So I started vodka dosing...

[Bob 1000]

Phosphates down to 0.11 today.. If all stays the same I'll cut dose on friday at 0.05..

 

[ari5736]

Tobin, I was using a sulphur denitrator and switched it out about 8 months ago for vodka which I now dose on both my tanks. The vodka has worked well for me, but it took a while to kick in. I also dosed Lanthanum to keep things under control during the switch.

The pain with vodka is leaving the tank for a week, and then trying to figure out what to dose.

With my denitrator things were very steady, unfortunately including a steady low ph due to sulphur media.
I know you have been asked this before, but I did not see an answer in this thread: why did you switch out the denitrator, yours seemed to be working very well. If it was not keeping up with your feeding couldn't you just supplement it with vodka?

 

[Bob 1000]

Oh Ari it was handling the food, I'm just a mad scientist that needs new experiment in my tank..

 

[DrGonzo]

Oh Ari it was handling the food, I'm just a mad scientist that needs new experiment in my tank..

Tobin, what kind of denitrator was it? So I guess that means you aren't producing all those pods anymore. I still feel bad about the tickets you got when we met up, but those pods were the only ones that have really lasted in my take. My mandarin thanks you.

I'm thinking about going the denitrator route after considering dosing vodka for a while. I don't have a big nitrate problem. I just want to feed more and run the lights longer.

 

[ari5736]

Oh Ari it was handling the food, I'm just a mad scientist that needs new experiment in my tank..

Love it. I am also always tinkering. Btw, vodka keeps my phosphate really low now (.07 on Hanna) without GFO or lanthanum, and this is precisely the reason I started dosing. GFO is way too expensive, and LA is a bit tricky to dose, especially with a tank full of tangs.

I am now up to 7ml in my 125g, and nitrates are still at about 5-10ppm and have gradually worked my way up to 7ml for past few months. I was down to 0 nitrate but my 1 week trip down to Mexico threw things off.

 

[Bob 1000]

Tobin, what kind of denitrator was it? So I guess that means you aren't producing all those pods anymore. I still feel bad about the tickets you got when we met up, but those pods were the only ones that have really lasted in my take. My mandarin thanks you.

I'm thinking about going the denitrator route after considering dosing vodka for a while. I don't have a big nitrate problem. I just want to feed more and run the lights longer.

Yep, no more pods.. Natureef Denitrifier..

 

[Bob 1000]

Love it. I am also always tinkering. Btw, vodka keeps my phosphate really low now (.07 on Hanna) without GFO or lanthanum, and this is precisely the reason I started dosing. GFO is way too expensive, and LA is a bit tricky to dose, especially with a tank full of tangs.

I am now up to 7ml in my 125g, and nitrates are still at about 5-10ppm and have gradually worked my way up to 7ml for past few months. I was down to 0 nitrate but my 1 week trip down to Mexico threw things off.

Yesterday I hade gone down to 0.08 from 0.20 last week.. Didn't test yet today.. Dosing seems to be okay..

 

[Bob 1000]

Well I'm back @ 0.02 on the phates won't be dosing today but I will be adding aminos..

 

[Bob 1000]

I skipped a day and the phate level jumped back up to 0.16 from 0.02.. This is crazy.. Denitrifier way better as all the reactions happen in the reactor and the levels would take almost a week to jump that much.. Sways of phosphates like this will rtn all your corals.. I'm really wondering how they jumped up so quick..

 

[Sumbub]

that's a huge jump on the phates. Did you retest again to be sure?

 

[Bob 1000]

yeah same thing today I'm at 0.08 I went back to 3 capfuls yesterdaY and 2 today..

 

[Sumbub]

Try to keep the dosing steady. Don't jump too much up and down. And once you drop it to a certain point, cut the dose in half and see what's happening. I've never had such a huge spike when I stopped for a bit. Hopefully, it'll steady out for you.

 

[Reefdoc22]

I have never heard of this before! I am gonna have to give it a shot

 

[ari5736]

How many mls is a capful and how many gallons total on your system? Just curious to compare apples with apples.

 

[Bob 1000]

6.2mls is a capful..

 

[Bob 1000]

Update:I must be looking for my first tank crash I had some rubble pieces about a bucket full.. Tossed them in the tank and now the phospahtes are back up to 0.25..
I've raise the dose to 4 capfuls the last 2 days and not budging.. Staying at 25.. I also added a school of evansi anthias and blended up some fish I bought last week to get them eating, 2 of the 8 ate.. I dumped a 1/4 cup of this mixture in the tank and the chili coral loved it, but that was no good for the phates.. One of my wild colonies started to lose some tissue from the bottom yesterday also but the rest look fine..

 

[ari5736]

Lanthanum, and no more phosphate rocks.

 

[Bob 1000]

I have 2 bottles but i'm scared to mix it with vodka.. andhow are you running it in a diatom filter???

 

[Bob 1000]

Update:I must be looking for my first tank crash I had some rubble pieces about a bucket full.. Tossed them in the tank and now the phospahtes are back up to 0.25..
I've raise the dose to 4 capfuls the last 2 days and not budging.. Staying at 25.. I also added a school of evansi anthias and blended up some fish I bought last week to get them eating, 2 of the 8 ate.. I dumped a 1/4 cup of this mixture in the tank and the chili coral loved it, but that was no good for the phates.. One of my wild colonies started to lose some tissue from the bottom yesterday also but the rest look fine..

Update: it wasn't the rock, my bad.. It was the 20 clams I put in my sump and forgot about.. 7 of them died.. I forgot all about them.. I did a 100 gallon water change, cleared out the remains of the fish market clams and wallah phosphates are back to 0.08.. Dosing back to 2.5 capfuls.. Corals are still all good..

 

[ari5736]

I have 2 bottles but i'm scared to mix it with vodka.. andhow are you running it in a diatom filter???

I've dosed with vodka. I used to run the La through a 5 micron sock, never pulled the trigger on a diatom filter (seems a little complicated to run), so whenever I have spikes of phos I dose a very small quantity of La (~1 ml) into my overflow and never had any adverse effects except for the supper smelly white nog pulled out by the skimmer after dose.