Vodka dosing without a skimmer?

BlazinNano · May 7, 2009

To start off. This will be my wife's 30 gallon fish only. She has a problem with feeding. She has a little green spotted puffer and when he eats he gets a little pot belly, Well when he does not eat he is skinny. She does not want him to look skinny and sickly so she feeds the tank. I do weekly 5 gallonn water changes but with the amount of food going in the tankthe nitrates still stay in the 20s. I do not have a skimmer on it right now. I dose my reef tank with vodka. I was wondering if this would help her tank too?

stunreefer · May 7, 2009

A NO3 level of 20ppm will not ill-effect a green-spot puffer.

Skimmers are an absolute must when dosing any kind of a Probiotic system (Bacterial Driven) as that's what pulls out the excess/dead/dying bacteria along with the crap they uptake.

You would end up having some nasty slime coating the inside of the tank, and more than likely lead to more nutrient issues due to nothing being exported through the skimmer.

If she realy wants NO3 down, try a fuge, or small, more frequent water changes... but again, 20ppm will not harm a puffer at all.

BlazinNano · May 7, 2009

thanks for the info

Paul_N · May 7, 2009

If the tank is fish only. Nitrates at 20 is no big deal. That is a fine level IMO. I agree with stunreefer that it won't bother the puffer. I wouldn't even worry about it unless you planned on putting some coral in there.