Vodka dosing and pulling the plug

sorry i know nothin about that just wait for 3reef Elders to log in ..

 

I'm guessing the pellets wouldn't fluidize properly in a canister

 

That would be COOL for those HOT evenings for giving a shot of Crown Royal! ;D Would have to pick-up the dose schedule though 8)

I wonder if I used a couple of those spacer plates in the canister with the pellets loosely between them?? I'm running out of room in the sump and under the cabinet, need to multi-task some :-/

 

2 words... Dosing pump. Time to automate your tank! You need to fluidize the bio pellets to ensure that the bio film get sloughed off and skimmed up for them to be effective!

 

My opinion

if you have a 6 week old tank with nitrates showing as 160
then Vodka dosing or any other form of carbon dosing may not be your solution

If it was mine I would

1 - get that test result verified
2 - look at my system in general - why are my nitrates that high?
3 - look at other forms of nitrate reduction - there are filter media perfectly OK to use in a cannister filter that can help reduce nitrates
4 - look at my cannister filter as the possible source of the nitrates ? what is in it, how is it cleaned, maintained? ( if there is bio media in there, look at removing slowly over 3 or 4 weeks and replacing with chemical media such as GFO, Purigen, Carbon etc etc )
5 - feeding routine, how much, how often and what types of food, these are also things I would consider if it was my set up

carbon dosing in any form, is better suited to fine tuning a well running set up IMHO
there are certainly more basic things that should be tried 1st , and many of these are less maintenance required, than a manual daily dose of Vodka

with Nitrate at less than 5ppm, and a minor algae issue I made a choice to carbon dose to reduce and eradicate ( so far so good)
but I used more conventional methods and practices to get myself to that stage 1st


Steve