Who doses vodka?

I've done it, works great, but, if you have cyano it will make it worse. On a 125 I dosed 10 ml of bottom shelf vodka or 5 ml of everclear.

 

Your skimmer will foam a little different once the bacteria peaks but just adjust.

Adjust your dose as needed. Not rocket science like some people stress

 

How often did you dose 10ml? Was it daily or weekly.

 

I dosed vodka for awhile with great results. I had a lot of built up phosphate that I couldn't get rid of and dosing did the trick! Start slow(low amounts of vodka) and keep monitoring nitrates and phosphates. If you decide to stop dosing, slowly decrease the amount otherwise you can have a little shock to the tank.
@Roman vodka should be dosed daily and its best to be dripped into a high flow area of the sump.

 

Yea, daily right at the drain into the sump. Figure 1ml per 10 gallon for well stocked tank

 

When I had a reef I dosed vodka and loved it. Dosed really more for feeding the tank than even nutrient control. It has changed the game on keeping filter feeders like coco worms and lots of giant feather dusters if that is your thing.

Although nutrient control is a nice side benefit!

 

Any form of carbon dosing is directly dependant on your skimmer.
Therefor if you start dosing vodka your skimmer will take on a heavier load.

That being said I think if you start dosing vodka your tank will initially look cleaner but it will crash bad unless you get a better skimmer because you said it can't even keep up even now in its current state.

Upgrade skimmer then start dosing. That is what I'd do.

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Ps.
1: Vodka is carbon dosing but promotes cyano.
2: Vinegar is better because of this reason.
3: ultimately a Biopellet reactor over both of those.

 

I have used the following formula with success on the nitrate but it has little or no affect on phosphate. I have heard similar complaints from others. Also, if you have a dosing pump, I recommend you use it. Set it up to break the total dose up into 4 to 8 small doses. If it won't dose in fractions of a ml, cut the vodka with RO water and dose accordingly. I did see some cyano increase until things leveled out, then it went away.



These instructions will focus solely on using 80 proof vodka (40% ethanol by volume). They do not pertain to other organic carbon sources that are also currently used, including common table sugar (sucrose) and vinegar (sodium acetate). The dosing instructions below were as dictated by Jörg Kokott and have been used successfully by us.

1.Test your system’s NO3 and PO4 levels. Do not dose if you do not know this! We recommend good test kits that have some low level of sensitivity. This will be important later on to determining a maintenance dose regimen. During the initial dosing test often and adjust dosing parameters as needed as each tank’s requirement will be different. Dosing accuracy is of the utmost importance. A graduated measurement tool such as a syringe will come in handy. A journal of additions and test kit measurements is recommended.

2. Estimate your Net Water Volume (NWV) of your system. (Aquarium volume + sump + refugium + reactor volumes) – (live rock displacement). It can be difficult to accurately measure the amount of water being displaced by the live rock. If unsure of the volume of live rock we suggest taking 30% off your display tank’s Gross Water Volume. For vodka dosing there is absolutely no harm in underestimating the Net Water Volume and is recommended.

3. As an example, let us assume that your setup contains 100 Net Gallons.

4. The starting dosage is 0.1ml of vodka per 25 gallons (~100 liters) NWV daily continued for three days. For 100 Net Gallons, your dosage would be 0.4ml daily during this period. It has been suggested to cut the daily dosage in half and dose twice daily for more consistency.

5. Days 4-7, double the daily dosage to 0.2ml of vodka per 25 gallons NWV. Your example dosage would be 0.8ml daily during this period.

6. Each subsequent week add an additional 0.5ml of vodka regardless of aquaria volume. At this point your example dosage during week two would be 1.3ml daily. If you do not see nutrient levels decrease during this week, the following week add an additional 0.5ml for a daily dosage of 1.8ml daily.

7. When your NO3 and PO4 levels start to drop maintain the current dose. For example, if you were on week two when NO3 start to fall on 100 Net Water Volume you would add 1.3mL daily at this time for the continuing weeks until the NO3 becomes undetectable.

8. When your NO3 and PO4 levels drop near undetectable with your test kits cut your current dose in half. This will be your starting maintenance dose (if the levels drop during week 2 then the dose after reaching undetectable levels would be 0.65ml daily [1.3ml divide by 2]).

9. Continue to test for NO3 and PO4. If levels become detectable in the future increase your daily dose by 0.1ml increments per week until the levels start to decrease. If you maintain that dose the levels will eventually drop back to undetectable. This would become your new maintenance dose.

Throughout your dosing, observe your livestock daily to look for any signs of stress. If stress of any sort is noticed stop dosing, or at a minimum cut back by reducing your dose in half. If for some reason you cannot remember if you’ve added for that day skip it. It is better to accidentally miss a dose than add twice as much (a journal will keep this from occurring). Never double the dose for missing a prior day!

 

I have dosed small amount of carbon in FW and skimmerless systems like my old biocube. In that case it was kalk dissolved in vinegar with water then added. I agree with the skimmer advise in general, but it's not universal.

I also should add that I have never had cyano in a system dosing vodka, but it can vary by system.

Just an FYI.

 

I think it is pretty universal based on how carbon dosing actually works.

Basically bacteria consumes the added carbon. In order for the bacteria to consume the carbon it takes in some phosphate and nitrate and grows.
You need to have skimmer to remove the bacteria after that or it just breaks down and release the phosphate and nitrate back into your system.

As far as I know based on this information if you carbon dose in anyway without a skimmer to physically get waste out of your system, you are essentially wasting money and not really doing anything.

Its like when adding the carbon you're putting all the bad stuff in a little box, but you need something to actually physically remove the box from your water. AKA the skimmer.

 

Like most things in the hobby there really isn't just one universal standard. Of course I am biased to carbon dosing being a microbiologist and we have been doing carbon additions for a number of years in quite a few different environments.

Bacteria does indeed consume the carbon, however so do a variety of other organisms including coral. Now what happens to the bacteria is interesting, while skimming does remove some bacteria that is charged, quite a bit is also consumed by larger (but still microscopic) organisms and those are then consumed. Essentially carbon is increasing the food chain from the bottom up. Macroscopic organisms that feed on the small organisms then absorb those nutrients, filter feeds like sponges and tube worms especially seem to do well, but gorgs some coral and pods can also uptake these.

Now of course when these nutrients are "locked" into tissue they are not exported. Now you are correct, they need to be exported as the amount "locked" in higher organisms is very little. However, as I said there are folks that do not carbon dose for nutrient reductions (or only slight reductions) so "essentially wasting money and not doing anything" is a bit much.

 

I was directing that comment towards the goal of controlling nitrate and phosphates but you are correct. If discussing the benefits within the ecosystem and its usefulness thoughout the food chain then I would agree with you.

I knew you had a reason for why you stated what you said in your first post but I tend to defend specifics cause they coax out more insight than initially request by the primary post.

For me the fun is not in the final meeting of the minds but the insight gained from its process.

 

I dose vodka almost every night! Oh wait... I got out of the hobby...hope this doesn't make anyone mad! I did get out but still miss it so I look at this site for my reef fix! thanks