dosing

since i live in a drinking city with a football problem (state college, pa) I figured that my fish should be alcoholics too lol

but on a serious note. I have researched vodka dosing and am not all for it, however I was wondering about the effects on starting a dosing regimen and then stopping it shortly into it.
main reason is to bring out more Zooxanthellae in my corals and get rid of some of the more ugly algae occupying my corals.

 

Are you saying you want to dose vodka to get your corals to expell there zoo algae to get different ones? or to get rid of high nitrates and decrease hair algae?

sorry just confused at what your trying to do.

 

nitrates and hair algae arent really a problem in my case... but i read a long time ago somewhere that in addition to taking care of these things, dosing also does this: the very constant chain of carbons in the vodka causes most unwanted algae to die, including algae that is growing on/around/on top of/under the zooxanthellae. This in turn causes the Zooxanthellae to be able to populate the coral more effectively, thus producing more color!

 

so to clear things up what i want to do is this.

ever so often use a finite amount of vodka (maybe for a week at a time or so) and then stop.

My objective is to rid this "extra" algae in the coral, not nitrate or hair algae control

 

so does this pose a possible problem by stopping?

 

I wish I had an answer for you Dingo, But I have never dosed vodka and all I have heard it used for was to reduce nitrates (so I honestly don't know). Hopefully someone here can chime in that has had experience dosing it ( I know there are a few here who have used this).

 

I would definitly read more into Dosing Vodka Dingo. It's not a magical dosing regimen that will make corals look good. In fact, it can very well do the opposite.

Have you looked into the reason why your corals don't look good already??

Many people have had success and brightly colored corals without the use of Vodka.

I would read up on it, because I don't think you fully understand how it works and the equipment and direction that is needed..

 

no no i completely understand vodka dosing in regards to nitrate reduction and my corals are thriving perfectly fine. im just looking to get a little more kick out of them...

 

From what I have seen and experienced you grow more algae and fungus or sponges that look like some kind of fungus you would see on a mushroom farm. I have never seen all the different algaes I have in my tank in any ocean I have contemplated doing it again to see what other cool things I can grow but I am going to a all Anemone tank I have about 21 different bubble tips in here right now so I dont think I want to risk it. Dingo I would try it for a while just make sure you have a VERY OVERKILL SKIMMER. I would also run my waste straight to a drain. Just be easy on your dosing you dont want to kill the oxygen in your tank.

 

What are you running for lights and bulbs?