Vodka dosing not working

[vetteguy53081]

33 percent once a week. Feed once a day heavy with 60 plus fish.

I have 43 fish and Feed 2-3X a day and I would increase feedings to at least 2X a day and stretch water changes to bi weekly

 

[jda]

When I have carbon dosed, the skim mate smells so bad that it makes me want to puke - cup needs to be emptied every day or two. Is your skim mate nasty like this?

ATB should be ok skimmer.

Up the dose, or add another carbon source. I used sugar since it was cheap, pure and available. Vinegar is OK too.

 

[bushdoc]

The source would be the 60 plus fish in there that get fed every day.

My hypothesis is as follows:
No amount of C2H5OH dosed to 120gal tank with 60 fish would be effective in lowering nutrients, before making fish totally drunk.
So far your tank managed to prove it 100% at least in my mind.

 

[killer2001]

Sounds like you need to double the water volume for the current fish load.

 

[bushdoc]

Sounds like you need to double the water volume for the current fish load.

More like triple or quadruple!

 

[biom]

I have been carbon dosing for about 3-4 months. I started with Nopox, but changed to vodka about 3 weeks ago. I was at about 40 mls of Nopox, and about 3 weeks ago, i started using 20 mls of vodka daily, to then a week ago upping it to 25 mls of vodka a day.

My nitrates are creeping up, going from as low as 30 (Hannah nitrate checker) to now around 60. That’s also with two 25 percent water changes in between, and running a diy algae scrubber that gets good growth. It is a very heavily stocked 150 gallon tank.

Are there instances where vodka just doesn’t work? Or is 25 mls simply not enough for a 150 total gallon system.

Thanks

Is it a fish only tank or there are corals?

 

[Miami Reef]

I used sugar since it was cheap, pure and available. Vinegar is OK too.

Did you experience coral browning from the sugar like people claim it causes?

 

[jda]

I have never used OC in a reef tank. I used it in a FOWLR... mostly. There were some mushrooms, Z&P and some other easy to grow corals in there that are quite hard to make mad. I only kept no3 low so that the coralline would grow like crazy.

Here was one day of skim mate in an ASM skimmer. Changing the cup made me want to vomit.

 

[Wildreefs]

Is it a fish only tank or there are corals?

A bunch of acros. Some been in there 5-6 months now, some rtn.

It must be doing something , I’d suspect they would be much higher than what they’re at if either the scrubber or carbon dosing wasn’t working. Question is can I go higher to further stop the blowing , or have I met the threshold

 

[Troylee]

A bunch of acros. Some been in there 5-6 months now, some rtn.

It must be doing something , I’d suspect they would be much higher than what they’re at if either the scrubber or carbon dosing wasn’t working. Question is can I go higher to further stop the blowing , or have I met the threshold

You can always go higher.. at some point you’ll have a bacterial bloom “cloudy tank” and lower o2 levels.. you might also start getting a cyano outbreak… I’d keep raising it till you see either one of those then back down and find Maintence dosage..

 

[Rmckoy]

I’ve struggled this exact issue but gave up and went with cheato in my sump .
As my system matured I am complete opposite .
I have to dose nitrates for them to be detectable and also run rowaphos to keep phosphates lower .

My system always seams to go Higher phosphates and zero nitrates

 

[Steve Fast]

Just to have another perspective let share my experience. My system is about 4x (600 gallons ) yours and with a heavy bioload. I feed 6 tsp of food twice daily plus 6 large romaine leafs. The system has a 20 gallon k2 biofilter plus 300 gallons of sump with at least 400 lbs of rock. I dosed a concoction of 1.75 l vodka mixed with 1 cup dextrose. I dose about 200 ml per day. My nitrates and phosphates are around 1.5 and 0.1 respectively. My skimmer collects between 1 and 2 gallons per week . There are a ton of sponges in the sumps so figure between the corals, sponges, and skimmer the bacteria created by the dosing are either consumed or pulled out.

Hope this helps.

 

[nicodim55]

I have been carbon dosing for about 3-4 months. I started with Nopox, but changed to vodka about 3 weeks ago. I was at about 40 mls of Nopox, and about 3 weeks ago, i started using 20 mls of vodka daily, to then a week ago upping it to 25 mls of vodka a day.

My nitrates are creeping up, going from as low as 30 (Hannah nitrate checker) to now around 60. That’s also with two 25 percent water changes in between, and running a diy algae scrubber that gets good growth. It is a very heavily stocked 150 gallon tank.

Are there instances where vodka just doesn’t work? Or is 25 mls simply not enough for a 150 total gallon system.

Thanks

We have the same size tank and I dose 35ml every other day.