Vodka Dosing is it something I can do?

bencameron27 · Mar 23, 2014

Hi I was just wondering if anyone has tried this, I originally had a 100 litre aquarium with 13 kg ish of live rock, it was running around 3 months before I upgraded to a 200 litre. I kept all the water and rock just put a new substrate in, I have a aqua one skimmer rated for 400 litres, a external filter that I just use for rowa phos and carbon and the rest of the baskets are filled with live rock rubble. I also use the filter for my uv as well which is 30w. I added another 8kg to my original rock and upgraded my powerhead to jebao wp-25. I use 4 t5 bulbs and my stock is 2-clarkiis, mandarin, orange spot filefish, 1 inch regal (adopted), malu anemone, mushrooms, Kenya tree, toadstool, zoas, Xenia, duncans, star polyps, candy cane. all my coral are small frags apart from mushrooms. They are all growing slowly, I dose an all in one once a week and natural iodine once a week. The new tank has been running for around month now ammonia is 0 and nitrite is 0 but nitrate seems to sit between 20 and 50 all the time, I use Red Sea test kit. My water routine is once a week around 10 20% depending on how much water I have after top ups. Can someone help I don't want to by a reactor but if I have to I will, is vodka dosing something I can consider? I will have this tank for around 12 months before I upgrade to a 4 footer

. Can anyone help?
Thanks

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mike007 · Mar 23, 2014

Yes you certainly can vodka dosing. It does work great. Put in vodka dosing in search at top of page and you will find lots of good info.

bencameron27 · Mar 23, 2014

So is my tank old enough to do this? Is there a chance that it may still stabilise and my nitrates drop or does this not happen? Thanks

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mike007 · Mar 23, 2014

Check this out It will help. http://www.melevsreef.com/vodka_dosing.html

redfishbluefish · Mar 23, 2014

I'm going to refer you to THIS post where Jon Warner, owner of Warner Marine, comments on biopellets, vodka dosing (and other carbon dosing).....post #6.

bencameron27 · Mar 23, 2014

Thank you will have a read ASAP, appreciate all the help guys, I'm still new to the hobby yeah I've kept marines 2 years but that is definitely still new, so much to learn.

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Reefing Madness · Mar 23, 2014

redfishbluefish said:
I'm going to refer you to THIS post where Jon Warner, owner of Warner Marine, comments on biopellets, vodka dosing (and other carbon dosing).....post #6.

To many ifs and buts in that post for my taste. It also noted in any post that before starting Vodka Dosing that you have a very good skimmer so that this takes out all the issues that may or may not occur. I use a Coralife Modified 220 Skimmer on my 240g tank, I don't have any Cyano or Algae issues.
Anyone can Dose, start out with the norm 1ml for the first week, then bump it up to 5mls, keep raising it 5mls a week until your nitrates start to fall, this is your daily maintenance dose, until they fall to the range you want to keep them, then you cut that dose in half. Most make to much out of this, where you can actually ste the thing up on a drip system once you've figured out how much your using and what it will drip out in a day. Its really not that difficult, and most make to much out of it.