Vodka, Carbon Dosing

[Ace]

What are the negative effects of vodka dosing? Does putting a bag of carbon in the sump accomplish the same or similar goals with less risk?

 

[art13]

Not the same, negative things i can think of would be stripping the water too much of nutrients, if you dose too much you could have a bacterial or cyano bloom. You should also be monitoring both nitrates and phosphates while you do it.

 

[Ace]

Art, do you vodka dose currently? if so, you feel the benefits outweigh the risks?

 

[art13]

I do right now as i'm dealing with an algae issue and i don't feel like ordering gfo. I do dose nitrates though in order for it to work correctly, my tank currently produces phosphates a lot faster than nitrates as there are no fish in it. i only dose 1ml a day, i may not even need to do it anymore, my nitrates are undetectable and my phosphates are less than .01, its just a waiting game for me, but bryopsis is stubborn and that and hair algae are still growing, i'm assuming from leaching. I used it on my last tank and after about a month, that tank would not grow algae, so it works. Just have to be careful as coral do need those nutrients. I'm having some issues with certain sps right now due to how clean i'm trying to make the tank to rid the issue. If you just have high phosphates and low or no nitrates, i would go with gfo, if you have both high nitrates and phosphates then vodka would be a good option.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I think you're confusing activated carbon (the black little pellets) with the carbon found in vodka/vinegar/sugar that's used to feed bacteria. Activated carbon is for taking organic impurities out of the water. It contributes nothing in the way of carbon, and the feeding of bacteria. Vodka/vinegar/sugar are simply food sources for bacteria....to make them proliferate and thereby consume more of the unwanted nitrates and phosphates in your tank. You need to have a skimmer to carbon dose, because it is your skimmer that exports this bacteria, along with the N's and P's they consumed.

The one negative of carbon dosing is that you are distributing the food source all over your tank and thereby making it available to ALL bacteria, good or bad. Those who liquid carbon dose have seen outbreaks of cyano, as an example. Best to start slow.

I don't do it, although I've been kicking it around. I use biopellets which you can consider as being a solid carbon source....the bacteria grow on the pellets and then get sucked up by your skimmer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ace]

gotcha, thanks art. I think im going to try gfo for now

 

[art13]

do you know what your readings for phosphate and nitrate are?

 

[Ace]

here's my issue, I feed heavy, and I want to continue doing so. My phosphates stay controlled if I change out the gfo in a disciplined fashion. My nitrates live around 20-30, 20%water changes weekly. are nitrates at 20-30 really that bad? if not, should I even worry about dosing anything?

thanks Paul and Art

 

[Ace]

Nitrate 20-30, Phosphate right now are .12, but typically are .02-.04 when w fresh gfo. I just slacked recently and they popped.

 

[art13]

nitrates won't move at all with gfo, just something to be aware of, if they aren't harming anything though i wouldn't mess with it much, do you have coral?

 

[Ace]

yeah, so activated carbon wont reduce nitrate either?

yes, mostly zoas, shrooms, xenia, trumpets

after phos popped:
the trumpets struggled
all the xenia died
zoas closed up
shrooms took a hit but recovered.

this is what spawned my dosing conversations.

 

[art13]

I suppose activated carbon would help reduce the organics but it doesn't target nitrate directly, they do make filter pads for nitrates though. Most people can't kill xenia, it seems odd that those parameters would effect it. It almost seems like something happened in the tank, maybe something was introduced, and the die off caused the spike in nutrients. If there was a contaminant introduced, the carbon would help you in this case.

 

[Ace]

yes, I agree, which is why im so puzzled. both types of xenia went the same day!

 

[art13]

run carbon to see if it helps, have you changed anything recently or added anything? do you do any type of dosing? Also, whats your salinity at and how do you measure it? if it's a refractometer do you use 35ppt solution to calibrate it or r/o water?

 

[Ace]

100% RO, red sea refractometer calibrated almost every change w/ 35ppt solution, my salinity did fluctuate a bit, but not more than .003, the only other thing I can think of is my temp moved a bit from a power outage but nothing dramatic. I did change the lighting, but this was after the issue.