Vodka Dosing for LPS dominant tanks

[LPS tanker]

I have read a bit about the dosing and have started dosing 3 ml for 300 gallons of water, I have yet to see my skimmer output improve... this has been for about 10 days.

regardless I have mostly LPS and I am wondering if anyone is dosing vodka has an LPS dominant tank or for the SPS folks how do your LPS (Frog/hammer/torch/goni ) do?

thanks!

 

[Paul_N]

I never had an issue with acans, blastos, frogspawns or hammers. I do feed my tank heavily though. Have you only been dosing for 10 days? My skimmate didn't start to increase right away. How are your N and P levels?

 

[firsttime]

My acans did fine but my scolys took a big hit. Not sure if I over did it. Blastos and frogspawns were fine as well but all of them lost color.

 

[1Der9_3hy]

I had a hammer and some acans in a tank that was ULNS, they did fine. The only problem i had was not related to them, but too the nutrient levels...too low. Everything looked like crap.

 

[LPS tanker]

with my test kits my Phos and Nitrates are zero,,,,,, my softies look fine, my LPs dont, then again my mag was very low recently

I do a lot of reading on the dosing, and it seems that it is mostly people with SPS......

for this cycle (dosing) it has been 10 days, I have tried to start low (3 ml),,,,,,,daily,

 

[LPS tanker]

I had a hammer and some acans in a tank that was ULNS, they did fine. The only problem i had was not related to them, but too the nutrient levels...too low. Everything looked like crap.

I dont follow, wouldnt low nutients be due to the dosing?

 

[LPS tanker]

btw my acans and blastos look great

 

[Paul_N]

I dont follow, wouldnt low nutients be due to the dosing?

You can have issues sometimes with a true ULNS system. lps and softies like the water a 'little dirty". Zero Nitrates and zero phosphates is not always a true measure of ULNS IMO. There are some systems out there with no fish, no sand and only sps and they do nothing but dose out of a bottle. They use no frozen or pellet food either. For me that is a true ULNS, what most have I think is more of a LNS. I run my phosphates in the .03-.05 range. I have never had an issue with pale colors when keeping it in that range. What are you using to test phosphates?

 

[FaviaFreak]

why would you want to run ULNS for LPS tank only? The majority of LPS do a lot better with "dirtier" water

It makes more sense for a sps dominated tank but even then people have issue with paling of colors and other alk related issues.

other than keeping nusiance alage down what is your goal with this type system?

 

[LPS tanker]

my goal is cleaner and clearer water, I have some dino/cyno and a bit of hair algae

seems like it is always a good thing to have clean water, but would it be too clean for the LPS I want to keep, is what I am kicking around....................

 

[LPS tanker]

anyone else?

 

[LPS tanker]

ok so what happens if your skimmer isnt strong enough or fine tuned???

 

[SDguy]

ok so what happens if your skimmer isnt strong enough or fine tuned???

Then the bacterial growth will simply stay in the tank, and release the N and P back into the system.

 

[btkrausen]

My only acan in the system suffered big time when I started vodka. It used to have nice, plump, heathly polyps, but then would never come out anymore. I just let it do its thing and see what it would do. After around day 50, out of nowhere, it started plumping back up, and feeds again. Not sure if any other changes effected this, but I'm not complaining

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Im seriously interested (terrified) to see what happens if I start carbon dosing...most of my corals are LPS...but I am doing the change for the SPS forests that are up top.

We will see, for now I think I am going the scrubber/macro's route.

 

[Pizzapro83]

I have 90 percent lps and I can tell you LPS like not so clean water. All of my sps have died off. I think it is due to maintaining my system to keep my lps happy. Its hard to have both. I used to clean my tank every week and got ok growth and color. Now I change the water once a month and I get great color and amazing growth. If I was you I would not dose vodka. I had problem with alega and have been using MB7 with great results. Also you have to have a really good skimmer for vodka

 

[LPS tanker]

thanks guys

I have a Reeflo Orca 200 Skimmer , I think it isnt /wasnt working optimially however....

I am now getting a lot of cyno and crud with bubbles on my corals ...................Since then I have fixed the skimmer.....
BTW the skimmate is bright green,................

thanks for the inputs

 

[Troylee]

i don't and never did have any problems with my lps when i dosed vodka.... most likely the problem would arise when your alk creeps above 8 to 9 which is fine in a normal tank but when you start having a true ulns you need to keep that alk down or problems will arise.....

 

[LPS tanker]

I guess I wondering why I am getting all this brown crud (bubbles) in my sand and LR and walls.....

over dosing? ineffective skimmer?

there must be others running into this?

 

[Paul_N]

How long has your system been up and running?