Old tank syndrome - vodka dose experiment

[Sagacious]

Here's my tank! Its a 110 gallon tall tank that I got from craigslist awhile ago. They didn't take care of it well and after I moved it home I noticed it had about 2 inches of detritus and gunk in the sump..so after cleaning it out and a few equipment upgrades I still get lots of green algae on the glass daily...LOTS. Water Params are perfect, 0 nitrates/phosphates so ive determined its nutrients bound up in the rock and DSB from old tank syndrome. Instead of replacing everything i'm going to experiment with vodka dosing to fix the situation and document it all here and YouTube probably. It can be difficult with a DSB but we will see what happens. Stay tuned

 

[Sniperhank]

Before you start dosing...what kind of water is in there? Tap or distilled//ro/di? Just want to check off all possibilities before starting to dose, it could cause additional problems.

 

[ocminpin]

Vodka will kill your fish! It's one of the methods used to humanely euthanize a fish.

 

[crister13]

No it wont actually if dosed properly. It is a proven method of nitrate and phosphate reduction.

 

[Sagacious]

I use ro di water... And lol at vodka killing the fish. Its safe if done correctly.

 

[ocminpin]

I use ro di water... And lol at vodka killing the fish. Its safe if done correctly.

How is it different than adding vodka to the clove oil? Thought it was pretty instant.
I've been told on here to not even use certain fish medications because it has clove oil components in it...

 

[crister13]

Well, I've dosed it for a couple months with 0 ill effects, and there is an entire article on RC about it. Many people dose, keep nitrate at 0 with no ill effects whatsoever. Read this. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

 

[ekean45]

I've been dosing with vodka for the last 4 months and it works great. Here is a great article Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com. Make sure you follow the dosing instructions!!! I now maintain about 2ml per day.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Really? Never heard of a such thing lol checking out the article on that now. Lol a little for me a little for fishes lol

 

[ekean45]

I know it sounds crazy but it works. I've not seen any bad side effects. You can actually overfeed and bio - overload the tank (I would not recommend!) but my nitrates and phosphates are always 0.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I know it sounds crazy but it works. I've not seen any bad side effects. You can actually overfeed and bio - overload the tank (I would not recommend!) but my nitrates and phosphates are always 0.

Wow that's great