Dose Your Tank With Vodka? Huhhhh

PHIL GUY · 07-26-2007, 03:53 AM

ANYONE EVER HERE OF PUT'N VODKA IN YOUR TANK EVERYDAY?AND WHY DO IT?..CHEC OUT THIS LINK, ITS A FORUM SITE TALKING ABOUT IT

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=2

motorslave · 07-26-2007, 03:55 AM

Cant make out what youre saying when you YELL!

As for the Vodka, some use it but I am not sure for what and I wont use it till they come out with a breathalizer for reeftanks as its not wise to add what you cant test for.

Hop · 07-26-2007, 03:59 AM

LOL. Nitrate reduction if I recall. Another voodoo reef treatment IMO. If you employ good husbandry you can save the vodka for yourself

Casey · 07-26-2007, 06:06 AM

If I pay for Vodka im drinking it.

Bono · 07-26-2007, 06:33 AM

one for the tank two for me..lol

Loverotties · 07-26-2007, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bono

one for the tank two for me..lol

I think that's why! lol

tims · 07-26-2007, 07:02 AM

phil,
i have heard of it and dont see any really advantages to it. if you look in
the think tank forum area you wil find a thread on it and a discussion about. the original story about was in reefkeeping online e-zine a few years ago.
if i remember right, it was more of a bandaid over a deep cut type thing.

Orient Master · 07-26-2007, 07:06 AM

When you start sharing your drinks with your fish,

You know you are starting to spend more time with your tank and not your friends and loved ones.

WilyGuy · 07-26-2007, 07:52 AM

If your tank is your drinking buddy, you REALLY got to get out more often...

talon4x4 · 07-26-2007, 09:41 AM

I believe people had found it safer to dose sugar. The discussion of it went round-and-round. Some said it was a baid-aid while others argued it was no more a band-aid than say skimmers, ozone, or any other gadget you add to your tank. What you are actually doing is feeding the bacteria that break down nitrates.

I gave it a shot (dosing sugar) and it has taken my nitrates for 20ppm to around >5ppm.

ScruffyRubicon · 07-26-2007, 10:33 AM

The vodka is to help when you start your siphon for water changes. Kills the taste of the saltwater in your mouth.

I don't siphon anymore so vodka is not needed.

Wiskey · 07-26-2007, 11:51 AM

The basic idea is Vodka is a Carbon sourse.

If you have plenty of Phosphate, Nitrate, iron, and a host of other things that bacteria need to grow (which there assuming you do) Then they figure the reason the bacteria is not growing is a lack of Carbon (a fuel sourse)

You dose the Vodka providing the carbon, the bacteria grow at a much exaggurated rate in the water colum taking up nitrate, iron, phosphate etc, etc, and the skimmer removes the bacteria effectivally removing phosphate, iron, nitratrate etc from your tank.

That's the idea,.. but it doesn't always work like that in real life,.. I lost about 20 frags when I tried it some years ago, and I was very carefull.

Whiskey

tdwyatt · 07-26-2007, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiskey

...You dose the Vodka providing the carbon, the bacteria grow at a much exaggurated rate in the water colum taking up nitrate, iron, phosphate etc, etc, and the skimmer removes the bacteria effectivally removing phosphate, iron, nitratrate etc from your tank.

That's the idea,.. but it doesn't always work like that in real life,.. I lost about 20 frags when I tried it some years ago, and I was very carefull.

Whiskey

As pointed out, the alcohol does nothing but feed those anaerobic bacteria to push the utilization of nitrate only as an electron receptor in the system so treated. This will allow for the sinking of the other nutrients as a consequence of rapid bacterial growth in the form of bacterial mulm (detritus as bacterial biomass whose growth has been stimulated by the presence of single and 2 carbon fragments from the alcohol supplementation) in the tank or in the sandbed, resulting in either more "stuff' to be siphoned or skimmed out of the system. These substances (as mentioned by whiskey above) do not magically disappear from the system unless you have an abyssal plane as an integral part of your tank, even then, it would be simply sunken in a remote location...

Use of ethanol ( 2 carbon fragments) as stimulants to bacterial growth may cause severe drops in O2 levels for systems with large percentages of aerobic bacteria (as in shallow sand bed systems), especially at night, and if not carefully titrated up with monitoring of nitrte reductions, may result in a bacterial bloom of pelagic bacteria and sudden drops overnight of already ow oxygen dissolved in the water column... the same can be said for the use of 6 carbon fragments as well (sugars)

Many precautions need to be taken, and the best resource of info on this procedure would be the German aquarium literature (in German, you'll have trouble reading it if you don't read the German language well)

I personally do not recommend this procedure, as it is , as already mentioned, a bandaid pocess for poor husbandry. However, for those who wish to keep heavy fish populations with corals, or cannot seem to control nitrates by any other means, this may be an alternative, however risky it may be for the corals in the system (and fish).

HTH