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sidneybrooksjr
04/18/2006, 06:16 PM
Does vodka lower nitrates. if so are there any long term effects on the fish? What is the recommended dosage? Please advise?

sttaylor
04/18/2006, 06:53 PM
No scientific evidence that it does. Search the Reefkeeping online mag there was a write up on it six months or so ago.

Scott

Here is the link:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/eb/feature/index.php

bigfruits
04/19/2006, 06:35 AM
do a water change and drink the vodka instead

dfreeman
04/19/2006, 07:47 AM
enough of my money has gone into this already, it aint gettin my booze too.

AnnArborBuck
04/19/2006, 08:08 AM
It did in mine.

Travis L. Stevens
04/19/2006, 08:21 AM
Technically yes, in theory. The simple sugars found in Vodka powers the bacteria that lives in your tank. Because they have more food, they multiply faster. Thus creating a bacterial bloom. This means that there are more bacteria to use up organic compounds such as Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate. So, more bacteria is quicker nitrate reduction.

But, there are MANY percautions you must watch out for. The increased bacteria will use up the available oxygen; once you stop dosing and they lose their food source, they all die creating a cycle unless you have a sufficient enough skimmer to take the extra bacteria out; you must have the correct proportions of phosphates and nitrates in order for the bacteria to multiply. Lack of one or the other will cause them to die off and then you are dosing for no reason. You have to watch out for what you are dosing with. Though Vodka contains a good amount of what you need, it might have something that doesn't bode well for your aquarium (or liver :D ). Using a lab grade source of fuel would be far better. Much of the livestock isn't accustomed to what will happen. So, they get what I like to call lack-of-nutrients-shock. Not only do you lose oxygen quickly, but because you drop nitrates and phosphates very quickly, you deprive algal scrubbers (IE Chaeto in the 'fuge) the nutrients to survive. Other things like soft corals and LPS that enjoy having trace nitrates will also be effected because they are so used to having high nitrates to feed off of, they then have hardly any to none.

In general, it boils down to what size tank that you have, what is in the tank, how bad are your nitrates/phosphates, and are you willing to kill your whole tank? If you answered yes to all these, then you should do some major research into dosing Vodka. If you said No to ANY of these, then simple water changes are a much safer solution.