Thoughts on Vodka dosing for Nitrates..

Hey Kevin, I can share my own experience with Vodka Dosing, and I followed the same thread that you and everyone else probablly runs across online and that's this one;
Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com
That's the one I used any way, and I dosed twice a day as it said that was better, I under estimated my total water volume on purpose to be cautious- after the 7 day my results were;
1 dead giant tear drop maxima, a Tyree Toadstool that did not open for those 7 days, my red bubble tip nem split (good and bad thing-smile/cry). and day 8 my Bellas Angel died.
The only new component was the VD, so deductive reasoning points to that. I could go on with other corals that looked "different" but you get the idea.
In my opinion the problem was most likely my skimmer, and Luna knows that is why I was dogging my AquaC skimmer.
I also have another AquaC and that is the Remora you have-since it is the skimmer that really is CRUTIAL for this-I would look into others before the VD-Sorry for the acronym but hey

I was getting NO3 at 20-25ppm at about the 3rd week before my water changes and wanted to get my NO3 down as you do, so I ran into the VD article, I research MANY hours on the turf scrubbing, spent hours researching coil units (or what ever there operative name is) and chose the VD.

Man it still is aggravating , as it has been less than a month ago this all happened.

I can expound if you want, but the short solution was the "Purigen" bt Seachem, someone else mentioned that a few replies back.

I can tell you after using the Purigen now for 3 weeks, my NO3 is at about 1-2ppm. I just did a water change yesterday, 1st in in over 3 weeks-
prior to the change my water params were awesome-IMO.

Now I have to look into the possible down side to low NO3 that I saw mentioned earlier, maybe not "down side" but "could be better" if they were higher.

That's me ALWAYS asking "WHY"

I got so lucky, at the LFS 2 days ago I go into there to trade a frag I did, and I see a new 2 inch GTD Maxima, I sucked that thing up super fast..

Don't dose, there are so many things that really need to be right and if you get them right your rockn, if you don't get them all right your suckn.
The later I don't care for.

That was my experience, I KNOW there are plenty that have success with vodka and or sugar dosing, to them my hat is off, I am glad it works for them because if it did not, they would feel like I did when I killed off some of the "neighborhood" and that SUCKED.

I will follow along to see how this all plays out..
Read a lot, and ask a lot and make an educated call, I hope its the right one for you.

Peace out

 

Through this entire thread I haven't heard how old the tank was or maybe I just missed it. I think the anerobic bacteria haven't developed in your 200lbs of rock yet possibly. Anerobic bacteria can take forever to develop. If your system is young, I would just give it time and everything will work out. It sounds as if you are doing everything right. 30ppm is nothing to sweat about. I would get a lot more nervous resorting to chemical means.

 

Probally part of my problem-other than ignorance

My tank is less than 7 months-THAT is my most current tank;D

 

9 months is the age of the aquarium...for about 2 months ive been trying to slowly convert it to a reef..as corals are expensive and I got HOSED by the salty dawg reefer in Ft. Lauderdale..i paid him $100 and he sent me nothing that was alive except a few frags of star polyps...:::sigh::: learned my lesson about that.

 

I have a tank that was dosed with vodka for a long time and some of the stuff growing in it I have never seen inn anyone elses tanks I found that dosing vodka makes different sponged do different things I am talking the colors of sponge are absolutely amazing. It makes your sand bed lethal to mix up at all. My sand bed was pure death like cyanide when mixed up at all. When we moved the tank we lost a lot of fish and the rest where very sick. Corals where already out and seemed to do fine. I threw all the sand away and just washed the liverock in a rubbermaid for a while in saltwater and then set it up again with little sand now everything is doing good again. I still have some very different stuff on the rocks from the original setup. I am about to begin dosing again to see what it will do. (If you have read vodka dosing by Genetics this was his old tank.)