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View Full Version : Question about Vodka, Sugar, Vinegar dosing


daplatapus
08/23/2013, 08:15 PM
On my local forum I talked to a guy who mixes all 3 together and doses them simultaneously throughout the day. I remember reading somewhere that dosing the 3 sources of carbon helps diversify the strains of bacteria cultivated over just dosing one form. But I can't find any of these threads or articles I remember reading and I'd like to look into doing this a bit more before I try it. I'm on week 3 of vodka only dosing in my 150 net water volume system and I wanted to do some more reading on dosing all 3. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

blanden.adam
08/23/2013, 08:19 PM
Back when carbon dosing was in it's infancy lots of people talked about dosing mixtures with the idea that it would help to feed different kinds of bacteria and thus avoid the dreaded "heterotrophic bacteria monoculture." There are a couple of problems with this idea though -- 1) No one has really demonstrated that the mixture method substantially increases biodiversity of the bacteria in the reef tank and 2) No one has demonstrated that such a diversity, if it is encouraged by dosing mixtures, is actually helpful.

Nonetheless, some people like dosing mixtures, but in your position I'd stick with just the one. No need to make things more complicated than they need to be without good reason to do so. :)

bertoni
08/23/2013, 08:40 PM
I don't see any reason to mix different carbon sources unless the tank is having some sort of problem. Maybe not even then. I agree that biodiversity seems over-rated and unsubstantiated. :)

daplatapus
08/23/2013, 09:15 PM
Cool, thanks for that guys. I shall keep on, keeping on :D

bertoni
08/23/2013, 10:15 PM
You're welcome! Good luck!