Vodka dosing

11f150 · May 9, 2013

I've been reading up on vodka dosing and I think I'm going to give it a go. I've been getting hair algae and I do frequent water changes. I only feed my fish every other day but I think I need to do something to catch it while its not a huge problem. Just wanted to post on here what I'm going to do so if I have it wrong someone can let me know. I have about 125 gallons total with my tank and sump. Im going to start dosing .1 ml vodka per 25 gal. So I'm going to do .5ml a day total. I'm going to split that up so I dose .25ml twice a day. After the first week Ill increase the dosing .5 ml. I have a good skimmer so I should be good to go. Let me know if I should do anything different.

navila06 · May 9, 2013

good read

Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com

Reefing Madness · May 9, 2013

Make sure you read that Link well, just to give you an idea how long it will be just before you see the Nitrates start to drop, doing it by the book. Your looking at a year. How high are your Trates that you want to Dose. I've actually skirted that method, myself based on Mels 180g tank and what he doses for a daily.

ddwatson · May 9, 2013

Where did you get that it would take a year to see the results from carbon dosing? I have not read that anywhere or heard that from others that carbon dose.

David

11f150 · May 9, 2013

Ive read people getting results the first week.

ddwatson · May 9, 2013

I as well. I have been dosing for about a month on a 125 with total water volume around 180. Up to 2 ml so far. Doing primarily to be able to over feed. I have a mated pair of clowns breeding in the tank.

David

mike007 · May 9, 2013

I tried vodka dosing and had mixed results . Then i researched nopox which is made by redsea and i have had excellent results. It is easier to dose and it works. If you are getting algae it has to be excess nutrients wheter its overfeeding or it can be from coral foods. I had some algae problems even while carbon dosing and it was caused by me feeding too much liquid coral food. Once i cut back algae was gone in a few days and never appeared again. Go to redseafish .com and watch there videos they will explain carbon dosing and other informative info.

cultivatedcoral · May 9, 2013

Vodka dosing works great. You should see a significant drop in nitrates by then 2nd month but I suggest dosing in conjunction with Brightwells Microbacter7. Sunnyx had a good write up about it here somewhere in a thread.

Daniel@R2R · May 9, 2013

Reefing Madness said:
Make sure you read that Link well, just to give you an idea how long it will be just before you see the Nitrates start to drop, doing it by the book. Your looking at a year. How high are your Trates that you want to Dose. I've actually skirted that method, myself based on Mels 180g tank and what he doses for a daily.

+1 I have been dosing vodka/vinegar for a while, and a friend who showed me what he was doing recommended just starting at your target dose. I did that and had great results without having to work my way up. I also had no negative effects on any tank inhabitants.

11f150 · May 9, 2013

Well I tested my nitrates tonight and they are low. I use API and its way less than 5 ppm. Maybe 1-2ppm. I'm going to test my phosphates once I can get my hands on a tester and see where they are. Going to run that test before I do anything with vodka dosing. Only thing I can think of is my marco rock is leaking phosphates like a local guy said might happen. So until its done leaking I might have phosphate issues, but Im going to test it first.

Daniel@R2R · May 9, 2013

11f150 said:
Well I tested my nitrates tonight and they are low. I use API and its way less than 5 ppm. Maybe 1-2ppm. I'm going to test my phosphates once I can get my hands on a tester and see where they are. Going to run that test before I do anything with vodka dosing. Only thing I can think of is my marco rock is leaking phosphates like a local guy said might happen. So until its done leaking I might have phosphate issues, but Im going to test it first.

Glad you checked. Vodka dosing can bring down both phosphates and nitrates...but it's much more effective on nitrates than phosphates. I'd recommend GFO if you only have a phosphate issue.