Who’s dosing with any of these techniques, how long and how successful has it been?
(any links to good articles would be appreciated.)
Thanks,
Doug
I always like reefkeeping magazine online articles…
here’s a link to one of them
I use to dose vinegar mix with kalkwasser. Only thing I got from it was red cyano. So, I stop and went with bio pellets. Ken (kaptken) still does it with the mix as well. maybe he’ll chime in with his :TWOCENTS. I think he’s having better luck than I had. There’s also lots of reading on RC and all these dosing methods.
I did read that one. It only deals with Vodka. There are some threads on other forums that discuss using all three, but I can’t seem to find articles on them, only vague threads.
I’ll give RC a try and see what I can find.
Thanks for the replys…I’ll see if Kapken chimes in!
[quote=“saltcreep, post:2, topic:4754”]
I always like reefkeeping magazine online articles…
here’s a link to one of them
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php[/quote]
[quote=“scubadoo2, post:1, topic:4754”]
Who’s dosing with any of these techniques, how long and how successful has it been?
(any links to good articles would be appreciated.)
Thanks,
Doug[/quote]
btw…why are you considering it? any issues?
I used to vodka dose but have since changed to using Marinewells Biofuel. It is supposed to be a safer alternative to vodka dosing. I don’t dose that often lately I have had no need to really. But it did help when I needed to.
Yes Reefman, i still mix a cup of vinegar with 5 gallons of RO water and 4 tablespoons of Kalwasser (Mrs. Wages Pickling lime) mix and settle. i cut the vinegar dose in half to see how it goes. something like that article states. good article John. I stopped for a month when things were looking good, and stuff went to pot. so im back. because viegar is only 5% and vodka is 40% a cupfull in 5 gallons really isnt that much , about 12 ml of vinegar per liter of lime water. since vodka is 8 times more concentrated that is about equal to 1.5 ml vodka per day per liter lime water i dose.
after reading that article, i would say your problem Reefman , was you said you hadnt cleaned the plenum sandbed for a very long time. it not doubt had an overload of detritis in it. so dosing would tak a longer time to clean it up. thats the best i can figure.
Vodka dosing is just that. a relatively fast dose, once or twice a day. I figure one advantage the biopellets
have is they continously supply carbon, slowly 24/7. that makes for stable bacteria population.
What would you want to do any of these for?what benifit does this have?
Well, Jason. There’s alot of reading on this subject. However to make long story short. Those three items along with bio-pellets are what considered carbon dosing. By adding those subjects to your aquarium water it suppose to produce nitrate/phosphate reducing bacteria for the ULN (ultra low nutrients) systems. Like I said, there lots of reading on this subject and there’s lots of opinion on this matter as well. One thing I gotta say is, if you gonna try, read, start slow and do not over dose!
here’s my thread on my NPX bio-plastics experience. So far, my GHA are at bay. Ken beat me getting rid of it first. My nitrate and phosphate are low, but not low enough yet, but so far so good.
http://delreefclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=28&topic=4569.0
So this will drop trates? What signs would I see to make me think I needed to do this?not planning on this but just asking for my own knowledge
Yes, it suppose to in time, as well as phosphate. But some will tell you that phosphate will still be there and people are still using GFO for that.
My signs was that I had high nitrate in the 10 and 20 PPM and phosphate, eventhough it was reading 0 PPM on my API test kit, I know there was a trace of it in the tank. And GHA was everywhere, un controlable. Every day I was pulling clumps out of my tank.
As I stated above. I was dosing vinegar with kalkwasser but, it didn’t help at all. Then here I am with bio-plastics, 6 month now. 5 PPM in nitrate and still show 0 PPM for phosphate. Still trying to figure out how to get this nitrate down lower. I think the only way is to clean my sand bed some how, as Ken stated above.
I dosed vodka in a reef and FOWLR tanks with great results. Both tanks were overstocked, had phosphates and nitrates. After dosing vodka, levels dropped, corals still grew great, no negative effects at all. Just make sure you have a good skimmer and you oxygenate the water well.