Vodka Dosing + Hair Algae

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not sure what you can mean by not being able to use them in a doser. Why not? Alk and calcium could be used that way just fine.

 

[kkgaskin90]

It would be bacteria and it has to grow somewhere.

Where are you dosing in relation to the pump intake?

I'm dosing into the sumo, in the center chamber that houses the return pump. The lines are behind the return pump intake.

The Gyre is in the display opposite the return

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dosed vinegar upstream of a rock filled refugium to give them a place to grow, and never saw any bacteria anywhere except in the water column as a haze with super high doses.

 

[kkgaskin90]

I dosed vinegar upstream of a rock filled refugium to give them a place to grow, and never saw any bacteria anywhere except in the water column as a haze with super high doses.

That makes complete sense. My flow through the refugium is very slow, would that cause any problems with it accumulating? And was the refugium strictly rock or macro as well? I have a divided fuge so I could do something like that.

 

[kkgaskin90]

I'm not sure what you can mean by not being able to use them in a doser. Why not? Alk and calcium could be used that way just fine.

According to the LFS owner, that particular brand does not stay mixed, so if you use a doser you will get a spike from all the settled material at the bottom. Which I did. And it has taken me months to get my levels sorted out (since it took me so long to figure out the issue). I've switched brands, but lost quite a few Coral and havoc has been wreaked on my tank.