JustinReef
12/07/2009, 02:33 PM
Just looking for some advice. I am not new to carbon dosing as I ran ZEO successfully for a while but I am new to Vodka dosing and it has not gone well at all so far.
-34G Solana
-Euro Reef Nano skimmer (one of the reasons I felt I could dose a carbon source because this skimmer is awesome. Nice to finally have a meshwheel skimmer for a nano)
Not going to get into the rest of the equipment since its probably irrelevant.
Before dosing my levels:
No3 - 5 (Elos)
Po4 - .05 - .08 (Elos)
Alk - 7
Ca - 380-400
Started dosing for a few reasons, one, I wanted to be able to add more fish and feed heavily. Two, I wanted to lower the No3. Three, my sps color was ok but not great...not like when I ran ZEO. I thought about trying ZEO again but I had no real good way of using a reactor and it was tempting to try vodka because of the price.
Started with only Vodka, no MB7. Started at .1 ml and got an immediate bloom. Stopped for a few days until it went away. Dosed again but hadn't tested Po4 (stupid). Few days went by at .1ml and all was fine. End of the first week, upped it to .2ml and got a bloom again. Stopped dosing again for a few days. Tested the water. So a week and a half after starting I got this:
No3 - 0 (Elos)
Po4 - .03 (Hanna)
Alk - 7 - 7.5 depending on the time of day...I dose two part manually for now.
Perfect right? maybe but I guess it happened too fast. Some of my corals got very light and I think started to bleach.
I really didn't want to stop completely so another week later, I am dosing still. Vodka at .05ml, MB7 two drops per day and Amino Acids about 2ml a day. I have been told the Brightwell AA are pretty much crap and you could probably dump the whole thing in the tank without problems because its so weak. So far I might agree with that. When I used ZEO AA, one extra drop and I knew as the glass would get a lot of film by the end of the day.
Anyways, not sure where to go from here. No improvement in the corals effected. Nutrient levels have stayed steady as far as I can tell.
I should mention that the corals effected are a few beautiful pieces from someones tank (they have a decent amount of nutrients in their tank although its gorgeous!) and were started to get a little pale even before dosing. The uneffected corals were all aqua-cultured from the LFS and are looking better and better as the dosing goes on.
I am assuming what happened was the aqua-cultured are more accustomed to very low nutrients while the ones from my friends tank are not. So while the aqua-cultured are getting happier, the friends colonies are dying off?
On last thing...sorry this got long. Can corals recover from bleaching? Or a better question might be how likely is it? Some parts have no polyp extension and actually look like the polyps have receded. Flesh is still there though, just very pale to white.
Any advice is welcomed!
-34G Solana
-Euro Reef Nano skimmer (one of the reasons I felt I could dose a carbon source because this skimmer is awesome. Nice to finally have a meshwheel skimmer for a nano)
Not going to get into the rest of the equipment since its probably irrelevant.
Before dosing my levels:
No3 - 5 (Elos)
Po4 - .05 - .08 (Elos)
Alk - 7
Ca - 380-400
Started dosing for a few reasons, one, I wanted to be able to add more fish and feed heavily. Two, I wanted to lower the No3. Three, my sps color was ok but not great...not like when I ran ZEO. I thought about trying ZEO again but I had no real good way of using a reactor and it was tempting to try vodka because of the price.
Started with only Vodka, no MB7. Started at .1 ml and got an immediate bloom. Stopped for a few days until it went away. Dosed again but hadn't tested Po4 (stupid). Few days went by at .1ml and all was fine. End of the first week, upped it to .2ml and got a bloom again. Stopped dosing again for a few days. Tested the water. So a week and a half after starting I got this:
No3 - 0 (Elos)
Po4 - .03 (Hanna)
Alk - 7 - 7.5 depending on the time of day...I dose two part manually for now.
Perfect right? maybe but I guess it happened too fast. Some of my corals got very light and I think started to bleach.
I really didn't want to stop completely so another week later, I am dosing still. Vodka at .05ml, MB7 two drops per day and Amino Acids about 2ml a day. I have been told the Brightwell AA are pretty much crap and you could probably dump the whole thing in the tank without problems because its so weak. So far I might agree with that. When I used ZEO AA, one extra drop and I knew as the glass would get a lot of film by the end of the day.
Anyways, not sure where to go from here. No improvement in the corals effected. Nutrient levels have stayed steady as far as I can tell.
I should mention that the corals effected are a few beautiful pieces from someones tank (they have a decent amount of nutrients in their tank although its gorgeous!) and were started to get a little pale even before dosing. The uneffected corals were all aqua-cultured from the LFS and are looking better and better as the dosing goes on.
I am assuming what happened was the aqua-cultured are more accustomed to very low nutrients while the ones from my friends tank are not. So while the aqua-cultured are getting happier, the friends colonies are dying off?
On last thing...sorry this got long. Can corals recover from bleaching? Or a better question might be how likely is it? Some parts have no polyp extension and actually look like the polyps have receded. Flesh is still there though, just very pale to white.
Any advice is welcomed!