help with vodka dosing

[davelink]

hey guys-

so pretty much i read the threads about vodka dosing, all the charts and numbers and blah blah... and all i really got out of it is that im bad with numbers, but want to vodka dose my main tank. was wondering if anyone has any experience with this? and what a safe minimal amount would be to dose a 180 gallon tank? with a 60gal sump and all the liverock and taking displacement into mind.. i probly got about 220 gallons of water in my setup. i have a big frag rack in my tank right up under the surface with T5s on em all day so i end up getting a pretty dirty amount of algae on the rack and on my frag plugs. i rotate them down every couple days to the sandbed so my hermits can munch it all away but im getting tired of putting my hands in the tank everyday, it all looks so much better when i dont have to.

 

[altobelli10]

this is a good link to get answers about vodka dosing
Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com
I had an issue with hair algea and used the advise in there and worked but you have to be carefull.

 

[HighlandReef]

If you have not already read the link provided above please do, it will be beneficial.
Need some more info on you system and I can help you with the dosing amounts.
So you have
180 display
60 sump
Frag tank? Is it all tied together?
How full of water is the sump?
How much live rock is in each?
If your not sure subtract 30% from tank volume of each
Start slow! If you underdose it's no biggie, you just ramp up slowly
Overdose is bad.
I am dosing my system with vodka now
I started off .1ml/25 gallons
After 1 week I dosed .2/ml per 25g
On 3rd week I added .5 ml to the mix
So add .5 ml to your dose weekly until po4 is at 0 or close to it
When it's 0 or close to it you cut whatever the dose amount in half
This will be you maint dose.
It's important to keep an eye on po4, I checked mine every other day
So if you don't have a po4 test kit you will need one, I have the Hanna hand held meter.
If you post back and I don't see it you can pm me if you need help.
I started dosing vodka due to the red slime, just got busy over the summer and tank got neglected, so red slime spung, it's almost all gone now.

One thing you might want to check out is the thread on dosing hydrogen peroxide, seems to be working better than vodka on removing unwanted algae but I have not tried it yet, going to start this weekend

 

[Troylee]

hey guys-

so pretty much i read the threads about vodka dosing, all the charts and numbers and blah blah... and all i really got out of it is that im bad with numbers, but want to vodka dose my main tank. was wondering if anyone has any experience with this? and what a safe minimal amount would be to dose a 180 gallon tank? with a 60gal sump and all the liverock and taking displacement into mind.. i probly got about 220 gallons of water in my setup. i have a big frag rack in my tank right up under the surface with T5s on em all day so i end up getting a pretty dirty amount of algae on the rack and on my frag plugs. i rotate them down every couple days to the sandbed so my hermits can munch it all away but im getting tired of putting my hands in the tank everyday, it all looks so much better when i dont have to.

vodkas not for everyone and not a cure all in any means.... if you wanna get that algae off them plugs dip them in h2o2 for a min or so.....;) you can leave the coral exposed in the air if ya like and just dip the plug and the algae will die off instantly...

 

[NaClCrocodile]

HighlandReef, did you mean "I started out dosing .1mL" or did you really start with 1mL/25g? I'm following the instructions on that link and I'm not even up to 1mL yet (small tank).

 

[Paul_N]

When I first started out I dosed .4 ml on 100gallon total system volume and then increase .1ml every week. I took it very slow when I started.

 

[HighlandReef]

Yes .1 ml, sorry typo

 

[davelink]

If you have not already read the link provided above please do, it will be beneficial.
Need some more info on you system and I can help you with the dosing amounts.
So you have
180 display
60 sump
Frag tank? Is it all tied together?
How full of water is the sump?
How much live rock is in each?
If your not sure subtract 30% from tank volume of each
Start slow! If you underdose it's no biggie, you just ramp up slowly
Overdose is bad.
I am dosing my system with vodka now
I started off 1ml/25 gallons
After 1 week I dosed 2/ml per 25g
On 3rd week I added .5 ml to the mix
So add .5 ml to your dose weekly until po4 is at 0 or close to it
When it's 0 or close to it you cut whatever the dose amount in half
This will be you maint dose.
It's important to keep an eye on po4, I checked mine every other day
So if you don't have a po4 test kit you will need one, I have the Hanna hand held meter.
If you post back and I don't see it you can pm me if you need help.
I started dosing vodka due to the red slime, just got busy over the summer and tank got neglected, so red slime spung, it's almost all gone now.

One thing you might want to check out is the thread on dosing hydrogen peroxide, seems to be working better than vodka on removing unwanted algae but I have not tried it yet, going to start this weekend

ah just what i was looking for, i have my 180 display that i pretty much rigged into a frag tank so theres a rack up top covering most of the surface area, like a foot and a half of wasted tank space underneath ha but whatever. sump is 60 gallons half full with some liverock and a skimmer. i get really bad algea on the rack im thinkin because its right up under the light you know, makes sense, but i really want to get rid of it. im jealous of all the clean pristine algae free tanks ive been seeing. im not too familiar with the p04 stuff? this is my reef gray area haha. thanks for the help dude let me know what you think. peroxide dosing sounds interesing too ill have to check it out