Vodka dosing experts

cchomistek · Oct 14, 2017

A little history about my tank. Tank is a 60" x 30" x 30" lagoon tank with 40 gallon sump. Running a vertex omega 150 skimmer. Been running for 4 years without too much maintenance being done on it. Thus build up of nitrates and phosphates was running fowlr for most of those 4 years.

Fast forward to today. Nitrates are 50 and phosphates .12. I have made some upgrades. Now using RO water. Increased flow in tank with 2 maxspect xf250 gyre pumps.

I have been dosing vodka for about 3 weeks and am at 4ml per day. My question is whether i should of seen the stinky skimmate already or is it still to early. Skimmate has increased but not really that sulphur stinky smell yet. Just wondering if I should be looking to increase the size of my skimmer or not. I have done a couple water changes and siphoned my sand bed to get rid of some of the detritus in the sand.

Any help would be appreciated. It could be that i just have to continue to add more vodka over time as the breakdown will take time.

Thanks

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 14, 2017

The nature of the skimmate is not, IMO, any particular indication of what is happening. There are too many other factors that impact it.

FWIW, in the 20 years I had my tank up, my skimmate never smelled bad. It always smelled "oceany" to me.

I'd just keep watching and monitoring, and upward adjust after a while if nothing happens, but it does take time if the dose starts on the lowish side.

cchomistek · Oct 14, 2017

Is there harm in increasing the dose a little quicker? I know of the bacterial bloom and the oxygen depletion. Other than those is there any other reason to take it slow?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 14, 2017

cchomistek said:
Is there harm in increasing the dose a little quicker? I know of the bacterial bloom and the oxygen depletion. Other than those is there any other reason to take it slow?

No (at least in my opinion), as long as you can back off quickly too if nitrate drops too much.

cchomistek · Oct 14, 2017

Would going up by 1ml every 3 days be a quick increase or is that something that a tank of this size and the length it has been running should be able to handle?? Or would you reccomend even quicker till you see a reduction in nitrates.

cchomistek · Oct 14, 2017

Would going up by 1ml every 3 days be a quick increase or is that something that a tank of this size and the length it has been running should be able to handle?? Or would you reccomend even quicker till you see a reduction in nitrates.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 14, 2017

That seems fine.

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

So I am now up to 16 ml of vodka per day and have not seen a reduction in my nitrates or phosphates yet. Algae does appear to be weaker but still there. Any ideas what kind of a dose it may take per day to bring it down. I am dosing at 10 am and 10:30am. 2/3 dose than 1/3 more. I make vodka fir a living so have an abundance but just wondering when I may see a drop. I know every tank is different. Just wondering if you had an idea.

CNDReef · Nov 6, 2017

How much water volume?

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

Total water would be roughly 220 gallons.

CNDReef · Nov 6, 2017

Keep adding to it but slow down on increase time. 1 ml a week. It took me a little over a month to start seeing results.

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

I am taking it up 1ml every two days. I have not seen any drop yet. I have been at it for over a month but it has taken that month to reach this volume of vodka. There is a small bacterial bloom but no cloudy water. Should i not continue this increase until i at least start to see a drop in nitrates. How big a system are you running and how high were your nitrates to start?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2017

If you are confident in your nitrate reading, I'd keep upping it a bit, or maybe add some vinegar to it.

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

I am pretty confident in that reading. Using salifert test kit that was new last month. I have just started using vibrant aswell so that should provide another carbon source.

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

Situation has changed slightly. It appears a full blown bacterial bloom in the water column today. Fish and coral seem unaffected right now. Should I cutback some on the vodka as I am dosing vodka at 16mL a day and vibrant 20mL twice a week for a dirty tank method. (Only dosed vibrant twice thus far) Since i essentially have two carbon sources I assume that is what caused the bloom.

I have been vaccuming the sand bed on water changes over the past couple months to rid the excess waste.

Will the bacteria eventually work through this waste and bring down the nitrates?

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you are confident in your nitrate reading, I'd keep upping it a bit, or maybe add some vinegar to it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2017

Vibrant is mostly bacteria. I'd stop adding it.

cchomistek · Nov 6, 2017

I understand that vibrant is bacteria. It seems to do a good job at combating algae and reducing nitrates and phosphates aswell. Would it not be a good option to just cut back the vodka and use both sources of bacteria to combat the nitrates and the algae at the same time?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2017

cchomistek said:
I understand that vibrant is bacteria. It seems to do a good job at combating algae and reducing nitrates and phosphates aswell. Would it not be a good option to just cut back the vodka and use both sources of bacteria to combat the nitrates and the algae at the same time?

You have no shortage of bacteria and I can't see a reason to want to add more.

You need the bacteria you already have to grow and take up nutrients.