Vodka Dosing help

John Killion · Sep 17, 2015

Not to sure if this would be the right area to post this but had a question for everyone.(Hopefully it's an easy one)

I am planning to start vodka dosing my tank since i am having problems with algae in my tank and can't seem to get rid of it...
My PO4 registered roughly .03-.05(salifert)
Nitrates came up 0
I have run gfo/carbon non stop in a BRS reactor and only use RO/DI water with a tds of 0.
Tank is about 5 months old(after cycle)
I have 1 clownfish in 55g of water, feed him every other day a shaving of brine/mysis shrimp.(I take a knife and take a slight amount off the cube for feeding)
I have always had problems with algae for the past 2 years and I can't stand it anymore..( I just moved thats why this tank has been up for only 5 months, couldn't take ugly tanks anymore so I sold almost everything and was calling it quits, once I moved and was looking at all my old tanks in the closet I figured I'd give it one more go! haha)
This tank seems very stable with little to no flucuations in temp(80(day)-81(night))/salinity(1.025-ato keeps it there) and test readings.

My lighting as of right now is 175w MH 14k bulb 5 months old on for 7 hours and some cheap taotronics LEDs(mainly for the blues) on for 9 hours.

Oh guess I forgot my own question haha do you think it's a good idea to start vodka dosing? If so when do I know when to cut my dosing in half for my maintenance dose since my Nitrates are already 0, just go off of my phosphates?

Any help would be great I really would love to finally have a beautiful tank like everyone else.

rayn · Sep 17, 2015

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/

Read and follow this! It is what I have always followed and it works. I tend to up the dosing a bit faster then the article, but every tank I have ran in the last few years has been dosed. My last tank I started dosing as soon as cycle finished and never had a nitrate issue.

Rich Kapoor · Sep 18, 2015

Following this... My tank is new..just finished cycle.. And I could experience this in the future

kalendo · Sep 18, 2015

I'm going to be honest vodka dosing will not help as much for po4 as it does for no3. I don't see your po4 as too high since most try to keep it at that range. You should increase your no3 though and that will be a perfect environment for your corals. If you want to get rid of algae, other than finding the source dose hydrogen peroxide @ 1ml per 10 gallon of actual tank volume.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 18, 2015

kalendo said:
I'm going to be honest vodka dosing will not help as much for po4 as it does for no3. I don't see your po4 as too high since most try to keep it at that range. You should increase your no3 though and that will be a perfect environment for your corals. If you want to get rid of algae, other than finding the source dose hydrogen peroxide @ 1ml per 10 gallon of actual tank volume.

If he exported more of the N and P instead of letting the algae take it up, the algae would likely decline. Many people are successful keeping algae (such as green hair algae) in check by exporting more nutrients. There are a few select types (such as bryopsis) where this doesn't work well since you have to drop nutrients too low for other creatures to be happy, but for green hair algae it works well.

I agree that the carbon dosing may not adequately help with the phosphate and adding a phosphate binder such as GFO could be a good plan.

John Killion · Sep 18, 2015

Thank you guys for all the replies, I have been running GFO and carbon in my reactor since the tank was cycled and still have algae. I'm not sure I'm following you Kalendo, I thought the goal was 0 NO3.

My main problem is I have no idea what my PO4 and NO3 really are seeing how the algae is consuming it. That's why the Vodka dosing worries me a little because my test results are already low so how will I know when to cut my dose in half for my maintenance dose? Maybe when all the algae dies off? I worry about overdosing the tank with vodka.

Thank you for that article also Rayn that is one I came across when doing my initial research on the subject.

I also feel as if I don't have enough flow in the tank, I can't wait for Christmas..getting some MP10's and Hydras. It's going to be happy days again haha

John Killion · Sep 18, 2015

I figured it would help to post a picture of what I'm actually dealing with. I hope it is easy to fix. Blue Ridge is still growing right along side it. Haha been in the tank a couple weeks.

kalendo · Sep 18, 2015

You actually want some no3 but not too much. And tbh you shouldn't be dosing without testing for the parameter you are trying to for. Tbh go with the hydrogen peroxide if you want to get rid of the algae.

John Killion · Sep 18, 2015

Okay thank you for your answers I will do some research on the hydrogen peroxide.

John Killion · Sep 18, 2015

hmm everything I have come across so far says it's pretty good for coral dips and spot treating but at the same time most people seem to have ill effects on sps/lps and most of the corals I really care about in my tank are sps/lps so not too sure if im willing to risk adding the H2O2 to my tank since I can't take out the rocks and the corals are glued to the rocks anyway..
Any other suggestions for clearing this up?