Vodka???

[saltaddiction]

How much are you dosing now?

I think you can speed up the dose ramp rate a lot relative to the recommendations in those articles. :)

Im at 4ml a day right now. Tomorrow that will increase but not sure how high yet.

 

[melev]

For a 29g, I wouldn't even bother. Water changes will bring nitrate down effectively.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Could you be a little more specific on the 2-4mls? Is it start with 2 and work to 4 or work up to 8-10? how would that work? I have a 29g that I'm considering dosing with vodka and have been doing some research but nothing is really catered to the nanos.

2-4mls would be the daily routine dose after the Nitrates have come down to where your wanting to keep them. You would work your way up to 8mls via adding 2 mls a week to the tank. This way your not waiting 7 months for your nitrates to start to come down.

 

[saltaddiction]

Ok thanks. So im on the right track then. I will up to 6ml tomorrow for the next week. I should see results around 8ml. And then half it once I see the drop for my "maintenance" amount.

 

[Alesolra]

I have 220 gal and only used 3 ml per day

 

[asandbox]

What about hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Reefing Madness]

With a 500g Skimmer?

 

[Reefing Madness]

What about hydrogen peroxide?

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ne...t-here/72877-hydrogen-peroxide-reef-tank.html

 

[akitareefer]

reminders:
-check what percent alcohol you're using and dose according the charts
-NEVER dose without a skimmer
-don't vodka/carbon dose because its cool, share your vodka with friends not your tank :P

 

[Thle009]

If your reef is running great no shots per night. If you develop hair algae, drink one shot per night, cyano drink two shots per night, dinoflagellates drink three shots per night. Note: this will not help your reef, but help you cope with the ups and downs of reef keeping.

For this dosing method, I would recommend Jack Daniel over Vodka :) Thanks for the entertainment value.

 

[reggaedrummin]

Hey Guys I am in need of some advice. I have been in this hobby for 3 years now and my aquariums always seem to have a few issues. I realized that as much as I thought I knew and the effort I put in, I could never stay on top of things and my aquariums never looked as good as I hoped. Ich, Aptasia, coral dying. After moving my 250 Gal to my new house I decided to hire "professionals" to take care of everything around two years ago. This was not cheap with people coming every week, but my tank was looking great for a period of time. Since then I have been through 2 different companies. I have run in to the same issue with each company, I am not strict enough with them and they start missing appointments and there are issues. After an issue with Ich a few months back I tested my aquarium which I was told was (doing fine) and my nitrates were off the charts (200+!) I doubt they have been doing much for 6+ months other than billing me and cleaning the glass.

Finally I decided I am the only one I trust with my aquarium! It is time for me to get educated, stop flushing money down the toilet literally ;) and take over! I have some of the "best" equipment an Apex controller, UV sterilizer, big new skimmer and nice pumps all at the advice of my "professionals." I even recently bought a denitrator (this has been a mess) and was more of an impulse buy (oh **** my nitrates are crazy)

What I need to do now is get my Nitrates under control! Even with a denitrator it would take years to cycle my 250 Gal- 75 Gal sump. With only a few drops per second. I have been doing weekly water changes (30%), gravel vaking but I think I need to do something more aggressive.

I stumbled this vodka thread and was hoping to get some advice. What can I do to drop Nitrates down enough to start enjoying my aquarium again? All of my nice things are dead, I have a few fish, mushrooms and a few rose anemones but my once glorious aquarium now makes me sad. I need advice before I just give up and sell the thing :( All my other basic tests (PH, Nitrite, Amonia) are good.

How can I drop these nitrates to non-toxic levels ASAP? What would you guys recommend? Would Vodka be an Option?
​

Hey bud. Don't give up! We've all been there in some fashion. It's part of the hobby.
The key is consistency and patience.

To start, I'd recommend running some activated carbon for nitrates, and a phosphate remover like gfo or Phosguard, gfo being the more potent of the two. You didn't mention anything about phosphates but I'm certain they're part of the issue. They are tough to test for but if you have algae, you have phosphates (that's all the testing I do for phosphates anymore [emoji12] ). I'd recommend Phosguard to start as you can just put it in a mesh bag in your filter sock and you don't need a reactor or additional equipment. The activated carbon can also just be placed in a bag in a high flow part of your sump. Both bags should be loosely packed so the media can move or tumble (it shouldn't actually tumble but the tendency is to pack them full and that will decrease the efficiency). They should be rinsed weekly or biweekly and replaced monthly or as needed.

For the long term, I don't recommend running activated carbon daily as this can lead to other issues but for the next several weeks/couple of months, it will only help.

You can read up in the posts above about carbon dosing with vodka/vinegar and decide if either is a route you want to take. They can be effective, but they also bring considerations. For example, carbon dosing will lower your ph and alkalinity which could be the final straw if your surviving animals are already stressed. I'm not saying you couldn't benefit from carbon dosing. I'm just saying you need to research and fully understand it before you start down that path.

Next, and perhaps most importantly you need to identify the source of your problem. What are your feeding schedules? What kind of lights are you running? What is your bioload like? Are you using any kind of mechanical filter? How old and how deep is your sand bed? Are you dosing anything? How is your sump configured? Once you identify and correct the problem, the rest will fall into place. It will take time and that's okay. Even when correcting problems, you need to make changes slowly so don't rush. Take your time, make educated and intentional changes. And keep us updated.

Finally, I recommend that you start testing your alkalinity in addition to nitrates. In fact you should be testing all of the parameters that you are trying to control and start keeping a journal as it will help keep track of the progress. You will inevitably wish you had if you choose not to. I refer to mine all the time. It turns a hobby of guesswork and dreams into a manageable science.