vodka dosing and waste away

[Llorgon]

I have been fighting gha in my IM 25 gallong for awhile now. I have been vodka dosing for a few months and it has been a great help in keeping nutrients down.

Since I am still seeing lots of algae I bought some Dr. Tims waste away. Is it safe to use waste away and continue the vodka dosing? Currently dosing 0.7ml/day of vodka.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, there's nothing unsafe about combining these methods.

 

[CDavmd]

....just watch out for a bacterial bloom.

 

[Dan_P]

I have been fighting gha in my IM 25 gallong for awhile now. I have been vodka dosing for a few months and it has been a great help in keeping nutrients down.

Since I am still seeing lots of algae I bought some Dr. Tims waste away. Is it safe to use waste away and continue the vodka dosing? Currently dosing 0.7ml/day of vodka.

Could you just get some snails to eat the algae?

 

[Llorgon]

Yes, there's nothing unsafe about combining these methods.

Great! Thanks!

....just watch out for a bacterial bloom.

Noted. Keeping an eye out.

Could you just get some snails to eat the algae?

I wish. I badly need to replenish CUC, but here in Canada places aren't shipping right now and any local places haven't got new stock in for awhile since prices have gone up significantly. Or so they say. It's rough right now.

 

[tfford]

Yes, there's nothing unsafe about combining these methods.

Randy, I started vodka dosing about three weeks ago and am now up to 3.3ml / day (100 gal actual water volume) and I've yet to be able to see any impact on my nutrients from this dosing.

Phosphates are usually in the 0.02-0.05 range but at present I'm assuming that's because of the GFO i'm running and almost some daily dosing of Phosphate-e.

Nitrates aren't climbing but have been a steady 8 - 12 ppm (I'm guessing 10 assuming I'm reading the colors correctly from the nyos test kit) and I did a water change of 30 gal two days ago which reduced the nitrates a bit (probably 8ppm) but seemingly just for a day. I have a Brightwell Xport NO3 block in my sump (been there for about two weeks now) and I'm wondering if that's what's keeping the NO3 from climbing?

While all this is going on I test water for PO4 and NO3 daily as I'm assuming if the Vodka dosing starts having an effect I'll need to back off something.

Any guess when/if I might expect some results from the Vodak?

And yep, forgot to mention I do run a skimmer.

Thanks,

 

[CDavmd]

Randy, I started vodka dosing about three weeks ago and am now up to 3.3ml / day (100 gal actual water volume) and I've yet to be able to see any impact on my nutrients from this dosing.

Phosphates are usually in the 0.02-0.05 range but at present I'm assuming that's because of the GFO i'm running and almost some daily dosing of Phosphate-e.

Nitrates aren't climbing but have been a steady 8 - 12 ppm (I'm guessing 10 assuming I'm reading the colors correctly from the nyos test kit) and I did a water change of 30 gal two days ago which reduced the nitrates a bit (probably 8ppm) but seemingly just for a day. I have a Brightwell Xport NO3 block in my sump (been there for about two weeks now) and I'm wondering if that's what's keeping the NO3 from climbing?

While all this is going on I test water for PO4 and NO3 daily as I'm assuming if the Vodka dosing starts having an effect I'll need to back off something.

Any guess when/if I might expect some results from the Vodak?

And yep, forgot to mention I do run a skimmer.

Thanks,

Just a warning, I would be very very careful running GFO and carbon dosing. Your phosphates are in a low-good range and you could potentially bottom them out and end up with Dino's. Given the margin of error on test kits and even Hanna, a phosphate of .02 might be actually zero. I personally try to keep it around .08-0.1 and would not run GFO.

Your nitrate level is also fine and given that it has been stable, your current vodka dose might be your actual maintenance dose. I strongly urge you to not chase some magical number and be very careful of bottoming out your phosphate and nitrate. Nothing good will come from it.

happy reefing!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, I started vodka dosing about three weeks ago and am now up to 3.3ml / day (100 gal actual water volume) and I've yet to be able to see any impact on my nutrients from this dosing.

Phosphates are usually in the 0.02-0.05 range but at present I'm assuming that's because of the GFO i'm running and almost some daily dosing of Phosphate-e.

Nitrates aren't climbing but have been a steady 8 - 12 ppm (I'm guessing 10 assuming I'm reading the colors correctly from the nyos test kit) and I did a water change of 30 gal two days ago which reduced the nitrates a bit (probably 8ppm) but seemingly just for a day. I have a Brightwell Xport NO3 block in my sump (been there for about two weeks now) and I'm wondering if that's what's keeping the NO3 from climbing?

While all this is going on I test water for PO4 and NO3 daily as I'm assuming if the Vodka dosing starts having an effect I'll need to back off something.

Any guess when/if I might expect some results from the Vodak?

And yep, forgot to mention I do run a skimmer.

Thanks,

What are your target levels?

I'd personally stick to this dose for a while.

 

[tfford]

What are your target levels?

I'd personally stick to this dose for a while.

You know, that's a really good question and I don't know that I have a really good answer.

With phosphates typically in the 0.02 - 0.05 range (occassionally a bit higher) and NO3 around 8-10, I think most reefers would be happy with these numbers and not that I'm not, I'm just really frustrated that I'm having the green hair algae problems I am.

So I've reduced the intensity of my lights, again. I have a pair of AI Primes and I've now turned the entire blue spectrum down to 55% and white to 20%, red and green are both at 5 % so I'll see if that helps. I think I've got enough cleanup crew but I just REALLY don't want to get into chemical addivities to beat the algae but if nothing gets better in the next month, I don't know.

I can't say the algae is horrible but certainly more than I want.

I really appreciate the response(s).

Wish me luck.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not convinced that organic carbon dosing really gets rid of algae, regardless of dose.

 

[tfford]

I'm not convinced that organic carbon dosing really gets rid of algae, regardless of dose.

The carbon dosing is/was not intended as a "direct" measure for algae control. The purpose of the dosing (from my perspective) is nutrient control and we all know that all algae requires, is nutrients and light. It's just at this point I've not gotten a good handle on where the nutrients and light settings need to be.

While chemical treatments (Fluconazole as an example) "seem" to be effective in ridding the tank of algae, if the parameters listed above aren't where they need to be, the algae will simply come back.

So, on we go in the never ending search for the "perfect" reef tank.

 

[Uncle99]

Are you sure about your phosphate reading?
Sometimes phosphate is reported low as the GHA is using it for growth.
And just to check......no outside light hitting the tank right?

I have been running nitrates at 15ppm and phosphate 0.03 for years, no algae.

 

[tfford]

Are you sure about your phosphate reading?
Sometimes phosphate is reported low as the GHA is using it for growth.
And just to check......no outside light hitting the tank right?

I have been running nitrates at 15ppm and phosphate 0.03 for years, no algae.

As to the first question, I’m as sure as I can be using a Hanna checker and my problem with phosphates isn’t that they’re low, they’re just all over the place from day to day. All over the place meaning one day they’re 0.03 and the next they might be 0.09.

I‘ve been running GFO but I think that’s going away simply due to cost. I’ve been splitting my reactor probably 60-40 between GFO and carbon, separated by filter pads so they’re not mixed. If i’m trying to rely on GFO to keep phosphates down it ”seems” that only last a couple of week, three at the most.

So as an alternative to GFO I’ve started using (within the last 2-3 weeks) Phosphate-E, dosed daily, and it seems to do a really good job of dropping the phosphates, I just haven’t yet gotten exactly what that daily dose needs to be.

I’ve only had my tank running 10 months and admittedly, and stupid me, for the first 9 months I had the blue spectrum of my AI Primes running at 90% thinking it’s only the white that affects algae growth. Live and learn. So I’ve reduced that to 50% (blue) and left white at 20% where it’s been. This change has been within the last 2-3 weeks as well.

And as to outside light, while my tank isn’t actually a peninsula tank, it should be as it’s viewable from three sides one of which, we have a big picture window (with no blinds currently but that’s about to change) that delivers morning light. So I’ve been taking a black garbage bag and taping it to that side of the tank until that morning light is gone. Not a problem in the winter but in actuality, that side of the tank “maybe” has a little more algae than the rest.

I have manually sucked out most of the long hair algae so it’s kinda a fuzz that I currently have, but I’ve now done that twice. I’ve just introduced six small pincushion urchins and lawnmower Blenny and they’re sure helping but they’re such SMALL mouths that this will take a while.

Thinking about Vibrant but haven’t gone there yet.

Any/all suggestions are most welcome.

Thanks,