vodka for red slime

[o0jmadr0x0o]

i have been considering the addition of vodka to my tank to remove my apparent excess nutrients. my nitrates are 0, and i have been running gfo for a while now.
but i still have problems with cyano and dinos, its always somthing. from everything i read, the cyano feeds of the excess nutrients in the water, so will dosing vodka bring down nutrients or is it only for nitrates and phosphates that will be reduced?

 

[mr_X]

does vodka dosing remove phosphates? i thought it was only nitrate.

once you have cyano visually present, it takes months to get rid of it without chemicals/antibiotics.
you are probably doing waterchanges and cutting back on feeding, and vacuuming it out...you just have to be patient now.

 

[NYreefNoob]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/

 

[18oreefer]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/

sweet link, good info.

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

i have been considering the addition of vodka to my tank to remove my apparent excess nutrients. my nitrates are 0, and i have been running gfo for a while now.
but i still have problems with cyano and dinos, its always somthing. from everything i read, the cyano feeds of the excess nutrients in the water, so will dosing vodka bring down nutrients or is it only for nitrates and phosphates that will be reduced?

Vodka dosing works to reduce bolth Phosphates and Nitrates....but how is your flow ?

 

[NYreefNoob]

or how old are bulbs or are u using ro-di water or are you over feeding or do you have to many fish. i dont suggest for people to use vodka, { people dont follow instructions } find the cause before you find a fast fix

 

[morphiii]

I really don't think dosing vodka can get rid of cyano fast enough. Cyano release toxin in the water and you should get rid of it as soon as possible.

Use chemi clean for fast removal but READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY, someone had a total tank crash from this stuff.

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

or how old are bulbs or are u using ro-di water or are you over feeding or do you have to many fish. i dont suggest for people to use vodka, { people dont follow instructions } find the cause before you find a fast fix

So true....:splitspin

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Sometimes if you drink the vodka the red slime goes away, unfortunately it usually returns the next morning

 

[pdnyc69]

I've been dosing vodka for a week now. I followed instruction that were given to me by an mr member. So far the nitrate and phosphate levels stopped increasing. Soon they should decrease. I'm dosing a little bit less than the instructions in the article said to avoid an overdose. If you find my thread "sugar and vodka dosing" you can find the link. It was very helpful

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

I've been dosing vodka for a week now. I followed instruction that were given to me by an mr member. So far the nitrate and phosphate levels stopped increasing. Soon they should decrease. I'm dosing a little bit less than the instructions in the article said to avoid an overdose. If you find my thread "sugar and vodka dosing" you can find the link. It was very helpful

Dam that was quick.....Were your levels low to begin with. I saw a halt after 5 weeks of dosing.

 

[pdnyc69]

They were 10 nitrates and phosphates were higher

 

[waltercat]

Probably wouldn't hurt to increase the flow in your tank. Vodka dosing my help in the short term but the root of any algae problem is excess nutrients sitting in your tank.

What are your long term goals, because after you stop dosing, the problem will eventually come back.

 

[o0jmadr0x0o]

for my 75g i have a tunze 6100 a mexi jet mod and around 700gph on the return, so i dont think its flow. i have ro/di the tds is 4 comming out though, this may be the problem? i have 8 t5 bulbs, but they are all 4 months old max. i know i have a nutrient problem this is why iwas wondering if the vodka would help

 

[e.muehlbauer]

I read through the articles...it seems to me that the principle behind vodka dosing is the same as AZ-NO3...same idea, different carbon source. Am I right on this? Or is the principle somewhat different? In the earlier years of my tank set-up, I used AZ-NO3....no problem with nitrates ever since. Actually, I don't test for nitrate....I figure that if all is well, all must be well..........

 

[sector7g]

i had the same problem it took about 2 months or 3. i use red slime remover and it was a temporaly fix i just increase water changes evey 5 days 20 percent ( remember never do more then 50 percent in a week or your tank will cycle all over again which is bad news for your fishes n corals) and my red slime went away after 2 weeks

 

[JonG101]

I have been vodka dosing for about 6 months now, and it works wonderfully if you follow the instructions on the page that NYreefNoob linked from reefkeeping.com. However you still should be keeping up with testing levels weekly, and water changes. My colors pop like crazy and skimming picks up quite a bit from it. if you are going to be careful with it, following directions closely then I would say absolutely do it. I also did not have any cyano problems before hand, so i don't know if it will get rid of cyano.

 

[basiab]

once you have cyano visually present, it takes months to get rid of it without chemicals/antibiotics.
QUOTE]
kathy has a nice thread off how to get rid of cyano in 3 days. And others seem to have tried it as well. Worth a try.

 

[seldin]

When I had red slime, I bought red slime from LFS. Worked awesome and a few days was gone. It came back several months later and re-applied the antibiotic and worked great. However, several month later and after doing it again, did not work at all.

However, here is a fix for red slime that has worked me and others. First make sure flow is good in tank and that there is some flow over your sand where the red slime is.

Then, every 6 months vacuum the top 1/2 inch or 1 inch of sand out of the tank and replace it with the same amount of live sand from another tank that does not have red slime. What I do, is either get new Live Sand from a fellow reefer or just buy a few cups from the LFS. Then, slowly place the cups of sand in water and sprinkle over the areas that you vaccuumed up. This has worked for me and others.

Seems like the natural bacteria in your sand bad that blocks the red slime is not doing it's job in your tank, so the new replenishment of Live Sand usually does the trick.

I like this method because it is natural and cheap. My LFS has been doing this for years and I have been doing this for a while also, so I know it works.

Good luck.

 

[pdnyc69]

you can also buy live copepods from livecopepods.com to seed your sand.