Vodka Dosing

Are these bio-pellets you all speak of to keep PO4 and NO4 in check?

 

sí señor.

 

I think they all claim to be Po4 and No4 reducing. Like I mentioned, I'll let you know via this thread.

 

Melevsreef.com - Dosing Vodka to Lower Nitrate & Phosphate

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

I have never Vodka dosed
I have been reading a lot about it recently (Pros and Cons)

these 2 links are pretty good IMO

Steve

 

Steve as always thank you! you always have positive imput. Appreiciate the info.

 

Welcome mirandacollc

Im no expert, despite the amount of reading I have done to date
to become an expert , I believe you need to have tried it

Im not convinced I want to try it
but if you search around, some of the before and after images you can find are enough to have made me, consider researching deeper

Melevs reef for example and there are more out there
some of the colours of the SPS corals are as different as chalk and cheese when you compare the before and after Vodka dosing images

1 message that I found the most pertinent was

if your in tune with your tank, and can feel when something is not right
thats when you need to either stop or reduce the Vodka dosing

so its an advanced method, and IMHO, it does require the person attempting it to have a great deal of confidence in their own abilities as an aquarist

in all honesty - after reading , Im not ready for it yet!

Steve

 

I've been dosing my two FOWLR tanks for a while now, and recently decided to dose the 125 reef. I was surprised how fast the nitrates dropped in the reef tank. In just under one month, they went from 30 to 0. I haven't seen any ill effects on any of the tanks so far. No bacterial blooms, nothing. I do follow the recommended dosages posted on Reefkeeping Magazine, and go a little slower. The bio-pellets look promising, and I considered ordering some, but compared to buying cheap vodka, they are a little pricey. Every morning, I dose vodka to the tank overflows, and calcium in the reef. In the evening, alk in the reef. How hard can that be?:

 

IMO, this would apply to people who take dosing too far. Once you reach the maintenance dosage, that's where you stay. More is not better.

 

I read in to it a little bit. I found two things that you could NOT skimp on.
Heavy skimming and water changes.

This stuff produces some nasty stuff. If your skimmer is sub-par, it will not be able to pull it out effectively.
Same for water changes. If you skip them, buildup will hurt the tank.

Since I do not do water changes, This method is out for me.

This applies to both Bio-pellets and Vodka dosing, since they perform the same basic functions.

 

you may be correct Im not sure

I have been reading about problems developing whilst building up to the maintenance dose , even at low levels, you can experience cyno blooms and other nutrient explosion issues and I have seen accounts of tanks going down hill early in the regime

hence having the "feel" for you tanks inhabitants, behaviours , which I know you have, etc is critical as those people will spot the early indicators of a problem

softies - yep, Im pretty confident that I could react quickly enough to issues , you get more warning with hardier coral species IME (Having never had a softy looking great 1 day and then being a skeleton/ rotting away the day after, which has happened twice in 12 months with SPS)

with less than 12 months experience of SPS , then I am personally not confident in my abilities to spot and then react to any issues

hence my own reluctance to use it

not saying others should not
just saying I am not at the stage yet, where I am confident enough to.

Steve