Copepod invasion.

I am so sorry to hear about your problem ... I have to agree to rather get a wrasse... as you are probably aware, the mandarin gobies require a stable environment. Good luck!!!

 

Again, figure out why the fish are dying first.

 

I missed that bit about the fish dying. I also missed out that he is vodka dosing and has white stuff all over the tank.

Tell me, what is your vodka regimen? If you are overdosing vodka and don't have a MASSIVE skimmer, you will get a bacterial bloom that will look like white cobwebs. It can lower oxygen content of the tank and can lead sometimes to fish death or stress (hence the ich). I am just shooting in the dark here, since I don't know your vodka regimen, tank size, or skimmer adequacy, but I've seen lots of people have problems with vodka dosing if they are over-dosing.

 

Just curious, why are you vodka dosing to begin with on such a new tank? I know it can bring down nitrates and phosphates but i thought the idea is to get the algae blooms out of the way and let the bacteria colonies mature. Wouldnt vodka have a negative impact on that bacterial growth and reducing the capability of your overall biological filter? The mangroves will eat up magnesium and nitrate and the chaeto will also take care of the nitrate to a degree. I guess I am just confused why people bother with vodka dosing considering all the potential ill side-effects.

edit: i just realized as well you stated you had a DSB. if this is the case there are negatives to vodka dosing a pre-mature DSB.

 

I was unaware this is one of the maturing steps... I guess I'll find out when it's over if the pod population drops down at some point. Hope they don't so I get my goby! But I won't until I'm sure. Thanks for the heads up!
My tank is on its 7th month since it was put together. I did though have a major substrate change in between. My Vodka regimen was followed through to the date and started very cautiously adding .1 ml of vodka for the first 3 days 2 times a day (total of 0.2 ml) on my total volume of 70 gallons (including sump and skimmer) day 4 to 7 you double that dose, so I was adding 0.2ml twice daily. After that, you add 0.5ml per each additional week and today is the start of my second week, so I'm at 0.9ml. Once you find your Nitrates come down to 0, you cut in half and see if they come back. If they do, you start adding 1ml to that cut half dose, until you find the exact amount you need to keep everything balanced. I'm taking a chance with some acroporas I ordered online to see if I'm ready.

I have been reading a lot about it, and found the idea very appealing since I really want to put some nice there. My wife has gotten more involved with the tank, and she also wants to help "make it nice" as she put it.
The ill side-effects as far as I knew were the possible white slime build up over the rock, cause by the overpopulation of bacteria, if I understood correctly. And over all, more people reported great benefits from it, so I decided to try, since my Nitrates would not get lower than 15, but usually at 20. I really don't think it's a mini cycle, it's been going on for quite a bit. I currently have 4 small fish, including a baby hippo tang that gets sick ALL the time. Frustrating, so after FW dips and prior kick-ick medicaton, etc, I decided to try and better my water quality to the best of my possibilities, without spending too much money (jobs hasn't come along yet)... and as we all know... cheap vodka works just as good as expensive one... so $8.79 was my whole investment on this. If it turns out that it doesn't work out, I will slowly cut down the dosing in half each week, until I finally discontinue the dosing.

What other side-effects have you heard of? Other than the white slime, I haven't seen anything else in the document I read about it. I would appreciate your knowledge on this subject.

How is your tank doing currently? Did you overcome the set backs? Hope it's doing well, and you are also.

- Mag.

 

Thanks, yeah I am doing well. I finally got the sump fixed, one of the sets of T5HO fixed, and hopefully will have the metal halide on order soon.

Im not saying vodkas a bad thing, I was just wondering why someone would use it so early... I am new to the use of vodka.

 

There are always some set backs and they suck every time! Just keep at it!
About the vodka, I've been reading online about the possible bad side-effects and they do mention some competition side-effects but they talk mostly about nuisance algae out-competing beneficial bacteria. I've been dosing bacteria all the time since I set the tank up and feel somewhat confident that they're there in good numbers, but unfortunately have no way to check.

Also, when I did the DSB in the fuge it was live sand, w/kitty clay just like yours, only that mine mixed all together and I could not help it. I figured it can't hurt and I'm hoping they will still do the job.

If you find any info please let me know. I really don't want to mess things up, specially after all the money and effort I've been putting in this tank. It's got to work! Failure is not an option... although I know it is a rather big factor/possibility.

Thanks for your help, bje! More K to you!

- Mag.

EDIT: By the way, why do you believe you need MH's when you have more than one set of T5's ? Are they necessary for corals? I'm about to add some acropora's in my tank, and now I'm worried about lighting.

 

what sort of lights have you got over the tank right now? Acros need excellent lighting as they are some of the harder SPS corals to keep. Other easier SPS corals would be like a Monti cap or something.

 

I currently dose vodka as well - been doing so for 4-5 months. I did a lot of research on other forums and sites, and your dosing regimen is very familiar to me. Please be aware of a few things:

The "white slime" on the rocks is more than an esthetic problem. It is a bacterial bloom, since the bacteria are consuming the vodka and hopefully the other nutrients in your tank. They also consume oxygen. Here's the problem with that - at night, the oxygen levels drop in most tanks (since the algae and photosynthetic organisms in the tank don't produce oxygen at night). Unless you are really oxygenating your tank with the use of a sump, oversized skimmer, and lots of powerheads (and of course, an open-top aquarium rather than a covered one), you may find that your aquarium becomes hypoxic at night. This can stress your fish (and corals too, but most corals require less oxygen than fish - particularly large fish).

So, if you are seeing white slime, you are overdosing vodka and should stop until the slime disappears. You would be better served by reducing nitrates with a refugium (or even a ball of chaeto in an inconspicuous corner of your tank), or even with a bag of Purigen.

In my tank, I don't use vodka to reduce nitrates and phosphates. For that I have a fuge with macroalgae, phosban reactors, a DSB, and lots of filtration. I use the vodka to enable me to over-feed my tank without worrying as much about those extra nutrients fuelling algae. In that respect, I find that vodka works well. But not so much for pure nitrate reduction.

 

This was the point I was getting at earlier. Its not something I have researched people using at the startup of their tanks, but moreso as a supplement to the existing filtration. Being that your tank is so new Magnus its probably a better idea to let that DSB you have mature, and let the rest of the tanks bio population thrive.

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

Have you read that article? It has some great information on how vodka dosing works and the ill side effects it can present. Im not an advocate of this yet if you couldnt tell