Vodka Dosing

[MR Teee]

Excellent reference article in the latest reefkeeping magazine.

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

[marinemike]

from reading an other thread (trying to contact macca) i would have thought he was the best informed on vodka dosing,or is he a whiskey man.

[TerraC]

interesting reading.. might give this a go over ULNS and see what happens.. seef I can pick up some smartprice vodka :D

[treeboa]

cheaper is better, used it for some time now, no side effects. also dose a denitrate filter with it at 5ml per week, you will only get strange looks when someone sees a bottle being kept in your cabinet -hes an alko, you can always tell :D:D:D

[moorish]

quite a few dose it on reef central , a few a say it works for them & others say it does not.i supose its worth a try everybodys tank is different.derek

[MickTheFin]

The problem with vodka is it just doesn't last long enough to get anywhere near the tank...

Mike

[ROB]

Very interesting link Adam,

I have been dosing vodka for about a month and my Nitrates have slowly come down not as fast as I would of liked but on reading the link I see it could be becouse I have been using cheap vodka
IE 22% so I will carry on until comes down more,

At present they are at around 25ppm and they were of the scale so for me it's working upto now,


Regards Rob,

[Macca]

from reading an other thread (trying to contact macca) i would have thought he was the best informed on vodka dosing,or is he a whiskey man.

no just a lager man myself. :D


The problem with vodka is my wife cannot have an opened bottle in the house. It has to be drunk :eek:


on another note, I have ordered a dozen minatures of red label smirnoff that I will be removing the label from and adding my own - nitrate bazooka.

anyone intrested? :D

[treeboa]

rob, what rate of dose are you using, ml per ltr, could be your a touch low dose wise mate

[ROB]

rob, what rate of dose are you using, ml per ltr, could be your a touch low dose wise mate

Been dosing approx 5ml tank is approx 100 gall ish,


Rob.

[steve123]

so what proof vodka is best ive some 80 proof here what wud i need for a 4x2x2 with 3 foot sump and how often thats if i dont drink if frist lol:D:D:D:D

[MR Teee]

so what proof vodka is best ive some 80 proof here what wud i need for a 4x2x2 with 3 foot sump and how often thats if i dont drink if frist lol:D:D:D:D

Its in the article in the first post.

[fishie]

so what proof vodka is best ive some 80 proof here what wud i need for a 4x2x2 with 3 foot sump and how often thats if i dont drink if frist lol:D:D:D:DHold on lets go steady there, backwood step and all that. Do i read that correctly you are going to put 80% proof vodka in your fish tank. Woooo lets rethink this one buy cheaper brand dose that drink the 80% if still stupid sorry meant to say still sure thats the right option please invite me round to help, my surname is fisher and i will get in your tank to give feed back as to wether you have the right dose or not !!

[treeboa]

As an example, let us assume that your setup contains 100 Net Gallons.<LI style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">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. <LI style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">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. <LI style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">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. <LI style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">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. <LI style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">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]).
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!

[fishie]

very interesting read for those out there that do dose with vodka do you use ozone? The article says that it does not SEEM to make any difference so who does and who dosn't

[Macca]

I will be doing it! Looks very intresting and although vodka is not cheap I am sure compared to fancy bottles of nitrate reducer its well worth it. Just hope my inhabitants dont develop a drink problem :D

thanks for the link mr teeeeee;)

[ojp]

Must admit i did it for 2/3 weeks and didn't really notice a difference. I was dosing 4ml. I may try again and give it the benefit of the doubt

[treeboa]

it works for me. theres another thread somewhere about you neeed a bacterial slime to appear, thats the method i followed,if i can find it i will post it,with me though it was not high nitrates that were the problem but high phosphate,vodka dosing though will not drop phosphate alone, thats a side line to what it does, if you have nitrate AND phosphate it will take both down

like everything else in this game though, what works for one may not work for you

[MR Teee]

Before starting, as with any project, there is a great deal of information that needs to be taken in and understood. While reading this if there is any question that is left unanswered please ask either someone on RC or in your local reef club. We ask that you read and ask questions until you have a firm understanding of the concepts behind vodka dosing. There are no dumb questions! And remember as with all good things it takes time, effort, and understanding to do a task properly.

I hope you all heed this advise and dont just go chucking it in....

The three RC threads referenced take a bit of reading, and they also contain the 'bad stuff' too.

I think that no matter what the chemistry behind it all is, THE MOST IMPORTANT bit is the HIGHLY EFFICIENT SKIMMING I've made a point of it because people seem to miss the fact that this is key in the whole thing.

[treeboa]

right guys, now this is for information purposes, not to take the limelight away from mr tees excelent post, i hope this does not contravene any forum rules as i am adding the links purely because of the information they provide

READ AND DIGEST
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=225740

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=193674&highlight=vodka+dosing

as mr tee says your skimmer needs to be up to scratch or you will come unstuck

some of the guys are now using vodka/white distilled vinegar and sugar as well , again do as much research as you can before dosing anything,

the main thing is dont try to get fast results, the only thing that happens fast in a marine tank is a disaster

[TerraC]

I think as with everything in reefs just go careful and under-dose as oppose to over-dose. some good reading guys and well worth a try.

we'll probably find in a few years time that most of these ULNS systems were just ethanol with a few other sweeteners. :rolleyes:

also guys watch your percentages from your proofs when checking your alcohol contents, the yanks have a different system :D

[treeboa]

some of the ulns guys are now using vodka/vinegar/sugar as replacement for thier dosing stuff, with good results from what i have read as well, however as with straight voidka dosing the courts still out on it

god how things have changed in a few years

i remember my grandads words of wisdom many years back, he overheard me talking about the berlin method, his reply " we did that years ago, dropped bombs on the bar stewards"

[andyprice]

read with interest the post mr teee added ref vodka dosing.calculated my tank,and gone for it today.now ive a question is it still possible to do decent size water changes in tandem with the vodka dosing?if i adminstered the vodka at 6am when finish work,and maybe did the water change late afternoon etc. giving the vodka time to work its majic.or would it be a pointless exercise?

[danwin]

hi mate i did water changes whilst dosing vodka, some large changes too and the results were great nitrates went from 80-100 ppm to around 10 ppm in two weeks. i was dosing 2ml (200ltr) tank of the best smirnoff vodka. best thing i ever did to get nitrates down. DAN:D

[andyprice]

Hi Dan did you have no problems with your fish ,as working out the maths on my tank and mr tees post (1st post) its saying o.1 ml per 25 gl.my tank im using at moment is about 100gl allow for 30% rock displacement so ive rounded it off for ease as75gl. so that only equals. 0.3 ml.is 2ml not excessive? as it says to much and it can effect the fish etc.:confused:

[danwin]

hi mate, no problems with fish, corals or inverts at all, i read a couple of diff articles and most were saying 1 ml per 100 ltrs of tank vol so i went for that, at first i dripped the 2 ml in very slowly into a very high flow area, then after that i just drizzled it in. the only visible negative but short term i might add is the algae bloom i got but that was expected as it states in most articles, that lasted about 3 weeks. after about 1 month my nitrate was at just detectable 1ppm then i stopped dosing and the tank inhabitants are flourishing. mushrooms are spreading like mad, monty is growing well, LPS are huge. i hav nt dosed for a while now so i ll do a nitrate test tonight and post it on here. DAN:D

[danwin]

addition to above post- just done a nitrate test and reding was aprox 3 ppm:D thanks mr vodka

[cl0wn]

alcohol, the gift that keeps on giving.

[JAYJT29]

Who has been using this method long term? I think its a great method, although i dont need to us it as my params are fine. If they went tits up i consider using the Vodka method.
Jay

[andyprice]

update ive been dosing vodka now for a little over 2 weeks.as instructed on a earlier post on this thread.i can honestly say ive seen no significent reduction in my nitrates in my tank.:(is sugar next:confused: or vodka/vinegar combo.:confused:.

[TerraC]

it's only been 2 weeks. not nearly long enough. give it time.. :)

how much are you dosing and what are your nitrates now?

[andyprice]

my nitrates are about 60ppm working out the maths on my tank from the start. at the moment im dosing 1.6mls. on 75gl.

[danwin]

hi Andy, i was dosing 1ml per 100 ltrs empty tank vol, so i was dosing 2 ml per day, saw no ill effects on fish or corals and nitrates came down and stayed down, i hav nt dosed for months now and nitrates are still between 3 and 5 ppm and im overdue a water change. If you ve seen no ill effects in your system you could slowly increase the amount your dosing to the empty tank vol of your system but monitor inhabitants, maybe have some ro ready for a change if needed. DAN:)

[andyprice]

ok will up it slightly and take it from there.ive been thinking as well as i did inherit alot of live rock off somebody,and i no doing a nitrate test some months back there nitrate was through the roof.so perhaps its taking a while as the live rock would of been full of it.

[danwin]

that could be part of it mate, i think that was the problem with my rock, it then must have hit a point where it was exhausted of nitrates and the tank levels dropped, happy days. DAN

[andyprice]

defo hope so mate.will keep you posted.:)

[Aqua Marine Imports]

Hi Guys
i've just been reading about cyno algae and some reports say that this vodka dosing could help? what are all your thourghts please?

[cromwell]

Yeah- I wonder whether it could help with cyno too. Just can't shift the bloody stuff despite removal by hand, upping flow, lowering photoperiod etc.
Anyone think it could help or not?
Cheers.
James

[marthin]

Been dosing it for about a year now, have not tried the vodka/vinegar/sugar thing but a mate has and he reported cyno going after a few days.
He's got an amazing tank anyway, so hard to say.. but with he feeds heavily
I have tried a few breaks of dosing and can honestly say there is a noticable difference when I stop. .for one, the fish dont smile that much
I'm gearing up for a house move so it slowly removing the sandbed in the sump and honestly every time I remove stuff I have to step up the dosing to almost 20 ml per day as there is a LOT of nutrient going into the system
One of the post mention the bact slime bloom.. that has always been my indicator to drink the vodka and cut down on dosing
Has anyone dosed the vinegar/vodka/sugar combination longterm?

[cromwell]

Definitely interested in this method. Am worried tho about reduced oxygen levels in the water and I don't have an ORP meter. What can be done to combat this and what would the danger signs be?
Thanks.
James

[marthin]

Never thought of that to be honest.. I had some fish breathing rapidly, but has employed a second deltec skimmer and that seemed to have sorted it.. I still have and airstone running 24/7 in the sump
I'm in the process of removing all sand from the system in anticipation of moving house and would rather do it while the system is stable.

Are you going to dose vodka or the combination?