T.A. Nitrate Destroyer experiences?/Vodka dosing questions

[Treebeard]

Please define a "little nitrate".

Originally Posted by naesco

Or simply do water changes and live with a little nitrate which does no harm.

Wayne Ryan

[Myka]

I think Christie has more than "a little nitrate" otherwise she wouldn't be so worried about it. IMO, a little nitrate is 5 ppm. Some people would say up to 20 ppm, but that just would not do in my tank. I can't stand being able to get any detectable nitrate reading for my reef.

In all honesty, I don't think there is much difference from one vendor's carbon source to another's. However, there are those of us who DO want that little bit of difference. Depends which bandwagon you're on. I am actually considering vodka/ethanol dosing, not for nitrate and phosphate control though, but for SPS carbon food source, and mainly just interest. On that note, I think there is often a difference between raw ingredient products and reef formulated products. I have always found that reef buffer formulas work better than baking soda for alkalinity dosing. I can't explain why. I don't understand why.

Brad (Tailored Aquatics), really there is not a lot of difference between vodka and ethanol. They are cousins...maybe brothers even. Either way, both are forms of alcohol and are carbon sources. Both are effective, with ethanol probably being a "safer" choice because of its purity. I was hoping you would reply on here. Seriously though, your product smells like alcohol. "If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

[Ian]

i have read and re-read Tailored Aquatics 1st post in this thread and it would seem that while he stated no vodka is in the product Ethanol may stil be a primary ingredient as he never stated that this is not in it. If this is the case then it is likely a pure ETOH source being used along with some additional carbon sources.
What would stop a person from sourcing a 90% or better ETOH adding in a significant amount of garlic and having a very comparible product that is much cheaper.... everclear is 95% and readily available.....

[Tailored Aquatics]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in posting. I have been crazy busy lately! Lots of good things going on with TA these days. Myka, yes you are correct vodka does contain a form of ethanol. It has very similar chains of molecules compared to some of the lab grades of carbon (not only ethanol) used for Nitrate Destroyer. What is different about Nitrate Destroyer (and Ian just touched on this) is has multiple carbons sources. Some research articles suggest these multiple food sources may help to grow multiple different strains of bacteria instead of a mono culture of bacteria from just one carbon source. Are multiple sources better?? Well there are people on both sides of that fence I'm sure, I believe the multiple sources that I've chosen work very well together. I also believe zero nitrates are zero nitrates how ever you get there!
PS. over 5ppm NO3 is to high IMO for an SPS tank but I can think of a few corals that do better in higher nitrates...so I guess it depends what sort of system your going for.
Brad

[cchomistek]

This is coming from a guy who makes Vodka for a living, smirnoff vodka to be exact. I work in Lethbridge at a distillery and to say that vodka is not ethanol is completely not correct. All vodka is, is Ethanol that comes straight off the stills at 96% and diluted with RO Water to 40%(the RO Water happens to be the same RO water I use for my salt water tank). The only difference in using 40% vodka and say Everclear which is basically Ethanol straight off the still and bottled is the addition of RO Water to dilute it. So I would say for vodka dosing to have more control I would use the dilute kind, you would need a little more but if you dump in a bit too much then it wouldn't have as drastic an effect.

[fencer]

Hey
Can we get a discount on a case of Smirnoff...you know just for dosing purposes
It is sort of true that monocultures do develop, But that is because eventually one species of bacteria can use the source more efficently and out grow/compete with the other bugs. Multiple carbon source may work for a while but eventually you will get one species dominant and the same effect.