Anyone Dose Vodka?

[Mr.X]

I've been dosing vodka for about a year. I have a 200 Gallon tank with a 60G sump. My nitrates were higher than 50 when I started, then dipped to an all-time low at 20, then back up to 50. I didn't think the vodka was doing anything, so I trickeled it down to zero over 2 weeks. Then after 6 weeks or so, everything turned brown so I restarted the dosing ramping up to 8Ml. This was around september or so. Finally by New years the brown was gone. I'm still dosing at 7Ml/day and nitrates are still hovering at about 50.

somewhere in January all of my culerpa died off, then all of my chato died (-- About a cubic foot) about 3 weeks after.

I also have 12 Mangrove plants, 4 inches of sugar sand, 200 pounds of live rock, and a coil denitrator.

I'm looking for alternatives to Vodka.

[spawn]

Just use mooore vodka!

Originally Posted by Mr.X

I've been dosing vodka for about a year. I have a 200 Gallon tank with a 60G sump. My nitrates were higher than 50 when I started, then dipped to an all-time low at 20, then back up to 50. I didn't think the vodka was doing anything, so I trickeled it down to zero over 2 weeks. Then after 6 weeks or so, everything turned brown so I restarted the dosing ramping up to 8Ml. This was around september or so. Finally by New years the brown was gone. I'm still dosing at 7Ml/day and nitrates are still hovering at about 50.

somewhere in January all of my culerpa died off, then all of my chato died (-- About a cubic foot) about 3 weeks after.

I also have 12 Mangrove plants, 4 inches of sugar sand, 200 pounds of live rock, and a coil denitrator.

I'm looking for alternatives to Vodka.

[Mr.X]

How much more? Nobody seems to post what they actually end up putting in after a year for a ~260G volume... I'm a little worried to just keep increasing. I also don't know why my chato died, but I'm afraid that everything will turn brown again if I stop the vodka. I think my tank is addicted.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Mr.X

........ I'm afraid that everything will turn brown again if I stop the vodka. I think my tank is addicted.

Fishtank or ****tank?

[spawn]

If you read this & scroll down the page it will likely tell you how much more. Just click on the the one that says 80 proof. I'm pretty sure my fish & shrimp appreciate the daily dosing! One in the morning & one at night. It was always the one's in between those to that got me into trouble.

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Mr.X

How much more? Nobody seems to post what they actually end up putting in after a year for a ~260G volume... I'm a little worried to just keep increasing. I also don't know why my chato died, but I'm afraid that everything will turn brown again if I stop the vodka. I think my tank is addicted.

It sounds like you didn't follow the recipe that most follow. I explained it at the beginning of this thread. If you didn't increase the vodka dosage on a weekly basis until your parameters were basically zero, then you didn't finish and figure out the final maintenance dose.

Can you tell us how you got to 7ml per day? Just wondering.