not sure how to start carbon dosing in my 600g?

[RamsReef]

It was bacteria,

The more smaller doses you can do the better, over the day.

I used to dose 0.5 ml every 3 hours during light, so 1.5 ml a day.

I cut it back to 0.5 ml now because my corals were getting stn and looking really pale... my readings were always 0N/0P

 

[Tft12]

Sensei, are you using anything else to control your phosphate (GFO, etc.)?

 

[sensei]

Sensei, are you using anything else to control your phosphate (GFO, etc.)?

tank only has skimmer, 6 cube ATS and a lot of live rock. Not any other kind of filtration, NO GFO, no filter socks.

I believe my ATS is keeping the PO4 at that level, but for what ever reason ATS is not able to keep NO3 lower.

 

[sensei]

It was bacteria,

The more smaller doses you can do the better, over the day.

I used to dose 0.5 ml every 3 hours during light, so 1.5 ml a day.

I cut it back to 0.5 ml now because my corals were getting stn and looking really pale... my readings were always 0N/0P

yes I will divide the dose in 3 today, thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks Randy,
I am not sure if I understood correctly, when you say that the cloudiness I saw could be bacteria, are you thinking that the vinager dose and the cloudiness in case it was bacteria can be related or just a coincidence?

you do not think that a bolus dose of 19ml of vineger in a 600g system could have any precicipation effects?
would you divide the dose in two for tomorrow during light hours??

Thanks again

Organic carbon dosing will usually drive bacteria growth (that's the theory, anyway), and they must be somewhere. Sometimes they are not visible, probably down in sediments, rock pores, etc. Sometimes they are visible as white masses, strings, or general cloudiness.

Seeing them is not indicative of any problem except perhaps aesthetics. The cloudiness is likely good food for filter feeders.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

you do not think that a bolus dose of 19ml of vineger in a 600g system could have any precicipation effects?
would you divide the dose in two for tomorrow during light hours??

Thanks again

No, vinegar can't cause any precipitation that I'm aware of.

Splitting the dose is a good idea, but won't likely impact the cloudiness issue,

 

[sensei]

Thanks a lot for your answers Randy

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You’re welcome.

Happy Reefing!

 

[RamsReef]

Randy gets a thanks, what am I chopped liver?

 

[cooltowncorals]

If your phosphates are totally 0 and you are concerned about starving your corals you can dose phosphates Brightwell sells a product that is liquid phosphates for ulns dosing. I personally dose nitrate to keep phosphates low while carbon dosing. My issue before dosing nitrates was the carbon and phosphates became nitrate limited.

 

[sensei]

Randy gets a thanks, what am I chopped liver?

hahaha, you made me laugh... I could not figure out how to dose so quickly if it was not for the link you sent me.
Thanks a lot my friend.

I am just converting the vodka to vinager to dose.
I have a doser with 4 pumps and I was just using 2 so I hocked a vinager container to one pump yesterday.
there was no way to program the doses only in light hours so I decided to do 9 doses of 2ml evenly distributed during 24 hours.
I am not sure if doing more evenly distributed doses per day will keep carbon concetrations more constant thus providing more constant food for bacteria in the 24hr perior?

once I get to week 3, acording to that articlue in the link, there is only an increment of 0.5ml of vodka x week independtly of the volume of water in your aquarium.
I have 600g of water I am thinking that such an increment will be very low compared to a tank with 150g of water, but anyway we will see how my NO3 reacts.

thanks again

 

[sensei]

If your phosphates are totally 0 and you are concerned about starving your corals you can dose phosphates Brightwell sells a product that is liquid phosphates for ulns dosing. I personally dose nitrate to keep phosphates low while carbon dosing. My issue before dosing nitrates was the carbon and phosphates became nitrate limited.

thanks, good to know about such product

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I am not sure if doing more evenly distributed doses per day will keep carbon concetrations more constant thus providing more constant food for bacteria in the 24hr perior?

It will provide more constant food, but I don't think they care. The concern I have is to spread out the O2 consumption and CO2 production during the day light cycle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

once I get to week 3, acording to that articlue in the link, there is only an increment of 0.5ml of vodka x week independtly of the volume of water in your aquarium.

Which is stupid, IMO.

 

[sensei]

It will provide more constant food, but I don't think they care. The concern I have is to spread out the O2 consumption and CO2 production during the day light cycle.

I have been looking at the ORP graph in the apex and value doesnot show any effect after dosing vinager, contrary to what happens when H2O2 is dosed.
system shows ORP of 400-428 as in previous days before dosing
maybe the O2 consumption is not that pronounced??

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have been looking at the ORP graph in the apex and value doesnot show any effect after dosing vinager, contrary to what happens when H2O2 is dosed.
system shows ORP of 400-428 as in previous days before dosing
maybe the O2 consumption is not that pronounced??

ORP is not generally tracking O2. It tracks pH and more complicated issues relating to redox active metals (iron, manganese, etc.) and certain organics (e.g., antioxidants like vitamin C).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I discuss what impacts ORP in great detail here:

ORP and the Reef Aquarium - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rhf/feature/index.htm

 

[rosshamsandwich]

im dosing table sugar...works for me

 

[sensei]

I wanted to give an update and comment on how it is going:

I started prepared a vodka / vinager mix in wich 1ml of my mix equals to 4ml of vinager equivalent.

I was dosing 55 ml of the mix (220ml of vineger equivalent) after 5 weeks but one week later I started seeing burned tips in acros, so I lowered to 50ml ( 200ml of vineger equivalent). After 2 weeks of maintaing that dose things do not really look better so I just back to 40 ml ( 160ml vineger equivalent).

at the begining I was 25- 30ppm of NO3, now the reading I am gettting is less than 25 but more than 10 with salifert NO3 kit so not exactly sure the actual value.

what could be the cause of the burned tips?
could it be a rapid in NO3? alk has been 7.5. alk and other parameters had been very stable and the only change was the carbon dosing so it is the only think to wich I could atribute the detrimental effects.

any ideas and or comments??

thanks