mchartier
Non-member
I have a 90 gal with a 20long sump so about 70-80 gallons total, but went conservative with doing doses for a 50 gallon, http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/images/Table2-80Proof.jpg. Right now I am at 4.9ml daily.
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vinegar/ vodka dosing which do people like better
- Thread starter lisa foster
- Start date
I have a 90 gal with a 20long sump so about 70-80 gallons total, but went conservative with doing doses for a 50 gallon, http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/images/Table2-80Proof.jpg. Right now I am at 4.9ml daily.
so 5 ml of vodka for 90 gallons?
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lisa foster
Non-member
Is that your maintenance dose. I know it said when you get to 0 ppm or close to cut the dose in 1/2 and that is the dose you stay with.
mchartier
Non-member
Yes right now I have not reached my maintenance dose yet, each week I add .5ml, which once I see a reduction in nitrates you hold on that dose until you get the nitrates to 0 or near zero then cut the dose in half. So if my nitrates were good as of this week my actual daily dose would be about 2.5ml . I went with dosages for a smaller system to ear on caution. That link I posted will give the dosage amount for various system sizes. I just created a spreadsheet to track everything including all parameters, maintenance, and observations of the tank.
Lisa, you posted while I was, but I believe that answered your questions.
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lisa foster
Non-member
It did. I was oping it would not take so long to hit zero nitrates did you do water changes to help bring them down?
mchartier
Non-member
Like I said I am going slow with this, my system is probably closer to 80 gallons but I am under dosing using the 50 gallon dosages instead. From everything I have read it would only make the process longer but it was safer, and as a lot of people here say "nothing good happens fast".
I do weekly water changes of 10 gallons.
I do weekly water changes of 10 gallons.
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lisa foster
Non-member
I started dosing for 100 gallons but I too am only adding .5ml weekly. I started out dosing .4 ml one side of my tank has a deep sandbed over 4" so I know it can take a bit longer because of this for my nitrates to drop. I know slow is best I still wis tings moved faster 
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mchartier
Non-member
Lisa, I have about 3-4" sand bed in the back and right side of my tank and about 2" from the middle to the left due to the flow in my tank. I dose into my sump and not the tank. I started out doing the MB7 and Vodka but ditched the MB7 did not see anything from it. After about a month in a half I started to see an increase in color and growth. I have always been battling bryopsis and valonia algea, I tried the Tech M treatment and it worked but the bryopsis came back shortly after. I think my rock has a lot of built up nutrients (I bought a used setup) which is causing my issues as I do not feed excessively. I have seen a change in the bryopsis at about the 2 month mark (I can check my spreadsheet when I get home and verify with my photos that I am logging with). I have had some acros that were at a stand still and the color was not quite right but at about the same time those had changed for the better.
The reason I went slow was because I was afraid of getting burnt tips on my SPS and by going slower I can monitor the changes a little better. I keep my alk at 7.5 (Elos test kit) and at I noticed that I had to increase my Alk dosing at about the 2 month point so keep an eye on your Alk.
The reason I went slow was because I was afraid of getting burnt tips on my SPS and by going slower I can monitor the changes a little better. I keep my alk at 7.5 (Elos test kit) and at I noticed that I had to increase my Alk dosing at about the 2 month point so keep an eye on your Alk.
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lisa foster
Non-member
I have always had a prolem with high alk whic I now believe is because I used tap water it could get as high as 12. I started using only r/o my alk is now at 10 as of yesterday. It is funny to me that I have never had any problem with algae but My nitrates usually have never been below 15ppm. I had heard about the tips burning on acros but I do not keep any sps. Thanks for the info on alk I am becoming much more disciplined about testing my tank now so hopefully my reef will thrive.
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mchartier
Non-member
Yeah I have been religiously testing since I started dosing I test alk at least every other day and Cal & Mag about every 4 days. I have mainly SPS so I need to keep an eye on my Alk. Not sure if it is a problem above 8 with LPS or not only seen it mentioned for SPS, and I did a lot of reading before I decided to start the dosing.
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lisa foster
Non-member
I have never really had to dose calcium and I have never dosed for alk. I also had never dosed for mag but when I first tested two weeks ago it was at 1100 so I dosed to hit 1300. LPS is more forgiving and has always survived in my tank but not alot of growth. I know that I could decrease nitrates by not feeding so heavy but with a blue jaw trigger pair that is not going to happen that is why I am trying vodka dosing.
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number1gsxxr
Guest
Read this article that was posted on the first page. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php
It's not as simple as just pouring in X amount of vodka. You have to start low, usually 0.1 ml per 25 gallons of net water volume each day, for the first three days. Then on days 4-7 you double the daily dosage. Each week after that you add 0.5 ml to the dose until nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) begin to drop. When the nutrient levels begin to drop you maintain whatever your daily dose is at that point until the levels are undetectable. Once the levels are undetectable, then you cut your daily dose in half. This is the level that you would add from now on unless you see nutrient levels begin to increase. If they do increase then you add 0.1 ml per week until they decrease. Then that would be the new maintenance dose.
Hope this helps. I'm not an expert or anything. Just been reading about it online. Today was my first dose of vodka.
I use Vodka and MB7 as needed. So yes, i have stopped vodka completely without major negative impact on the corals that i can tell. When my nitrates are no longer ZERO, I restart vodka again. I never stop MB7 (everyday unless Im lazy). But the most I;ve ever required to drop 60ppm of nitrates in my 150gal system is 0.5ml of Vodka per day! Feels like you guys are way overdosing. My system is bare bottom, 3 small tangs, 1 hawk, 1 clownfish, about 30 coral heads and no significant amount of liverock.
Icycoral
Did someone say coral?
I got into OCD dosing last summer. Started out with just vodka, had a bit of cyano pop up and lost a couple lps. but all my sps corals were phenominal. I switched to a VSV mix after 2 months and had my best results with that. the cyano was not too bad and the corals looked great. In december I started using biopellets. So far I am not impressed. Ready to go back to VSV.
