Little Sugar dosing experiment.

[andresont]

I have two tanks (see description under my avatar).
Started dosing half of the tee spoon dissolved in a cup of RO/DI water. Half of the cup went to the 6 gal Nano and the other Half in to 66 Gal mixed reef.

Have been dosing for less then a week.
Pros Observed:
immediate change in both tanks such as
• Disappearing of the red cyanobacteria slime film on the some surfaces,
• Improved SPS polyp extension
• And increased skimming.(not foaming but actual skimmate got darker and thicker )

Cons:
• LPS corals such as open brain would Not extend as it was before
• Goniopora only 30% open. Side note (Clown fish is trying to host in it, but it has done so before sugar dosing and coral would open immediately back to 100% after clown fish swim away, but now it will stay closed for longer time and newer open as much)
• Soft coral (some sort of green leather looking like ) would Not open, the other one I have is yellow umbrella is OK no change.

Conclusion:
Sugar dosing does work however with mixed coral reactions. I have stopped dosing because of negative reaction of some corals mentioned above.
I you have SPS dominated tank I can see a small benefit, but this method would not substitute for regular maintenance and good aquarium care such as Strong lighting, small regular water changes, protein skimming and chemical filtration.

I know there are some great minds out there, any thoughts?

[Farrmanchu]

I've had similiar results dosing Vinegar with my Kalk. No adverse Coral effects though. Both methods do the same thing-adding a source of Carbon. I'd guess that the Sugar has more impurities though. I may try a Vodka dosing to see if I can get even better results as it is even more pure.

[rigger11]

so other then to get your fish drunk why would you dose vodka? and how would you go about doing it?

[bv_reefer]

-well i've heard numerous times about how vodka tends 2 diminish phosphate
and nitrate levels 2 undetectable amounts. -if i read correctly the bacteria
use carbon from vodka and then the bacterioplankton is skimmed outta the
aquarium. but then RESEARCH,RESEARCH,RESEARCH first!! dose can be benif-
icial or lethal.

[Snowmaker]

lets keep this thread going im definatly interested in this. has anyone else tried any othe rmethods??? that will help get nitrates to nothing???

[ClubReef]

Another carbon source alternative is Zeovit - Start2. It's a bit pricey but at least you know thousands of reefers are using it and not many have had their tank crash from it.

[StirCrazy]

I think at less and a week you are a long long way from being able to make any conclusion. I think a more realistic test would be over a few months, then you would need to dose one of two simular tanks to see how one does with it and one does with out it.

Steve

[bv_reefer]

-i agree, although vodka is very pure it's lethal, as for sugar that cud be arranged but like stircrazy said give us the details if any good or bad comes out of the vodka experiment.

[michika]

Andresont,

Did you take any before or after photos? I know you said you stopped dosing in your original post, but how did you do it? Did you just dump it into a high flow area? How did you decide how much to dose? Is there a calculator out there, like there is say for alkalinity, or calcium?

[trilinearmipmap]

I would encourage people to try dosing sugar but start with much lower doses eg. 1/8 teaspoon per 100 gallons and gradually increase the dose, give it 6 or 8 weeks before you judge the results.

I agree with the finding that sugar eliminated cyanobacteria.