Alcohol sterilization possible in a reef tank?

[Yas]

This may sound stupid, but is alcohol sterilization possible in a reef tank? Recently, I started hand-dosing vodka in my tank, it's been very successful. Both nitrates and phosphates are in check very easily. SPS corals started shining. Vodka dosing may not be the only factor as I recently adjusted major parameters, such as Ca, Mg, and Alk.

Now, my question is; did vodka dosing sterilized my tank to some extent? Was it a part of the cause that made my SPS brighter? If alcohol sterilization is possible in a reef tank, vodka dosing could help making corals and fish healthier, I guess. Is that that simple?

Thanks!

Yas

 

[Reeferdood]

You are not sterilizing when using vodka, it is called carbon dosing and if done properly works wonders. Hope this article will help explain what is going on.

Dosing Vodka: Why? | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

 

[blasterman]

Vodka / carbon dosing increases the colonies and metabolism of nutrient reducing bacteria. If your tank ecology has trouble reducing nutrients on it's own vodka dosing can help equalize the equation.

My tanks eat nutrients on their own rapidly because I set them up to do that from the start, and vodka dosing has the opposite affect and actually hurts my soft corals. Lots of stories about reefers running macro algaes, then adding vodka and everything goes to hell - fast. It's all about establishing a nutrient equilibrium.

 

[hart24601]

If anything the opposite occurred, the microbial life greatly increases when carbon dosing. The concentration would have to be extremely high to provide disinfection.

 

[EMeyer]

Ethanol doesnt work well as a sterilizing agent until it reaches high concentrations (>50% -- we typically use ~70-80 for this purpose)

At low concentrations, I'm not aware of it killing any microbes.

With that said, its a basic principle of marine microbial ecology that the carbon source determines the bacterial community... so surely vodka dosing is affecting the community in some way!

 

[Yas]

You are not sterilizing when using vodka, it is called carbon dosing and if done properly works wonders. Hope this article will help explain what is going on.

Dosing Vodka: Why? | Melev's Reef

www.melevsreef.com

Thanks Reeferdood,

So that's carbon dosing. It's more appropriate term for it, ha ha! I knew the article, but I hadn't read it fully. I saw someone's posts about it and started doing it. Looks like I've been feeding bacteria, not sterilizing. Thank you!

Yas

 

[Yas]

Vodka / carbon dosing increases the colonies and metabolism of nutrient reducing bacteria. If your tank ecology has trouble reducing nutrients on it's own vodka dosing can help equalize the equation.

My tanks eat nutrients on their own rapidly because I set them up to do that from the start, and vodka dosing has the opposite affect and actually hurts my soft corals. Lots of stories about reefers running macro algaes, then adding vodka and everything goes to hell - fast. It's all about establishing a nutrient equilibrium.

I see. Thanks, blasterman. So if you run macro algae and carbon dosing at the same time, nutrients get too low to feed corals?

I actually bought a copperband butterfly recently, and started feeding heavily trying to have him eat. I have a guzzling margined coralfish who eats everything. But so far my nutrients are in check with 3 to 5 times the normal feeding, which seems to be unreal to me.

Yas

 

[Yas]

If anything the opposite occurred, the microbial life greatly increases when carbon dosing. The concentration would have to be extremely high to provide disinfection.

I see. I expected some sterilization or disinfection, but it wasn't like that. It was a microbial increase. Thanks!

By the way, your tank is stunningly gorgeous! It's really a dream tank!

Yas

 

[Yas]

Ethanol doesnt work well as a sterilizing agent until it reaches high concentrations (>50% -- we typically use ~70-80 for this purpose)

At low concentrations, I'm not aware of it killing any microbes.

With that said, its a basic principle of marine microbial ecology that the carbon source determines the bacterial community... so surely vodka dosing is affecting the community in some way!

Thank you, EMeyer. Do you use >50% alcohol to sterilize your tank or treat your infected fish? That's interesting. I want to know how.

Yes, I observed something is affecting. I initially thought it was sterilization or something, but now I guess the reason the coloration of my SPS got bright was; maybe they started consuming nutrient full of bacteria in the water column. If microbe in my tank got activated or increased thanks to vodka, maybe, my SPS corals are happy eating nutrient-rich microbe (as they are consuming lots of nutrients). I think I no longer need to feed amino additive if this brightness of my corals comes from increased microbe.

Yas

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I see. Thanks, blasterman. So if you run macro algae and carbon dosing at the same time, nutrients get too low to feed corals?

I actually bought a copperband butterfly recently, and started feeding heavily trying to have him eat. I have a guzzling margined coralfish who eats everything. But so far my nutrients are in check with 3 to 5 times the normal feeding, which seems to be unreal to me.

Yas

I did both without nutrients getting too low. Obviously it depends on many factors, but I prefer to use multiple methods simultaneously.

 

[Yas]

I did both without nutrients getting too low. Obviously it depends on many factors, but I prefer to use multiple methods simultaneously.

Now, I don' keep macro algae, but I liked keeping it that time as it feeds a lot of pods for hard to feed fish! I may add it again some day. Thank you for your input, Randy!

Yas

 

[EMeyer]

Thank you, EMeyer. Do you use >50% alcohol to sterilize your tank or treat your infected fish? That's interesting. I want to know how.

Yes, I observed something is affecting. I initially thought it was sterilization or something, but now I guess the reason the coloration of my SPS got bright was; maybe they started consuming nutrient full of bacteria in the water column. If microbe in my tank got activated or increased thanks to vodka, maybe, my SPS corals are happy eating nutrient-rich microbe (as they are consuming lots of nutrients). I think I no longer need to feed amino additive if this brightness of my corals comes from increased microbe.

Yas

Sorry for lack of clarity. Ethanol at high concentrations is a good sterilizing agent, but I find it impractical for anything aquarium related because of the volumes involved.

For sterilizing aquarium stuff I prefer bleach, which can be readily neutralized with sodium thiosulfate.

 

[Yas]

Sorry for lack of clarity. Ethanol at high concentrations is a good sterilizing agent, but I find it impractical for anything aquarium related because of the volumes involved.

For sterilizing aquarium stuff I prefer bleach, which can be readily neutralized with sodium thiosulfate.

Thank you for your clarification. Now I see wy initial idea of sterilization while keeping fish and corals in a tank was not realistic at all.