Vodka anyone?

[hansmatt]

Has anyone dosed Vodka, Everclear, or other ETOH (in their tank!)? I don't have a nitrate/ite test kit anymore, but fear that my algae issue (not awful, but still present) may be related to the sandbed. Ethyl alcohol can overdrive the bacterial cycle helping break down nitrates which later enter the phosphate cycle I guess. This would be an easier fix than remote dsb (Cary) or denitrifier/reactor (not gonna happen), or replacement of sand (next summer I think?)...
Anyway, back to the question...has anyone given it a try? What were your dosage ml/g ? Any recommended reading?

[carym]

I find that it's better to drink the vodka or everclear... Well haven't tried either of those but when I was playing with the DSB in a bucket I was dosing sugar, I tried maybe 2 tablespoons a day, but I am not sure if it made a difference or not, I found that getting the skimmer running better and everything else stablized seems to help the nitrates, mine are now down to 15-20 range and they were as high as 100+

[chrischris]

well you could if you dont have anything eles in your tank itll prob. kill the coral and most likely cause problems with the fish

[hansmatt]

well, it's been the experience of others that in moderation, the ethyl alcohol can help reduce nitriates and improve coral growth and coloration. Moderation meaning 1-5ml daily depending on tank size. Any other feedback?

[chrischris]

really i would of never guessed that it would help corals i stand corrected

Originally Posted by hansmatt

well, it's been the experience of others that in moderation, the ethyl alcohol can help reduce nitriates and improve coral growth and coloration. Moderation meaning 1-5ml daily depending on tank size. Any other feedback?

[schneijt]

I dose 4-5cc's of vodka every few days in my tank, and have been doing it sporadically for the last few weeks. I haven't tested nitrates or anything, but I know many people in Europe have done it for years without problems. I figure it's worth a try. I really haven't seen any improvement in coloration of corals or anything, but I figure I'll keep doing it and see what happens.

-Joe

[Afish4u]

gesh never heard of it. ever think of just stoping at petco for a free water test? Whats going on as far as your algee?

[schneijt]

There is actually a scientific reasoning behind dosing alcohol. I forget his name, but the "chemistry guru" on Reef Central helped people to figure out if vodka dosing actually had any scientific basis. I believe he concluded that it did, but was far from necessary. And I have tried to find a calculator to figure out how much/often you need to dose, but can't. So while it may seem like hype and a strange thing to do, dosing vodka seems like it might be helpful to the biological processes inside reef tanks. I'm doing it just to see if I can get my fishies drunk... :-) j/k

-Joe

[Jrmass]

In all actually you don't even have to dose vodka. You can just do a pinch of BROWN sugar DAILY to accomplish the very same task. I used to do this on my freshwater tanks to maintain a breeder tank when I would remove the fry and by putting the brown sugar into the tank it allowed the bacteria to have the sugar to feed on. On a site that I used to use (before the moderate took the site off the net) we had a HUGE discussion on the benefits of using the brown sugar and one of the guys (a chemist) gave us the scientific reasonings why brown sugars chemical make-up actually did benefit the cycling process (nitrate cycle). So, I can say first hand that I have done this method and it really does work. I can say that in a 20 gallon tank I did just a small pinch each day and that tank had lower nitrates than my 125 gallon display tank.

Jason

[hansmatt]

Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses I believe...but the reasoning for nitrates holds true. Adding more Carbon for bacteria to metabolize, encouraging N and P uptake along with it, as I understand.

[mtfatwork]

there are huge long threads on our local forum about this matt if you are interested I am sure you could find the thread.

[schneijt]

You can also Google "dosing vodka" and find a GIGANTIC thread on Reef Central as well.

-Joe

[carym]

Problem I found with all those threads was nobody talked about dosing, they would say yes I dose sugar or vodka but not say how much.... unless I missed something...

[hansmatt]

yeah, that's what I found (in an admittedly short amount of reading time at least). Thanks Mary, I'll check out your club's thread.

[Jrmass]

biggest problem with dosing either of these methods is long-term effects. If you notice there are NEVER any people that talk about doing it longer than 6 months... Thus, you have no idea if peoples tanks mysteriously crashed, if they quit doing it, or what kinds of problems they may have run into along the way. I'll find out how much a friend of mine doses/dosed when he was using vodka in his tank(s). I myself did dose the brown sugar on and off for close to two years. But, like I said it was only when I didn't have fish in the tank. So, I can't say that I used it constantly due to having the fry and momma fish in there. And like I said I just did a pinch each day in a 20 gallon tank.