occasional vodka use?

[mtaswt]

So here's my dilemma........I keep mainly lps corals which prefer SOME dirty water.......right? Although I think my nitrates and phosphates are "a little" high. I love to feed everything may be my biggest fault

So can I dose vodka occasionally to help keep them a little lower for the SPS that I house? Is there any other tips or tricks that you suggest to keep them lower? I currently run GFO and carbon in a dual BRS reactor as well.

Thanks--Matt

[AaronM]

I think a very low dose would be better than an occasional one.

[sirreal63]

What are the actual numbers for No3 and Po4?

[mtaswt]

What are the actual numbers for No3 and Po4?

No3--15 to 20
Po4--.2

[dnsfpl]

initially i thought lps and soft coral prefer low nutrients environment
in fact they grew even faster when no3/po4 hits 0

my frogpspawn almost double its size
blasto, rics became larger
zoa, golden cloves, GSP, duncan grew quite a bit

[kingfisherflesh]

I would say no to occasional dosing.

Here's why:

When you carbon dose, you are giving a limiting nutrient to bacteria in your tank. Without this limit, they are able to go and process phosphate and nitrate into their structure. In turn, you have a bacteria bloom as they are able to take advantage of the ample resources in your tank. Bacteria however, have a short life cycle, and need to either be eaten (some claim corals will do this), or be removed via a skimmer or h2o change. This permanently removes the phosphate and nitrate from your tank.

However, if you dose occasionally, you would still have the blooms, but not the nutrients to maintain them. This would result in a roller coaster of phosphates and nitrates as they were pulled out of the water column, and then re-added as the bacteria died off due to not having the carbon source that allowed their population to explode.

I am in the process of slowly going up carbon dosing. I now dose (in week two) .5ml a day. I will continue to work this up in this fashion until I see the parameters I want, and then I will slowly back down. I am doing it in this fashion to avoid any blooms, or cyano outbreaks.

[mtaswt]

I would say no to occasional dosing.

Here's why:

When you carbon dose, you are giving a limiting nutrient to bacteria in your tank. Without this limit, they are able to go and process phosphate and nitrate into their structure. In turn, you have a bacteria bloom as they are able to take advantage of the ample resources in your tank. Bacteria however, have a short life cycle, and need to either be eaten (some claim corals will do this), or be removed via a skimmer or h2o change. This permanently removes the phosphate and nitrate from your tank.

However, if you dose occasionally, you would still have the blooms, but not the nutrients to maintain them. This would result in a roller coaster of phosphates and nitrates as they were pulled out of the water column, and then re-added as the bacteria died off due to not having the carbon source that allowed their population to explode.

I am in the process of slowly going up carbon dosing. I now dose (in week two) .5ml a day. I will continue to work this up in this fashion until I see the parameters I want, and then I will slowly back down. I am doing it in this fashion to avoid any blooms, or cyano outbreaks.

Would it work just dosing constantly at SMALL amounts?

[sirreal63]

I would not do a random dose, but rather a proper dose on a regular schedule.

[phenom5]

I would follow the dosing schedule outlined in the RK article, and switch to your maintenance dosage once you hit your target NO3. Typically people are aiming for really low NO3, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with a little higher NO3.