vodka dosing and vacation

rayn · May 10, 2014

I am vodka dosing and it has worked very well for me. Coupled with phosphate media, aggressive water changes, and wet skimming, and many sessions of manual removal, I have been able to take my long haired fish tank down to a balding fish tank!

Now my issues is that I am going on vaca in a week. I have a tank sitter enough to make sure all is well and top off if the ato gets low, but I don't feel comfortable having them manually dose for me. Two options I can think of...

1. Quit dosing for the week and start back up when I return. But will I be able to resume at the current level or will I have to ramp it back up?

2. Figure out some sort of dosing method. I don't own a doser, nor plan to get one before I leave. Any options here for a do it yourself doser? I have as thinking about trying a two liter bottle and getting it to drip, if I can get the drip rate right.

Any other ideas?

Aquaph8 · May 10, 2014

I do option 1 and start back around half of where I was when I left and slowly bring it back up.

Reefing Madness · May 10, 2014

You can just pick back up where you've left off. I've done it several times myself. Normal dosing after several days or even a week off will not hurt anything. Your Trates may raise during this period, so I'd test, then maybe after a few days up the dose to bring them back inline, then get back to normal.