Vodka dosing question

[daplatapus]

Thanks for all your responses!
ScubaSteve: I've already noticed improvement in my tank. Way less new growth of algae and when I manually remove and scrape my back glass, it takes much longer for it to re-appear, but so far it still does. I've noticed a dramatic reduction in my dino's as well so I'm going to continue increasing my dosage .5 ml/week for the foreseeable future. When I do increase I usually bump it up .3ml for 3 days then another .2 ml after that for the next 3 days. I figured the increase wouldn't be as dramatic as a .5ml - maybe it doesn't matter.


Another question for you Tim:
Do you have a link or anything to where you got info for doing all 3?
From my understanding dosing the VSV is better because you are diversifying the strains of bacteria, is that right?
IF you don't have a link, would you care to share your recipe, thoughts, dosage etc?

[TimT]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Do you have a link or anything to where you got info for doing all 3?

I think I got the info originally from a Reef Central thread on it.

Originally Posted by daplatapus

From my understanding dosing the VSV is better because you are diversifying the strains of bacteria, is that right?

Yes, that's why I do it.

Originally Posted by daplatapus

IF you don't have a link, would you care to share your recipe, thoughts, dosage etc?

I think the recipe was in the RC thread. It was a while ago that I did the research. The recipe I use is 750ml Vodka, 175ml White vinegar, 3 Tablespoons white sugar. I use Organic Cane Sugar instead of white sugar as I hate GMO's. Dosing is the same as straight Vodka.

I have been experimenting with substituting RO water for Vodka. So far I can only get the Nitrates down to 7mg/l. Corals use some Nitrate but I would like to get it lower. I am going to revert to Vodka instead of water and see what the Nitrate levels do.


I think someone mentioned this already but when dosing carbon you have to keep your Alkalinity lower. Typically in the 7dKH to 8dKH range.

Cheers,
Tim