Vodka Dosing - On the Edge

[btkrausen]

Ok, so I'm on day 40 of vodka dosing, and I'm on the edge of switching to my maintenance dose, except for Phosphate and Nitrate keep jumping around. Here it was in a nice steady decline, and then bam, it raised back up. Phosphate might be higher since I've been pulling out some bubble algae, which I"m sure was using up Phosphate.

Current readings from today:
Cal: 450
Mag: 1500
kH: 7.7
Phosphate: 0.11(Hanna Checker)
Phosphate: 0.03 (Salifert) <--- very hard to read
Nitrate: 1 (Salifert)

I'm currently dosing 3.1ml per day, along with about 5-10 drops of MB7. Last 5 readings of Phosphate and Nitrate are:

Phos:
0.06
0.03
0.00
0.00
0.03
0.03 <--today

Nitrate:
2
1
1
1
0.2
1 <--today

What do you think? Keep going with the regime, or do the maintenance dose and cut in half? Most of my color is still there in my SPS, although one that was very green has faded and isn't as vibrant. Red Planet, Borrealis, Tri Color, and a few others are holding color, but not as vibrant as I wanted.

[HighlandReefer]

If your coral colors have recently just started fading, it is possible you are now dosing too much vodka and need to cut back, although there can be other factors such as starting GAC and changing lighting recently.

[BKRJIM]

Hi,
i have been dosing now for about 100 days. The nitrates went down,(they were always over 200) but i can not get them below 20. Then today, they went up to 80 in a week. I did a water change and back to 20 again. I am beginning to wonder if the water changes are bringing the nitrates down and not the vodka. Also, the stringy white stuff that is all over is becoming a pain. My brown algea is finally gone, turned bright almost neon green, and then went away. My corals seem to be okay, but i noticed my chip starfish is rotting away in the middle underside. Anybody have any suggestions? Also my zoos are not multiplying, they are just "holding thier own".. I could use some help here.
Thanks, jim

[btkrausen]

Thanks Cliff. Only one coral really had faded towards the brownish side. It was a bright turquoise color with blue tips, but now looking less and less greenish on the base.

I want to be at a position to say yes, cut back, but I'm afraid that my phosphates will stay higher to feed the bubble algae I'm trying to kill off.

I haven't made any changes to anything other than the dosing, as I'm making changes one at a time to make sure I can relate a change in coral to a specific item I'm changing. I have changed carbon, but have been doing that every other week.

Also, my Magnesium has shot way up for some reason, and I haven't been dosing. I'm hoping that its partially to blame for the recent switch to Red Sea Coral Pro. I haven't done a water change with it yet, just added some with a high salinity to bring mine back up.

Thoughts?

[HighlandReefer]

Hi,
i have been dosing now for about 100 days. The nitrates went down,(they were always over 200) but i can not get them below 20. Then today, they went up to 80 in a week. I did a water change and back to 20 again. I am beginning to wonder if the water changes are bringing the nitrates down and not the vodka. Also, the stringy white stuff that is all over is becoming a pain. My brown algea is finally gone, turned bright almost neon green, and then went away. My corals seem to be okay, but i noticed my chip starfish is rotting away in the middle underside. Anybody have any suggestions? Also my zoos are not multiplying, they are just "holding thier own".. I could use some help here.
Thanks, jim

Jim,

Not to sound mean or anything, but I would suggest that you post a new thread here on the Chemistry Forum to not only be fair to the OP but to keep both of your problems separated since they are different & things will be more complicated. :)

[btkrausen]

Jim,

Not to sound mean or anything, but I would suggest that you post a new thread here on the Chemistry Forum to not only be fair to the OP but to keep both of your problems separated since they are different & things will be more complicated. :)

Thanks, I thought the same thing, but I'm a nice guy and didn't want him to feel like I was calling him out. But I agree, with it being my thread or not, its only fair to the OP. :)

So you think I should cut my dosage? I'm split on what I want to do here.

[HighlandReefer]

Thanks Cliff. Only one coral really had faded towards the brownish side. It was a bright turquoise color with blue tips, but now looking less and less greenish on the base.

I want to be at a position to say yes, cut back, but I'm afraid that my phosphates will stay higher to feed the bubble algae I'm trying to kill off.

I haven't made any changes to anything other than the dosing, as I'm making changes one at a time to make sure I can relate a change in coral to a specific item I'm changing. I have changed carbon, but have been doing that every other week.

Also, my Magnesium has shot way up for some reason, and I haven't been dosing. I'm hoping that its partially to blame for the recent switch to Red Sea Coral Pro. I haven't done a water change with it yet, just added some with a high salinity to bring mine back up.

Thoughts?

Mag will not increase unless you increase the salinity sigfinicanty or do change to a higher mag salt mix or add mag supplement. ;)

According to Billy's testing your mix at a salinity of 1.0264 these are his results:

Red Sea Coral Pro

calcium: 490
alk: 7 dKH
Mag: 1300

FWIW mag kits can give you conflicting results especially if you don't mix properly between drops added.

Since your nitrate is still at a reading of 1.0, you can continue at your dosing rate until it drops to undetectable reading. running GFO can help with the algae problems.

This article may be of interest for bubble algae, check to make sure the pictures match up with what you call bubble algae:

Bubble Algae: Selected Description, controls and Comments
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

[btkrausen]

Mag will not increase unless you increase the salinity sigfinicanty or do change to a higher mag salt mix or add mag supplement. ;)

According to Billy's testing your mix at a salinity of 1.0264 these are his results:

Red Sea Coral Pro

calcium: 490
alk: 7 dKH
Mag: 1300

FWIW mag kits can give you conflicting results especially if you don't mix properly between drops added.

Since your nitrate is still at a reading of 1.0, you can continue at your dosing rate until it drops to undetectable reading. running GFO can help with the algae problems.

This article may be of interest for bubble algae, check to make sure the pictures match up with what you call bubble algae:

Bubble Algae: Selected Description, controls and Comments
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

Thanks, I've read that a few times, but will look it over again...can't hurt right? :)

I also put in a foxface to try to help with the bubble algae as well, but he's still very new, so I'm not sure if he'll help or not. I have thought about starting GFO again, as I stopped running it after a few weeks of dosing vodka.

Thanks for the advice so far. I was getting great color and growth before I started vodka, the best I've ever had, but I only did it to help kill off the bubble algae.

I'll continue with my current dosage to see what it does, and increase if nitrate and phosphates don't drop. If phosphates don't drop soon, I'll add some GFO to my dual reactor, as I'm only running carbon through it now.

[HighlandReefer]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Just go slow with changes and watch for negative signs with your coral. ;)

[BKRJIM]

Will do. Sorry..i am new at this..jim

[HighlandReefer]

No problem Jim. ;)

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[iamwrasseman]

Thanks for the advice so far. I was getting great color and growth before I started vodka, the best I've ever had, but I only did it to help kill off the bubble algae.

I'll continue with my current dosage to see what it does, and increase if nitrate and phosphates don't drop. If phosphates don't drop soon, I'll add some GFO to my dual reactor,

i dont understand why you changed your complete water chemistry just to remove some algae when it is usually done with GFO that your not currently using . is there some method to this madness of did i miss something . if my corals looked the best they ever did and i got a bit of algae i wouldn't make any big changes but would attack the algae only instead of dosing with vodka and changing the tank as a whole .
just my 2 cents but i dont get it ?

[btkrausen]

i dont understand why you changed your complete water chemistry just to remove some algae when it is usually done with GFO that your not currently using . is there some method to this madness of did i miss something . if my corals looked the best they ever did and i got a bit of algae i wouldn't make any big changes but would attack the algae only instead of dosing with vodka and changing the tank as a whole .
just my 2 cents but i dont get it ?

Because I have been using GFO the entire time I've had this tank until I moved to vodka. And because its not just a little bubble algae...some rocks, mostly in the back, and completely covered with it.

I didn't want to change either, as I was getting the best color and growth ever, but I had to try to change something to try to fight it. I'm still fighting it, even after being on day 41 or something with vodka.

I bought some 1/2" RO line, which is rigid, cut the end diagonally to make a point, and I've been using this to scrape it off. This way anything scraped goes straight in the siphon, which is clamped back on my sump into two stacked filter socks. I've already found out this method makes it so much easier to remove the algae, and combined with the vodka "hopefully" lowering my phosphates more, the foxface, and GFO introduced back if vodka doesn't do its thing will help get rid of the algae.

I've been in the hobby for over 6 years now, so I'm no novice. On that same note, I know I'm not expert either, but I do know what I'm doing. I log EVERYTHING that goes into my tank, except food, and log all measurements and dosages of elements. As I stated above, I didn't want to change from the best situation, but in order to fight the bubble algae, I felt I had no choice.

[btkrausen]

Will do. Sorry..i am new at this..jim

No problem Jim. Good luck with your vodka dosing. I'll check out your thread to see if I can help at all. :beer:

[iamwrasseman]

i completely understand your situation and was just asking , i would say that you have done the correct thing . i run gfo and you have to keep on top of it as once it gets full ie exhausted the po4 starts rising . i have 45 fish in 400ish gallons of water and FIGHT po4 like mad and i am up to 2 cups high capacity per week . for the first five of six days po4 creeps down but then levels off so i have to replace it . in the past month i have gone from .26ish down to .07 and tonight i just replaced my gfo again so it will drop a point or two but thats it . the cost is crazy too so i feel for you for sure .
sorry for the way i posted but how you had it written it sounded like you were not using GFO and were planning on adding some if it didn't lower . how often and how much do you go through ?