OP
OP
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Are you feeding heavy to achieve your no3 @ 0.02?
Vodka or vinegar or pellets or gfo
- Thread starter Saltgator
- Start date
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Are you feeding heavy to achieve your no3 @ 0.02?
Being as we both are running 240g systems, heres what I run.
24mls of Vodka a Day, 12mls in the am 12mls in the pm
Once a week I drop in 4 cap fulls of SeaKlear, a phosphate remover.
I have LPS and Softies, and the tank is crystal clear, with Trates at 0 and Phosphates at 0.
GFO runs out to fast and cost to much, and the other marine phosphate removers are costly, the one I use is a Reef safe pool phosphate remover, so theres no need to dose alot with this stuff, a little goes a long way.
24mls of Vodka a Day, 12mls in the am 12mls in the pm
Once a week I drop in 4 cap fulls of SeaKlear, a phosphate remover.
I have LPS and Softies, and the tank is crystal clear, with Trates at 0 and Phosphates at 0.
GFO runs out to fast and cost to much, and the other marine phosphate removers are costly, the one I use is a Reef safe pool phosphate remover, so theres no need to dose alot with this stuff, a little goes a long way.
sicksnoopy71
New Member
TJ, the cheaper method to that is dosing vodka. I have had great results with red sea and when I turned to vodka instead it was just as effective and cheaper. I would probably put it on a dosing system but I would imagine it to be really really slow. And you would still have to keep an eye on it and probably stop dosing every once in a while if need be. Good luck on your ventures!
jg93
New Member
Yes. I recommend vinegar after all other options are exhausted. That includes regular changing of filter socks, blowing off rock, eliminating deadspots with flow, vacuuming and reducing or eliminating sand bed. It's not an excuse for poor husbandry.
I feed 2 to 3 times/day. Cyclop Eeze or pellets in the morning, and rod's or mysis at night. I also alternate oysterfeast/reef chili everyday. At night, I dose amino acids.
Do research before starting any carbon dosing regimen and take it slow. It takes a while to kick in, but when it does it works great. One caveat I'd have is that there hasn't been a lot of long term use (that I'm aware of) of these methods so I have no idea if there are detrimental long term effects (like we've seen with deep sand beds.)
Honestly, if I could I'd go with a refugium - I just don't have the space in my current setup. They have their downsides to but nothing that can't be averted with good husbandry.
Hope that helps -
Jeff
OP
OP
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Never looked into Seaklear. Your softies are ok with no3 and PO4 @ zero? I'm a sps guy, just thought softies liked it dirty. Also, you always been @ 24mL or did you just figure it as the maintenance dose?
I went up the ladder to knock trates down, then went to this maintenance dose. So you can tell how high I was dosing to get them down, just a little over 40mls to get them down. But I went off of Melevs daily dose, which is 17mls, if thats half the dose of what it takes to bring down trates in a 180g tank, then I figured out how high I was going to need to be before they came down. But I dosed up 10mls a week, but started out at 5mls for the first 2 weeks. My trates came down quickly.
Yes I have softies, and don't see any trouble out of them, Yellow Fiji appears to love it, Devils Hand stays open more, Palys growing like weeds, Finger Leather growing. Nope, no issues out of them. I feed the heck out of the tank also, thats the trick with dosing, you keep the Trates where you want them, feed away!!
Yes I have softies, and don't see any trouble out of them, Yellow Fiji appears to love it, Devils Hand stays open more, Palys growing like weeds, Finger Leather growing. Nope, no issues out of them. I feed the heck out of the tank also, thats the trick with dosing, you keep the Trates where you want them, feed away!!
OP
OP
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
I made (barely) a spot for a small fuge, but it collects more trash than anything (even with tremendous flow or barely moving the chamber), so i really don't want one. I started my pellets slow (amount) and ramped up over 2 months (when I ran pellets). My issue was PO4 (and has always been in the past). Thanks Jeff
OP
OP
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Thanks!! Just what I wanted to hear (feeding my guys).
NeverlosT
SPS nut
Ive dosed powdered citric acid as a carbon source in the past (a few ml a day) and had decent results. As with any carbon dosing I have been told that to be successful you have to keep it regular and have a rather strong skimmer. I do not carbon dose at the moment and choose to just run GFO in a big reactor and carbon separately (carbon should not tumble lest it get in the water column, GFO should). good luck!
