need some advise vodka users

[sarajo]

I've been dosing vodka for about 2 months now up to 4.5 mils as of today, what I'm seeing is the phosphates are starting to fall (used to be .06 to .10 to this afternoon they were at .02) My question is on my green slimer as my phosphates have been dropping this last week and half or so it has really lightened up its not near as green as it was, is this normal or should I be adding something else to bring back the color, other corals have lightened up to but not to the degree of the green slimer. Any advise or suggestions welcome

 

[Troylee]

You need to start dosing coral amino or amino acids to get the color back you are starting to starve the corals fwiw...

 

[sarajo]

will it just keep getting worse then? I was under the understanding that vodka dosing would bring out the colors as the phosphates went down?

 

[swannyson7]

+1 on AA. High phosphates will give you poor color on your SPS, but so will a lack of nutrients. Are you still ramping up your vodka dosing, or are you just using a maintenance dose at this point?

 

[nikesb]

you can also start to feed more

 

[youngtimothy]

I dose microbactor 7 once a week also with my vodka doseing, feed more is also good advice!

 

[sarajo]

i do dose mb7 and I'm at 4.5 mils right now and its at .02 as of this afternoon, the way i read it, it says to keep dosing vodka until zero and then cut in half. when dosing AA's are you just adding phosphate back to the aquarium? or are they a different type of food for the corals, I have a couple real small patches of hair algea will the AA's make it worse?

 

[sarajo]

I'm not dosing 4.5 mils of MB7 only about 1 mil aday the 4.5 is vodka

 

[swannyson7]

i do dose mb7 and I'm at 4.5 mils right now and its at .02 as of this afternoon, the way i read it, it says to keep dosing vodka until zero and then cut in half. when dosing AA's are you just adding phosphate back to the aquarium? or are they a different type of food for the corals, I have a couple real small patches of hair algea will the AA's make it worse?

You aren't adding phosphates to the tank, but any aminos that aren't consumed will lead to excess nutrients in the tank which could lead to an algae bloom. You're basically walking a fine line of too much or too little in an attempt to find the sweet spot. I would try to manually remove as much of the HA as possible because it will thrive with the aminos. Do you have any tangs that will pick at the HA to keep it under control?

 

[patent]

will it just keep getting worse then? I was under the understanding that vodka dosing would bring out the colors as the phosphates went down?

Only up to a point, the corals need some phosphates. If you truly drop to zero and stay there your corals will lose their Zooxanthellae as they need the phosphates.

 

[SaraB]

Only up to a point, the corals need some phosphates. If you truly drop to zero and stay there your corals will lose their Zooxanthellae as they need the phosphates.

Isn't .03 where you want to be with Phosphates?

FYI - This is testing with a Hanna Phosphate meter and not a standard test kit which can't really read below that level.

 

[Troylee]

don't trust the hanna either!!!!! just watch your corals they will let you know when there happy.. light pastel colors means there starving a nice rich deep color is what you want no matter if the po4 is at .01 or .09 they will tell ya when there happy...

 

[Aquaph8]

don't trust the hanna either!!!!! just watch your corals they will let you know when there happy.. light pastel colors means there starving a nice rich deep color is what you want no matter if the po4 is at .01 or .09 they will tell ya when there happy...

+1, keep and eye on your corals and adjust your dosing acordingly. It can be a fine balance sometimes when one coral looks light and others are looking good. Sometimes you have to play with placement also. Just go slow and dont do anything drastic and you'll find your sweet spot.

 

[SaraB]

don't trust the hanna either!!!!! just watch your corals they will let you know when there happy.. light pastel colors means there starving a nice rich deep color is what you want no matter if the po4 is at .01 or .09 they will tell ya when there happy...

There's 2 Hanna products out there ...

Agreed, watch your corals closely and they will let you know