JohnV8r
08/09/2012, 01:54 PM
In the aftermath of my sandbed being blown all over by a dislodged powerhead (see thread here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2198663), I have had a bit of a hair algae outbreak.
The nitrates after the powerhead incident were down to less than 1 ppm within 48 hours. The phosphates are down to an immeasurable level again after some aggressive GFO use. However, I am aware that the immeasurable level of phosphate is now in part because the significantly increased amount of hair algae is consuming the phosphates. I would like to make sure I am aggressively suppressing the phosphates to eradicate the hair algae.
When I began vodka dosing, I followed the instructions in the excellent Reefkeeping article, "Vodka Dosing...Distilled." I titrated the amount of vodka up per the instructions and then down until finally reaching immeasurable nitrate and phospate levels at .7 ml daily for my estimated net 196 gallon system. When I did this initially, I did not use GFO because I wanted to reach the most efficient nitrate/phosphate export with carbon dosing. Once I found that, I then added GFO into a reactor to account for any phosphate that existed in the "immeasurable" range of my test kit.
Dosing .7 ml of vodka and using GFO has worked flawlessly until the powerhead incident. I would now like to retitrate to recalculate the needed amount of vodka to get to immeasurable levels without GFO.
My question then is how do I take an existing reef that is running GFO off GFO and increase the vodka dosing in the most safe manner?
The Reefkeeping article has a starting point for vodka dosing at .1 ml per 25 gallons. I'm essentially there right now. The next step is to increase to .2 ml per 25 gallons, which would put me at 1.6 ml. Should that be my starting point?
The next step per the article is to increase by .5 ml each week until nutrient levels are immeasurable. Is that the appropriate increase with an existing reef tank that is currently being vodka dosed?
I just want to make sure I do this cautiously, yet expeditiously.
Thanks in advance.
The nitrates after the powerhead incident were down to less than 1 ppm within 48 hours. The phosphates are down to an immeasurable level again after some aggressive GFO use. However, I am aware that the immeasurable level of phosphate is now in part because the significantly increased amount of hair algae is consuming the phosphates. I would like to make sure I am aggressively suppressing the phosphates to eradicate the hair algae.
When I began vodka dosing, I followed the instructions in the excellent Reefkeeping article, "Vodka Dosing...Distilled." I titrated the amount of vodka up per the instructions and then down until finally reaching immeasurable nitrate and phospate levels at .7 ml daily for my estimated net 196 gallon system. When I did this initially, I did not use GFO because I wanted to reach the most efficient nitrate/phosphate export with carbon dosing. Once I found that, I then added GFO into a reactor to account for any phosphate that existed in the "immeasurable" range of my test kit.
Dosing .7 ml of vodka and using GFO has worked flawlessly until the powerhead incident. I would now like to retitrate to recalculate the needed amount of vodka to get to immeasurable levels without GFO.
My question then is how do I take an existing reef that is running GFO off GFO and increase the vodka dosing in the most safe manner?
The Reefkeeping article has a starting point for vodka dosing at .1 ml per 25 gallons. I'm essentially there right now. The next step is to increase to .2 ml per 25 gallons, which would put me at 1.6 ml. Should that be my starting point?
The next step per the article is to increase by .5 ml each week until nutrient levels are immeasurable. Is that the appropriate increase with an existing reef tank that is currently being vodka dosed?
I just want to make sure I do this cautiously, yet expeditiously.
Thanks in advance.