Does Vodka Carbon dosing COUNTERPRODUCTIVE to dosing Tetraselmis Phytoplankton?

[ZoWhat]

@Randy Holmes-Farley and others.

I have a zoa/paly dominated tank to the tune of a 250ish gal total water volume.

I've been these last 2 months brewing my own Tetraselmis Phytoplankton from Mercer of Montana.... THEN doing a slow 6seconds/drip into my 180g DT.

All has been swell until I started seeing most if my Tangs seem irritated. Not sure if my water quality was off so ran tests:

NO3 = 10'ish
PO4 = solid 2-3
Magnesium = oddly enough seemed low at 1200'ish

I used-to carbon dose using a blend of 80proof Vodka plus 3% Vinegar to the tune of 5ml per night.

But after 6mos of carbon dosing my tank became ULM and LR was turning pale and I never had algea to scrape off the glass. So I stopped....

Shottly after stopping carbon dosing.... decided to dose tetraselmis phyto starting 2mos ago.

Now you see the test result above and I believe my fish ARE NOT HAPPY.

$1,000,000 QUESTION.....

*Can I dose tetraselmis phytoplankton 24/7 via my drip -AND- start carbon dosing again?
* Or are those two things CANCELLING each other out? (dripping live phyto only for the carbon dose to KILL it (?)



.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Can you describe how the tangs look irritated? Are they flashing a lot? Sores? General nippy behavior and being cranky?

Do you run a skimmer on your tank? If I remember, carbon dosing works by causing a low bacterial bloom that the skimmer then removes. And skimmers are supposed to also remove phyto cells as well, which would explain nutrient export/nutrients being kept relatively low...

Interestingly enough, Tetraselmis has been linked with bacterial suppression in in vitro experiments, so I'd be interested in the phyto killing the bacterial bloom instead of vice versa....

 

[ZoWhat]

180g DT
250g wster volume
V-Tech skimmer that I run wet
Dripping tetraselmis phyto at 1drip/10secs

Tang activity:
7in large hippo i can see just a hint of ICH on the black part of the body. It comes and goes.

3in atlantic blue tang that flashes on the bottom of the BB whenever there is food added (like brine)...the nutrients must suprr-activate the small amt if ICH on the Atlantic

I do have an African Cleaner Wrasse which is CONSTANTLY being asked by the Tangs to be be cleaned as they track down the wrasse and lay motionless until the wrasse takes action

My African is the hardest working fish East of the Mississippi... for real

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmmm....fairly certain that cleaner wrasses don't eat ich or velvet...now flukes on the other hand, that's a whole nother can of worms...

If you had an extra tank, you could do a side by side experiment, but I see no reason why you couldn't try to do phyto and carbon dosing at the same time. I would stipulate that phyto and carbon should be dosed relatively far away from each other though, since alcohol and vinegar are fairly good at killing phyto (the former bc it's an alcohol, the latter due to its acidity).

 

[Butcher333]

You could try dosing glucose. I believe Tetraselmis utilizes it as a carbon source just like the bacteria you’re feeding it to. I was under the impression it applied to acetate as well, so vinegar I would think fine also. Should be win win.