White film on the surface of the water?

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Stop dosing for the time being would be my advise and yes vodka cause bacteria blooms and the bacteria bloom could be screwing with your skimmer foaming.

Do a water change to reduce your nitrates for the time being instead of vodka. It is very important to be doing water changes while dosing vodka to begin with so that may be where your problems are coming from. Overdosing becomes way easier when your not doing your waterchanges.

Just my advice.
 
I do weekly 35% changes. Even with vodka. Would you recommend getting an ATS, and keeping the skimmer I have, or keep dosing after I get a new skimmer?
 
Omg, skimmers foam already increased! I didn't dose this morning so my guess is that's why. I'm leaning toward same skimmer with ATS as its a lot simpler, and does the same thing. I'm making water at the moment fr a Chang also.
 
Bingo. Let the tank calm down a bit before continuing dosing. If your doing 35% weekly water changes and you still have a nitrate problem then you are either overstocked or doing something fundamentally wrong. The organics are either not being removed (that includes siphoning the sand bed) or there are simply to many organics (overstocked). Something in your tank is becoming a nutrient sink and in betting on your sand bed since thats the most common.

If you do a 50% waterchange it will cut your nitrates in half. From say 80 to 40 ppm and so on.
 
They were fine before. What I think happened is that my Rodi unit needs to be replaced. It was AWESOME before. NO ALGAE AT ALL. Now I have hair, I got rid of cyano with vodka. Would you recommend I substitute vodka with an ATS? I really can't spend a lot of money!
 
crister13 said:
They were fine before. What I think happened is that my Rodi unit needs to be replaced. It was AWESOME before. NO ALGAE AT ALL. Now I have hair, I got rid of cyano with vodka. Would you recommend I substitute vodka with an ATS? I really can't spend a lot of money!
Click to expand...

That is because as they build up they become a problem. They dont become a problem until your water changes cant keep up will them anymore and they accumulate slowing from decaying material inside the tank.

Test your ro/di water with a TDS meter. They only cost 20 bucks. If you have 0 TDS water then your water is not the problem. Easy way to find out. You wanna figure out the problem lets figure it out. I got time. Nitrates have a source, get to the source and you fix the problem.

I had a previous tank before i moved that developed a nitrate problem. Found the cause and fixed it. Nitrate problem gone. Its really that simple. With the addition of time of course.
 
Yes but chances are your water does not contain nitrate. Nitrate is kinda rare in filtered water let alone ro/di. What i was getting at is that if its 0 TDS you have no nitrate also it means that your filters are ok. When filters go bad the TDS will begin to creep up. Sediment and carbon block filters need replaced yearly minimum most times. And di resin needs changed when tds creeps above 0. Blocked sediment and carbon filters lower the efficiency of the ro membrane by reducing pressure.

Test your water right now for nitrate. Id bet money its gonna be zero. Also what is your tank testing for nitrate?
 
Biopellets are run in a reactor tumbling constantly. They do work but it takes time for them to start working and you have to adjust the flow through the reactor to avoid totally depleting your water of phosphate which wouldnt be good if you have coral.
 
Ok. Water tested yesterday was 20. It was 40 but the vodka is bringing it down. When should in continue dosing????? And is the skimmer going to work when I start dosing again?
 
I've never been able to keep my nitrates below 40 but I've never had any problems with my fish, corals, or anything so I just do my water changes and leave it alone...
 
Lol. I just started because of cyano, it's gone now thank god. I think I'm gonnna try vodka again and if the slimmer goes nuts I'll sop for awhile and try again. Thanks for the help!
 
Vodka can actually fuel cyano growth. But if your nitrates are only at 20 i would do a 50% water change to knock them down to 10. From there you will mot have to dose except if they rapidly climb back up. I would figure out why you have nitrates or your problem will only get worse.

What size tank? What do you have stocked? How deep is the sand bed? Do you siphon the sandbed? Do you blow off your rocks with turkey baster to suspend any detritus? How much flow do you have? How much are you feeding per day? How big and how often are your water changes usually? Have you gone a long period without a water change before the nitrate problem? All these question will help in letting is figure out the true problem. If you dont figure it out your gonna be carbon dosing forever and eventually it can get to a point where carbon dosing cant keep up and tank can crash.

I would say since you just tested and they are at 20 to test in a week to see how much they have risen without dosing this will let you know where you stand. Atleast give it a few days.
 
The tank stuff is in my signature. My actual tank info is wrong. I did go awhile without a change about 1.5-2 months ago. Now I change 30-35% a week. I don't siphon the sand as it is sugar sized and gets sucked up. I have around 3000-4000 gph. Also I feed a good bit every other day. The fish consume in about 3 mins
 
Your sandbed is probably your problem. Detritus builds up over time and will collect ungodly amounts of poo etc. that rots and your sandbed becomes a nutrient sink. A sandbed is only good for so long unmaintained before it becomes a problem and needs replaced. You can still siphon sugar sized sand. You need a slender vacuum with about a 3/8 OD tubing. Pinch the line as your siphoning to allow the sand to fall back down, its a little tricky at first but you get the hang of it pretty fast.

I advise siphoning your sandbed completely and thoroughly or it will get to the point carbon dosing will no longer be effective and youll have a tank crash.

The other option includes completely siphoning out your sand bed and replacing it with a course dry sandbed and from that point siphoning it regularly during water changes weekly. You'llu be surprised how much brown dirt comes out when you siphon it.
 
I actually changed the substrate just last month for the ray. So I doubt it could become a problem that fast right? Will the slimmer work with the vodka eventually????? The vodka has really saved me with nitrates so I would like to continue but this stupid film is annoying.
 
The skimmer is probably going to continue its current course until the film (bacteria bloom is diminished or gone, however that probably wont happen if you keep feeding it carbon (vodka).

You have some large fish species that poo alot so i can imagine it could build of that fast possibly. Siphoning it would be your best option. Its possible you are overstocked too. Nitrates come from fish food and fish waste. So you have to either a) thoroughly clean up the waste b) reduced the fish load or c) cut feeding however you are already not feeding much so i advise against cutting feeding so that leaves fish and you cleaning methods as the cause of the nitrate problem. This is assuming your starting water is nitrate free of course.
 
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