Advanced Reef Chemistry

Carbon dosing is becoming more and more the 'norm' for our hobby. I was wondering if a few people could chime in on the benefits of VGV over Biopellets or visa versa.


Easy of use is not something that overly concerns me as I have dosing pumps and reactors available.

My 125g tank has NO3 testing in the 0-5 range and PO4 is testing 0-9 ppb on the ULR Phosphorus Hanna Checker but I do have a good bit of nuisance algae in the DT including cyanno on the sand bed.

I have a moderate bioload but feed very lightly. My lights ramp up at 11am and are ramped down at 10pm giving me a 9 hour real photoperiod. I have a 20g sump and a separate 7g chaeto fuge with a couple mangroves. My skimmer is a SRO rated for 200g

My CuC is from John at Reefcleaners with no hermits, and could probably be touched up a bit, but I was thinking of adding a few electric blue or orange hermits.

My goals with carbon are to feed more often, eliminate algae, ad provide more nutrients for sps in the water column.

 

Hi Alex

1stly
any of the methods listed can and do work but before commencing any of them, I would want to find an alternative manner for eradicating the cyno
cyno is a bacteria and is thus likely to benefit from the carbon dosing to a similar extent that the positive bacteria we are aiming for does

of the liquid carbon dosing methods, Vinegar is often cited as the carbon source least likely to fuel cyno bacteria and for those experiencing cyno issues whilst using Vodka for example, a gradual change from that carbon source to Vinegar along with other manual type removal methods or black out for the cyno, is often the end of the problem, with the tank thereafter operating on Vinegar as its carbon source and the cyno not making a comeback

Sugar on the other hand is often cited as being the most likely carbon source to fuel cyno bacteria and as such generally recomended to be avoided in favour of the other liquid forms (Vodka or Vinegar)

based on my own personal experience, I would narrow the options down to 2
Vinegar - which has proven effective for me on my own set up
Bio Pellets - which I have experienced as effective, but IME not as effective as quickly as Vinegar has been

I initially made my choice for my set up based on A - having a spare pump on my doser and B not having a spare reactor at that time , thus liquid dosing of some form was my chosen route
I have not experienced any negatives and thus not regretted my choice thus far

Steve

 

Thanks for the reply steve. I have been thinking that Vinegar is the way to go. As for the source, my 'trates have been in the 0-5ppm and 5-10ppm range since my clams were lost. I have a moderate bioload as I stated, but I'm not feeding where I want.
The cyanno is likely from the extra no3 and I have been noticing it redceeding throughout most the tank with the light feedings.

I would mush rather move to a dosing regimine and feed ALOT to my tangs and hopefully fatten up my hermit of a helfrichi firefish.