vodka dosing?

[CoralReeferGal]

I've seen tons of talk about people who dose vodka... What exactly is this practice? How do you do it? What's the purpose of it?

[Alex T.]

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

[cmantis]

Is there an alternative to using alcohol?

[CoralReeferGal]

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

Thank you!!!

Is there an alternative to using alcohol?

I've seen some say they dosed with vinegar... I tried to search vodka dosing on this forum, and couldn't readily find an explanation on it, just threads with people saying they did it. Several others commented on a few of the threads I looked at, saying about vinegar dosing. No clue on any of that either though LOL!

[Alex T.]

You'll find a lot more advice in the Chemistry Forum regarding carbon dosing regimens and dosages.

Basically, Vinegar is 8 times more diluted than vodka so it needs to be dosed at 8 times the amount of vodka.

You need to determine first if you even need to give carbon dosing a try or not. If you already have low nitrates and phosphate, perform regular water changes, stock appropriately and feed appropriately then you may not even need to do it. If your levels are low already, carbon dosing can lead to pale corals, and fuel cyanobacteria growth. I dosed vodka in my last tank, and things did OK for a while. Then corals paled and I added more fish and fed them more. It's not a cure, but a different methodology to combat nutrients by fueling bacterial growth to consume nitrate and phosphate. Many find that vodka or vinegar dosing does very well at lowering nitrates to undetectable levels, but then when nitrate is limited, phosphate starts to rear its' ugly head. That's why many who carbon dose still run GFO to adsorb phosphate. Some run biopellets in a reactor, but it's basically the same thing. The Zeovit system is probably a little more efficient at removing both nitrate and phosphate, yet the supplemental dosing of all those expensive additives and changing Zeolith stones out every 6 weeks with daily pumping of the reactor mulm would be way more involvement than I was willing to give.

In the end, many who keep measurable nitrates in the water column with a GFO and carbon reactor can get the same results without keeping the tank teetering on the edge. A ULNS (Ultra Low Nutrient System) requires natural seawater parameters as well. This means trying to keep alkalinity around 6 - 7.5 dKH, Calcium between 380 - 420 and magnesium between 1200 - 1300. When these parameters (especially alkalinity) sway a couple points it can cause burnt tips and recession from the base of SPS corals.

HTH

[CoralReeferGal]

Thanks, Alex! All of our parameters are spot on where they should be, so I'm not looking into doing it, I was more just curious what it was, and why it was done. Thanks for a great explanation!

[Jbrodys]

I wanted to try it but was warned the slightest mishap will crash the tank. Be careful