filter and that does not help. i cant find the source. I think its the brown algae that dies over night witch makes the phosphate and reblooms every day feeding on it along with the green here. I have a 60 gal with a canaster filter. with rocks and filter under estimate i have a tottle of 50 gal. -O- and i used chemiclean treatment for red slime, witch was recamended by my LFS, what a mastake that was. not only did it kill the slime but also a bunch of inverts.

my levels are
PH-8.3
nitrite-0
nitrate-5.0
phosphate-0.25
ammonia-0.25

Im steel farely new to reef keeping so any questions, coments, info, advice, whatever u got would be very helpful thanks

 

[Pkunk35]

I'm betting that canister filter could be a source of some of the nutrient, those get nasty fast and I usually recommend ditching them.

how old is the tank and what are your inhabitants/feeding habits and WC schedule? A lot of algal problems can be resolved with patience/CUC and adjusting feeding and WC routines.

Also, do you have a skimmer? You will need one for any kind of carbon dosing.

 

[a49panhead]

the tank is about 2 years old, i change 20 gal every other week, i have 3 clowns a blue damsel, a long nose hawk fish a dottyback, coral banded shrimp, brittle star, 2 brans, kenya tree, plate, todestool lather, seba num, herments and snails, I clean my filter every month and i put the polishing pad at the bottom so the nasty stuff does not get on the carbon bags or the rubble. i feed half a quibe of mysi shrimp dally, and use Goniopower for corals every other day. and i have a prizm skimmer.

What is CUC

 

[Pkunk35]

CUC is cleanup crew such as hermit crabs and snails.

Just an opinion but I would really slow down the goniopower feeding and see how it goes with the nutrients and algae.

Also, I would clean the canister at least weekly or get rid of it. That is a debris trap by design and should be cleaned more often in my opinion especially if you are showing ammonia, nitrate and phosphate levels.

One other suggestion is to WC 10 gal a week instead of 20 every other.

IMO I would try these steps before dosing vodka, i think they will help.

 

[eric.battani]

I use to vodka dose and it did lower my nitrates but working in the health care field I got to thinking about long term effect on the fish which is probably not real good. BTW it did work real good when I did use it, and the amount of junk my skimmer pulled out of my water was amazing and always had the worst smell to it. Now regular skim smells bad but this was way worse. But i dont think vodka is it answer, thats why I stopped.

 

[reefer54]

My advice to you is 3 fold: 1. reduce the amount you are changing, 20 gallons is too much for a 60 gallon tank, what you are trying to achieve is stability. your stated test results said you have a ammonia reading which is not good. sounds like your tank is very unsetteled. your should not have any ammonia reading at all. 2 try turning our the lights for three days, it really does work. the alge dies off and 3, istead of vodka, think about vinegar, its not toxic and i think works better.most of all. you need to realize, that 5 on the nitrate scale isn't all that bad, you need to concentrate more on reducing the phospate more.

 

[a49panhead]

thanks for the help ill try changing water at 10 gal a week and less filter feeder food, would more rock help lower ammonia?

 

[mike007]

Get rid if the canister filter and make sure you have a good skimmer. Also you have to reduce the nutrient level . Algae feeds off excess nutrients. Without the algae dies off. Carbon dosing also helps but be carefull and do your reseach online before dumping a bunch of crap into your tank. There are a lot of good info via internet on carbon dosing. I learned years ago to keep thing simple and avoid overfeeding your fish they will survive .

 

[mcarroll]

+1 to all the "ditch the canister" comments.

Is it gone yet and how did the media look when you took it out? (If it's not gone and the media isn't completely bad, it wouldn't hurt to perform the decommissioning in phases over about a weeks time, removing a percentage of the media every day or so until it's empty. At which point you could still run it just for flow.)

Also, check around in your sand bed as there's a good chance you've got some buildup of detritus down there. If there's anything down there, I'd consider siphoning out the whole sand bed and either going bare bottom or starting a fresh sand bed.

-Matt

 

[a49panhead]

I stell use the canister, at the start of the problem with the red slime my LFS seed i should get rid of the bio balls they r a nitrate,
phosphate factory and use small rocks that they had. when i switched them the bio balls were nasty covered in gunk. thats when i started putting the polishing pad on the bottom of the filter to keep the nasty stuff off the rocks and carbon. I cant get rid of the filter because i hove no room for a sump.

 

[fragmatic]

One more opinion, +1 ditch the canister.

Also, do you have a refugium or refugium area, my thinking here is to grow lots of algae in it so most of the algae food is consumed there. Diversity is a tool in reefing, if algae wants to grow it is a good source of diversity, and eco buffer, so I gave in and provided it a good place to grow, just not in my display tank.

I had the same troubles you are talking about (did not have a canister though) and what fixed it in my tank (all tanks are different) after trying numerous things was to hang strips of plastic netting in my refugium (for algae to grow on) and add a 2nd light to it. It how has two full spectrum worm lights in those clamp on reflectors. Then oddly enough to slowly increase my coral feeding (frozen cube portions) over a couple of weeks so my bacteria could still keep up with it. That bloomed the algae in my refugium and presto abracadabra my algae problem was suddenly normal in the display tank. I also feed my refugium phyto and maintain PODs there.

Now, IMO a refugium needs to be an algae farm. I have two refugiums, the 2nd one is a display refugium and it is not an algae farm but it too is rich in algae, I let it grow there just not on the front glass.

 

[Alex27]

Before you start any carbon dosing regiment, first you have to take away or solve some of the other issues that may be contributing to your problems. The canister filter is a great tool if you use it for a quick cleanup. However, canister filters can and do clog with food which can create problems. Solve the other issues with good husbandry before moving on to experimenting with any carbon dosing. Small weekly water changes can be more helpful that larger water changes. not that a larger water change can't be done, but in order not to shock your system you have to make sure all parameters are matching the water you are replacing.

Bottom line, good husbandry techniques will give you better results than techniques that require more patience.

 

[Davinci]

yeah ditch the canister and get a better skimmer. also raise the kh. I did not see what you had for kh. By raising it you could have taken care of your cyano problem and it will aso create an enviroment in which discourages the growth of hair algea. Just look at the canister this way, you feed your fish and corals. some of the uneatend food gets traped in the sponges of the canister. water runs trough the canister and in about 2 days the uneaten food starts to decompose into ammonia and ultimately nitrates. Make that canister into a sort of reactor where you take all the media out andloosely put carbon and hosban or anything like that.

 

[a49panhead]

I went out and bought a Kh test kit and it was 15 drops witch worked out to be about 270 ppm. Is that good or too high? The kit also came with a Gh test witch i hit 40 drops and the color did not change. the instructions did not say how to adjust Gh in a salt water tank just in a fresh. Is Gh important in a reef if so how do i lower it.

 

[mike007]

I have tried vodka dosing and it did not help. Finally figured out i that my sand bed was the cause. The tank had been set up for 10 years and it was time to replace sand. Also i have read that the live rock absorbs phoshates and they leach back into tank. Thats where carbon dosing helps. Whatever method works for you but i can tell you i use Redsea nopox and i have had excellent results. I have never had luck with any phosphate reducing additives. Get it under control and keep things simple ,you don't need all they fancy crap that these companies want you to buy.

 

[mcarroll]

270ppm is pretty high.

200 ppm is a typical dosing level for an SPS tank. 200 ppm = 4.0 meq/L = 11.2dKH Natural seawater is around 150ppm. (While measuring in ppm is perfectly valid and fine - even modern and "correct" - it's a little odd. What kind of kit did you get?)

I would be surprised if the GH test was applicable to saltwater, prolly why the instructions only referred to fresh....you want dedicated Calcium and Magnesium test kits that are intended for saltwater use instead. KH is the most important though, so you're good for now.

Have you been dosing anything to cause alkalinity to be that high? I would recommend doing some water changes (up to 10% per day) to get the water back in "ship shape".


A couple of points to remember on your other issue:

• The algae is a sign of too many/out of balance nutrients in the tank and while it's ugly it's keeping the water nice for the animals.
• Don't look at algae as the enemy, just a useful messenger.

You (and the rest of us) would have a really bad situation on your hands were it not for algae. Pleasantly, it will disappear with the problem that's causing it. (I.e. over stocking, over feeding, inadequate flow, maybe even some of all of these)

Given that you had a red slime (bacteria) outbreak - usually caused by some combination of too many nutrients and too little flow - and now are dealing with green and brown algae (actually an improvement), you may need to rethink some things.

If you have around 1 pound per gallon of live rock, it's unlikely that you need any additional bio-filtration. If this is the case, treat that canister as I recommended in post #9 ASAP.

Further, as Mike007 indicated, check your sand bed for detritus buildup.

Thanks to gravity, the sand bed (gone foul) is probably the most common driver of algae blooms. Most likely places to check are the sand around/underneath your rocks and sand below pumps or other flow sources. If you swirl your finger around in the sand at these (and other) locations and you get a little cloud of anything from the sand, this is bad. It would be very worth vacuuming or (my preference) completely removing the sand bed. Replace it with a new sand bed if you must, but consider that it may foul again in the same time frame if you can't rectify the cause. Going bare bottom may help and be more manageable for you.

-Matt

 

[jimmybling31]

Do you use rodi water? Also you need a sump. Its just needed for a reef.

Once you have a sump get a bigger skimmer that works. Prizms are crap that lfs will sell you just to make money. Even if you have to pull the system down and rebuild it with a new stand and sump, you will find it worth it immediately. Your cist to set up a sump with overflow will be around 400 dollars. Do that then add a skimmer when you can. My recomendation is as follows for what to use.
Mag drive 5
20long tank as sump from any pet store
Petco metal stand

Once you have those in place you can add a reef octopus skimmer for around 160 dollars thats big enough for you. Then once you have all that, if you still have a problem look at biopellets or vodka, but only then.

Sent from my SCH-i705 using Tapatalk 2

 

[a49panhead]

thank u all for the help. new equipment just is not in the cards right now so ill do 5 gal wc a day till my levels are right. Ill make it a point to vacuum the hard to get to places and i will clean the filter once a week till a better system comes into play i do use RODI water. the only thing i can see raising my kh is the ph buffer i put in to my rodi water to bring it up to 8.3.