Who vodka doses?

[jason604]

So I'm reading on vodka dose and a lot of people are getting good results in riding of hair algae and increase in coloration of corals. Both things I'm in dire need of achieving. So for those who are vodka dosing have u had any good results? What brand of vodka u using? How much and how often are u dosing and how big is ur tank? Oh and should gfo be stopped if ur vodka dosing?

[CM125]

I have just begun vodka dosing so I have no answers for my tank yet, but im in to hear more from people and update as I go. I used this link to start...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

[smokinreefer]

I used to dose all flavors of absolut.
then I used belvedere.

with 2 kids now and less free time, scotch is where its at!

sorry, but this was bound to happen at some point in this thread!

i may tag along this thread though... i'm a pretty old school reefer and haven't tried vodka dosing, biopellets etc... i'm behind in the times, but if it helps us reach our goals of a healthy colorful reef environment it may be worth looking into eh?

if you are starting out, perhaps you can take some pics of your tank as you go along so we can all see the differences. just a thought!

[duncangweller]

I'm just looking into the same thing. I'm looking at vinegar dosing though. You need to add more as its less of a carbon source than vodka, but seeing as I can get gallons of the stuff from Costco for $5 then its going to be cheap.

I have also read that people had less of a problem with cyano when using vinegar.

Here's a vinegar article worth reading:

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....arine-aquarium

I haven't started yet so anything I have learned has just been from reading, but I'm always interested in seeing what people think/do.

Following along,
Dunc

[fatmanonthinice]

I'm also quite interested in this. I'll be following this thread for results. Thanks OP!

[BuschWacker]

I was also having issues with hair algae. I've had issues with nitrates and phosphates since I started my tank a few years ago. Nothing I've done has really brought my numbers down to an acceptable level. Not sure if it was just a crappy batch of rocks or what. But looked into some kind of carbon dosing and came across red sea's 'nopox'. Been using it not quite 2 months now, and my levels are now near 0. My hair algae thinned down to the point where a turkey baster can blow it off the rocks. I do that once a week and catch the floaters with a fish net. It's more expensive than vodka or vinegar, but has worked awesome in my tank.

[mikellini]

Vinegar does not encourage cyanobacteria growth and may in fact inhibit it; vodka has been shown to encourage growth of cyano, at least in the short term.

I've been dosing vinegar for a couple of months, keeping nitrates and phosphates stable but I'd like to reduce them; since vinegar can have a pH reducing effect at larger doses (more than 1mL per 10 gallons), I've just started to add kalk to the vinegar so I can dose larger boluses. No dosing pump ATM so this is the easiest for me. Gives the added bonus of a little supplementation. Just started today so we shall see...

[reefwars]

have dosed vinegar in our zoanthid beds for a long time , works great

[Aquattro]

I've been using VSV, no adverse affects. NO3 is 0, PO4 near 0. Overall happy with the approach.

[smokinreefer]

Brad, whats VSV?