Anyone do it? Seems to be everything I read on the forums. Vodka dosing and feeding regularly seems to be the way to go for SPS. Anyone else that has tried it?
i know that marine world in Hot springs does and has dosed for a lonnnnng time .. you might call lynn over there and talk to him about it ... im sure he would love to talk your ear off
Just read this post........is there a reason to dose other than Nitrate control?? Seems a little risky......get your drip rate off and well, either total crash or sideways swimming fish....... Nitrate reactor seems much safer and works well. Plus, once it's setup it just does what it does. I've read online about the Vodka drip and it just seems like a lot of work with diligant adjusting/testing.....but very interesting..........
I tried it a year ago, and was pretty unimpressed with my results. I was feeding heavily, and was looking for a way to continue that pattern. So I read up on Vodka dosing, and then started. I went slow, and dosed for three months. At month 2, I started seeing the tips of SPS burnt. My alk had jumped up to 8.5 from me adding a clam and several SPS as I tried to compensate for the increased intake of Alk & Ca. When I started seeing burnt tips, I cut my dosing in half, only to continue to see tips being burnt. After three weeks, I stopped completely and started seeing recovery after another week. Overall, my nitrates were never really effected (started at 20ppm, ended at 15ppm). Doing large water changes at the end of my dosing period had more of an effect than three months worth of dosing. I didn't really see any improvements in color or growth - until I increased my water changes. FWIW, I now change 1.5-2 gallons per day, and my nitrates are under 5ppm. Price is around $0.35-0.40 a day, so it is pretty affordable, and I don't have to worry about keeping my Alkalinity low, adding vodka to the tank, and my parameters are stable and inline. There are several people that have had success dosing - so if you are going to try it, be diligent in keeping your parameters in line and go SLOW. GL, Ronnie
Vodka dosing is mainly for SPS tanks... Softies like a little Nitrates so you wont hurt them and a nitrate reactor if it gets above 20ppm it should start to be addressed but there are many people out there that are getting results of color out of SPS corals due to the low nutrients that the sps systems need. The less the better and Vodka takes out almost everything in the water and can strip it of all its goodies... This can be a bad thing or a good thing in my research. Vodka has been used to successfully bring a high level of nitrates under control but combined with the feeding of Amino Acids which is basically the fatty acids that is a factor in how corals make color you can successfully use Vodka to take out the high amounts of nutrients leaving you to feed more often and not have the high nitrate problem.... One, Stonies do benefit from foods such as oyster eggs, coral frenzy, and other ultra fine foods. Other stuff is just not small enough for their polyps to grab or do anything with.. I observe some of mine eating Cyclopsese every time I feed it which is about a big as it gets and these are the porcilaporas that are fuzzy to say the least. And it helps them grow and provides some benefit to color. I eat and stay in the sun, I get bigger and healthier and a better color... Same with these guys.. Its not just light that helps them. Its food too. Two, If I kept pouring Cyclopsease and coral frenzy into the tank every day on a regular basis we all know what this can cause. Yes, it would be a big headache and break down into nitrates which in turn make my corals colors go brown. b/c Too much nutrients in the water and presto! zoaxal (sp) multiply and poof! I have a brown out. Three, The way all this works is that Vodka, dosed at the right amount and right way can allow you to feed more and not have the over pollution and in return you have clean water along with corals that are fed well and extra healthy. The Zeovit method is exactly this process.... Its dosing a carbon source (vodka) on a scale and supplementing with fatty and amino acids, along with feeding the food they give you which is just like coral frenzy. I personally am using right now, Brightwells Bio Fuel its just like vodka but its made by a these people... Has a couple things in it more but says on the bottle "supplement for Vodka dosing" I also picked up Aqua Techs Fuel which is the amino acids and the fatty acids. I am also feeding a combination and rotating cyclopese and coral frenzy. I cant say it has increased my colors for sure yet. I did as most people who have been following my Neo Nano progression buy a bunch of browned out corals. What I have seen is within 2 weeks of them in this tank under a 14k bulb with good water params and using this dosing that more than one have completely came back to life and all have changed and started to reverse the brown. One thing that makes me think this is working is one of my monti digis that had okay pink polyps when I put him into this tank and started this, his polyps have just POP'd in color. They are twice as bright. Keep in mind this is coming out of a tank that had 250hqi 20k halides on it to a tank with 14k 250hqi.. Water in the other tank was just as clean. I am going to further test this theory on this tank. I have yet to see a bad side effect.
I have been running the bio pellets (solid carbon method) for a few months now and have had great results. I wanted to try the Vodka, but was nervous about the obvious. Well, Im glad I didnt go the Vodka route with all the dangers as you dont have to worry about over dosing with the pellets. I have been able to grossly over feed bigtime without any spikes on PO4 or trates. I use Oyster feast, Brine, Amino's and a little coral frenzy run through a blender. Dump it in at night once the lights go off with the return pump and skimmer shut off. I leave it this way until lunch time the next day and then start the system back up. My water was noticably clearer after one week running the pellets and I have stopped running carbon as well. Polyp extension on the SPS is better while the lights are on and my colors have improved from finally knocking the PO4 down. Its amazing how well the skimmers start to work when running the Vodka or pellets. My skimmer tripled its output in just a few days after I started running them.
