Time to get crunked: Vodka Dosing

[CancerverO]

im thinking to give it a try.. but which vodka should I buy? smirnoff vodka ?

 

[Killerdrgn]

you should buy georgi for the tank and a grey goose for yourself!

 

[CancerverO]

you should buy georgi for the tank and a grey goose for yourself!

lol.. I have the grey goose already.. :splitspin...

 

[Alex]

you can't measure for it is correct to a certain degree. as i understand it, dosing vodka, sugar, vinegar, pappone etc.. is a way to reduce phosphates and nitrates , so if your p04 and n03 are going down then in a certain way you can measure for dosing these items.

correct me if I'm wrong, but that how I understand it.

I picked up a bottle of smirnoff because it was on sale, or you can go out and share the grey goose with your tank. lol

 

[dickenscd]

After vodka dosing for 4 weeks, two of my 5 RBTA moved from the rocks to the glass, and all of them did not extend as well as they used to be.

Have not found any other bad effects on the other corals. and the clarity of the water seems improved.

James

 

[jackson6745]

After vodka dosing for 4 weeks, two of my 5 RBTA moved from the rocks to the glass, and all of them did not extend as well as they used to be.

Have not found any other bad effects on the other corals. and the clarity of the water seems improved.

James

Any other positive effects besides the water clarity?

 

[VampLillith]

I sooo tried Vodka Dosing! Results? Drunk off my ...ya kno. Err I had to do big doses ya kno, to see the difference.:givebeer:

This is something that I would like to try once i get a better skimmer running. My nitrates are horrible. After so many different water changes, my levels don't shift.

Dosing will go as follows: One dose Tank....Four Doses for Vampie.:splitspin

 

[NYreefNoob]

well i was doing this for 2 weeks and stopped because i got my denitrator up and running which gets feed with vodka , did notice cleaner water and less diatom algea, didnt do it long enough to see much else, guys this works according to a ton of people on rc, but is not to be used if you arent doing it correctly, as well get a nitrate test kit so you can see if it really is bringing nitrates down as well as phosphates

 

[Bob 1000]

Hey, I read the whole article finally and all I can say is that my denitrifier works the same way but much faster... And I can have a activated carbon sock catch all the extra water when it flushes nitrate and phosphate free water back into the tank so that if an overdose were to occur it wouldn't do any thing.. Also using methanol has added benefits.. The biproduct of this reaction that occurs in my reactor makes alkalinity and some other things I will have to re read my manual on the natureef denitrifier..

 

[fernandokng]

I've been dosing for 2 months. It's been going OK so far.

Nitrates still at around 5ppm. I think I need to bump my dosage again. I had originally cut back down because my xenias were melting.

 

[BaNDiTo_RoX]

If you guys want a safer way of doing this then try Bio-Fuel and MicroBacter7 within 30mins My water was Crystal clear. Sorry I can't be to much help on this because I just started using it about 2wks.

You can read more on this stuff here.
http://www.brightwellaquatics.com/

 

[strendo]

I've been dosing vodka since the article came out and have had great results. Phosphates/Nitrates are finally gone via salivert test kits. Colors have improved too.

I've also been dosing amino acids at the same time.

 

[CraigBingman]

Great article on RK:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

While careful dosing of organics may be an effective way to slowly reduce the amount of nitrate in a marine aquarium, you do need to be careful about a couple of things.

Not all carbon sources are equal... lactose is probably an especially bad choice, especially since I'm not fond at all of certain lactose fermenting marine bacteria (some types of baddie bacteria that I had cultured from dying corals had that metabolic phenotype.)

Acetate in moderation is probably fine, as is ethanol in moderation.

However, if you go too wild with the dosing, you may find that the system works a little better than you want, and wind up with quite a spike in nitrite concentrations. (I know this from farily bitter personal experience.) While you have to push pretty hard to get into this regime, it is possible, because I've been there. Nitrite is generally less toxic in marine systems than freshwater systems, because chloride competes with nitrite uptake in the gills of fish, but you can wind up in a bad situation if you push the envelope too hard.

There is a fairly simple way to see whether or not the system is headed in this direction. Do a nitrite test. If you don't have a separate nitrite test, your nitrate test measures both nitrites and nitrates. (Nitrates are converted to nitrites chemically, and fractionally, usually at around 10% efficiency, in the common hobby tests for nitrate.) If you are horsing around with organic additives and observe any tendency for apparent nitrate concentration to go up, STOP dosing immediately.

I'd personally suggest investing in a nitrite test kit if you want to play with this sort of thing. You will see potential issues more clearly, and earlier.

 

[jnohs]

i have dosed vodka, sugar, and viniger. Imo vodka and suger are to strong. I nuked my last tank and destroyed my DSB. It was disaterious. I would recomed dosing distilled white viniger instead. It is not as potent. And works just as well. I still drop a little here and there. but I also have stop feeding compleatly. I have not feed in 3 weeks and my skimmer is still pulling stuff out. once i see it not foaming that much i drop about 2ml of viniger in and it just foams like crazy. As a result my new tank has no DSB. It is a

 

[mray]

i have dosed vodka, sugar, and viniger. Imo vodka and suger are to strong. I nuked my last tank and destroyed my DSB. It was disaterious. I would recomed dosing distilled white viniger instead. It is not as potent. And works just as well. I still drop a little here and there. but I also have stop feeding compleatly. I have not feed in 3 weeks and my skimmer is still pulling stuff out. once i see it not foaming that much i drop about 2ml of viniger in and it just foams like crazy. As a result my new tank has no DSB. It is a

Do you have any fish in the tank? If so how are you able to stop feeding for three weeks?

 

[fernandokng]

What does nuking your tank mean?

i have dosed vodka, sugar, and viniger. Imo vodka and suger are to strong. I nuked my last tank and destroyed my DSB. It was disaterious. I would recomed dosing distilled white viniger instead. It is not as potent. And works just as well. I still drop a little here and there. but I also have stop feeding compleatly. I have not feed in 3 weeks and my skimmer is still pulling stuff out. once i see it not foaming that much i drop about 2ml of viniger in and it just foams like crazy. As a result my new tank has no DSB. It is a

 

[fernandokng]

Very interesting post. Never saw Nitrites as being something to worry about when doing this. Something to consider.

While careful dosing of organics may be an effective way to slowly reduce the amount of nitrate in a marine aquarium, you do need to be careful about a couple of things.

Not all carbon sources are equal... lactose is probably an especially bad choice, especially since I'm not fond at all of certain lactose fermenting marine bacteria (some types of baddie bacteria that I had cultured from dying corals had that metabolic phenotype.)

Acetate in moderation is probably fine, as is ethanol in moderation.

However, if you go too wild with the dosing, you may find that the system works a little better than you want, and wind up with quite a spike in nitrite concentrations. (I know this from farily bitter personal experience.) While you have to push pretty hard to get into this regime, it is possible, because I've been there. Nitrite is generally less toxic in marine systems than freshwater systems, because chloride competes with nitrite uptake in the gills of fish, but you can wind up in a bad situation if you push the envelope too hard.

There is a fairly simple way to see whether or not the system is headed in this direction. Do a nitrite test. If you don't have a separate nitrite test, your nitrate test measures both nitrites and nitrates. (Nitrates are converted to nitrites chemically, and fractionally, usually at around 10% efficiency, in the common hobby tests for nitrate.) If you are horsing around with organic additives and observe any tendency for apparent nitrate concentration to go up, STOP dosing immediately.

I'd personally suggest investing in a nitrite test kit if you want to play with this sort of thing. You will see potential issues more clearly, and earlier.

 

[NYreefNoob]

Ok After Hours Of Reading Different Articles On This And As A Vodka Doser Myself, One Of Te Biggest Problems Has Been People Not Following How It Is Done Nor Checking Things Almost On A Daily Basis, If You Stop For A Few Days You Cannot Go Back To Dosing Where You Left Off. Alot Of Stuff Still Not Fully Explained In Any Of The Articles As Well, As Stated In Most Other Forums And Sites This Isnt Something For A Beginner To Be Doing, This Isnt Meant To Keep You From Doing Water Changes Ect, Also Alot Of Variences I Have Seen On It As Well Some Do 2 Dosings A Day, One Early One Later With Half Amounts. A Good Skimmer Is Needed As Well To Pull All Of The Stuff Out, Vodka Is Basically Zeo Or Prodibio Without Some Of The Other Stuff, I Have Been Doing It For 3 Weeks Now And I Have Less Diatom Algea, Water Is Clearer As Well, As Water Becomes More Clear It Allows For More Light Penitration, Reason Some People Have Gotten Burnt Tips On Corals, Dosing Vinegar Isnt The Same As This, Seen Where People Use Vinegar To Dose Kalk And It Presipitates It To A Higher Level, Seen Alot Of People Try Sugar Also. This Is Something That Requires A Strict Regimen And If You Miss A Day Doesnt Mean Dose Twice The Amount Next Time. Havent Used It Long Enough To Say My Colors Are Better Or Extension Is Better, I Do Have Too Many Fish And I Do Feed Alot, Not Much Wasted But I Feed 4-6 Times At Night In Small Amounts With A Sirenge And Fish Get 99% Of Food Before It Hits Bottom And Ty To My Gobie Who Catchs Most That Goes Down That Far

 

[fernandokng]

Wow, Rick - that was near impossible to read with the caps on every word, and missing punctuations :splitspin

Took me a few minutes to go through it, but not sure I completely understood you. I have an idea of what you're saying though :tongue1:

 

[NYreefNoob]

lol it doesnt show in caps to me, basically alot of people who have tried this method tried for the wrong reason or didnt follow instructions to the T in dosing ect, and then missed dose's and thought they could just start where they stopped, none of my sps or lps have shown any side effect's