Vodka dosing causing algae bloom?

[shogun1964]

I've been dosing 1ml vodka in the morning an 1ml at night to try and get rid of what appears to be cyno, but I am getting a outbreak of brown algae now, am I dosing to much? My nitrates are down to 1.5 and phosphates are near zero.

 

[BrianPoni]

Cyano would dissapear if you were dosing H2O2 instead of the vodka. Vodka/carbon is providing food for certain bacteria, I’m not sure how/if algea would consume it too.
I rid my cyano problem by dosing H2O2 for a week or so, 1ml/20g twice a day. Then I started dosing nopox/vodka(basically do the same) to jump start the nitrate/phosphate metabolising cycle again.

 

[shogun1964]

I heard about dosing with h202, will it hurt my porities?

 

[BrianPoni]

There should be a bunch of articles in the forums about dosing H2O2, it really only affects single celled organisms, and some other types of algae.
Many combine it with blacking out the tank for 3-5 days. The only coral that shows displeasure towards it are zoas. They shut down pretty quickly after the dose. At the time I have 15+ different zoas frags/colors and a good mix of LPS in the tank, nothing was negativily affected by it.
The biggest downside is it wipes out your beneficial bacteria as well as the Cyano/diatoms. So it’ll need a jump start when your done dosing H2O2

 

[dwest]

I've been dosing 1ml vodka in the morning an 1ml at night to try and get rid of what appears to be cyno, but I am getting a outbreak of brown algae now, am I dosing to much? My nitrates are down to 1.5 and phosphates are near zero.

I wouldn’t dose anything. Your phosphates are near zero with what test? Your are in danger of getting dinos IMO.

 

[shogun1964]

I really appreciate the input!