Looking for feedback, Vodka / Carbon Dosing, Big Tank, Big Nitrates

[Llorgon]

I have been dosing vodka in my 25 gallon tank since February. Before vodka dosing my nitrates were around 40ppm and phosphates around 0.084. As of last week nitrates were 1.5ppm and phosphates 0.009ppm.


I followed the same 0.1ml / 25 gal for 1-3 days, then 0.2ml / 25 gal for 4-7 days then increased 0.5ml per week after that. My largest dose was 1.2ml which I kept up for 2 weeks.


While vodka dosing I have also cut back on the amount I was feeding, tried to feed more pellets instead of always frozen. Also did large weekly water changes where I vacuumed the sand and turkey basted the rocks.


I also double checked my water supply to make sure it was nitrate and phosphate free.


I found it took awhile for things to start to drop, but once it started I would notice a significant drop each week when I was testing. It took about 1 month for me to start seeing a drop. So it's not surprising it's taking awhile to drop in your tank.



If you stick with it it should start working! Good luck.