vodka/vinegar dosing observations

[Fishie]

After about a year of ignoring water changes which led to a cyano bloom i have been very disciplined for the last 3 months with bi weekly water changes.

I've also started vodka, vinegar dosing in addition to prodibio...was going very slow for the last 2 -3 months

 

and i am finally at these levels for dosing per day and plan to stop at this number now.

 

32ml vinegar

5.4ml vodka

also do a vial of bioptim and biodigest every 2 weeks

 

i have seen the following changes in the last couple weeks

i don't need to clean my glass as much...if at all..no more algae growing on it

my cyano is almost gone...back in february it would cover my entire sand bed , rock and even back walls...was bad

 

I have a heavy bioload and feed daily. I had also gone through a major aquascape overhaul to reduce the amount of LR back in March/April

 

everything is now settled in fine..guess it went through a mini cycle

 

here are my current parameters

1) Ca 420

2) Kh 11 ( i think this is too high for carbon dosing and want to reduce this but i want to know how to do this and if it can/should be done quickly). i want to bring it down to 7-8

3) MG 1300 ( was at 1600 back in February...gotten it down slowly to where i want it)

 

i dont believe my phosphate and nitrate which show 0 all the time...need some better way to test...but i usually like to see how things are reacting and move accordingly.

 

my skimmer is pulling the worst gunk ever 

 

I also have a fuge with cheato..which i will keep unless i see the cheato starting to starve

I have already removed running activated carbon about 2 weeks ago.

I do run GFO but plan to turn that off and remove it in a day or 2.

Turned my UV back on to 4 hours a day...had it off during the initial part of carbon dosing.

 

also changed from gen1 radions to gen 3 pros and have them set at 45% and plan to increase to 65% over 4 weeks.

I am also switching to the wide angle lens... 

 

 

Questions

1) i want to reduce my KH, since i think thats why i am seeing sps being more pale

2) going to turn GFO since i don't want to make things too clean and i don't want to deal with gfo...never been a fan of it.

3) do i need to re introduce the activated carbon

 

 

 

 

 

[Fishie]

forgot to mention few things

 

display is 135 and sump is probably 40g.

I've been doing 2 part for about 3 years too.

 

CA is 105 ML per day

Soda Ash was 85 ml per day...i changed it to 15 ml to reduce my KH to 7-8...then will adjust 

 

PH ranges from 8 - 8.15 through the day

 

temp is at 79-79.5

Edited May 17, 2014 by Fishie

[Fishie]

going to keep this updated with growth/ colors etc over time..and tweak as needed

[YHSublime]

Following, similar boat

[icsparks]

IMO

I would slowly remove the GFO from the system. As this may effect your current carbon maintenance dose. let the bacteria catch up with the demand.

 

I would also keep using the activated carbon. It will inprove water quality, reduce bio load and wont effect the tank in a bad way. It may add more space for the bacteria to grow from the carbon dosing.

 

KH of 7 has a balanced CA of about 410 so I would also reduce the amount of CA dose a tad to help the KH  drop over time. Then when I get to where I want to be, change the maintenance dose to match the tanks current demand.

 

I would watch the corals color over this period before changing the lights again to see if they adapt to the current new changes you are making then slowly add more light if needed for growth.  

 

Changing so many things at one time wont pinpoint what worked and what didn't and may cause you second guessing of your choices. 

 

Keep us posted.

[scott711]

are you dosing anything to keep the Alk that high?

I would keep using carbon and slowly remove GFO.

 

I dose vinegar and my alk stays around 7-8.  You don't want your alk that high if you are dosing carbon.

[Fishie]

ok thanks ...ill put the activated carbon back and remove GFO

 

reduce the ca amount a little 

 

not sure why my kh is at 11...maybe api test kit isn't accurate...ill try another as well...

[Fishie]

update as of last night

 

GFO gone

Carbon back

KH 10

CA 400

 

stopped dosing KH completely a day ago

ca in 2 part dropped to 50ml per day...till things stabilize

[Fishie]

new test results

 

KH 8

CA 380

mg 1300

Phosphates 0.13 

 

after seeing this i have resumed my 2 part KH dosing by a small amount of just 20ml per day... and the ca is at 60ml per day

 

i have also observed a very small amount of glass film algae ...maybe because its without gfo...and needs to cope up...

 

i am also seeing the pink colors in sps starting to reappear...dont think i am imagining...but will test in few days and report back

[YHSublime]

That's a whopping amount of calcium. At least in terms of my tank to yours, haha. Do you have a picture of your tank?!

 

I doubt you are imagining it, when i started dosing for just calc and alk, i saw better polyp extension, and amazing growth! I'm intersted in the vodka/vinegar dosing to help control, but terrified I'll kill everything! 

[Fishie]

let me snag a top view and side view ...standby

[Fishie]

sry i tried taking with my phone but it looks purple everywhere...maybe this uv is making it even harder to take pics...

i need a good cam now...the list never ends

[zygote2k]

why not drop the VSV and prodibio altogether and just go back to water changes? seems like the easiest plan. Skimmer is pulling out all those additives- hence the gunk.

Activated carbon is fine but you only need to keep it in a mesh bag and change it every few months. If your tank gets regular service and you don't overfeed, you can get away with using zero carbon or GFO. I have several reef tanks that don't use either.

[Fishie]

just having to not clean the glass every few days was a good enough for me to want to continue with some form of carbon dosing...i may get rid of vodka/vinegar and go biopellets someday but i'd like to see how this goes.

plus i want to be able to feed regularly and get more fish poop for the coral

 

i am hoping to get to this so called ulns state and see how the coral fare in terms of increase in growth coloration etc...taking it slow either ways..

[Fishie]

tested today

kh 7.3 -7.6 since its been gradually dropping i am going to up my soda ash from the 2 part dose now to get closer to my calcium so they are both dosed in nearly equal amounts.

CA -400

 

i have also started to see hair algae return to my glass...its not a lot ...light intact...i am guessing its either due to the gfo being gone completely 

 

the only other change has been the reduction in the ph over time from where it was 2 weeks or so ago.

 

i am hoping that this absence of GFO and the results are not permanent...and just another phase where things acclimate to it.

 

vinegar amount is increased to 36ml from 32ml

vodka is reduced slightly to 5ml 

 

fish happy, coral seem happy (Tad improvement in coloring up)

now both my lights have the wide angle lens

 

ca - 40ml (was reduced from 50ml about a week ago)

soda ash now increased to - 30 ml (from 20ml)

Edited May 28, 2014 by Fishie

[Fishie]

so while i was cleaning my skimmer i noticed...that my vinegar pipe line output had slipped off!!!

 

my guess is its been a week...so now i have connected it to a stiffer cable...and resumed dosing but have dropped the vinegar back to 26 instead of 36 which it was...

 

i think that maybe why my glass was needing cleaning ...oh well...

[Fishie]

its been a couple weeks and the dosing has been continuing

my kh has stabilized to 7.2, ca 400, mg, 1290

 

I noticed that my sump is started to get foamy around the return pump area about 10-15 days ago and today i checked and the main sump is foamy too.

 

not sure if this means my skimmer may need adjusting or if its anything else....

[scott711]

that foam is waste.  It is the same thing that is collected in the skimmer. 

[Fishie]

so is my skimmer not able to keep up and now its coming outside ?

or is this a different kind of waste

[scott711]

same waste.  It is just collecting outside the skimmer.  Your skimmer may not be big enough.  You should have noticed an increase in waste produced by the skimmer. 

[Fishie]

ok ill tune it some..yea has been a lot of waste ...

[s2nhle]

tagging along. thank for sharing.

[Fishie]

omg!...

so i went down to feed...and saw stringy stuff in display...and little cloudy...

sump looked maybe little more foamy

 

so i have effective immediately stopped the dosing of both vinegar and vodka...

i did a big water change...well all the water i had ..about 30 some gallons of it..

removed all the foamy stuff from sump manually

 

added new carbon and turned on UV for 24/7

 

all the livestock looked normal 

only one coral was all shut which were the zoas..

 

i don't know what caused this but I'm not trying vodka again...too scared

 

the only thing i threw in yesterday was a hermit that i found on the carpet...it was probably dead 

i took out one of 2 refugium lights 

and about 2 weeks ago i had fixed a vinegar pipeline that fallen off...dont know if the dose came back too fast too soon...regardless i have turned the vodka/vinegar off completely 

 

i am only gonna monitor now ... 

[Fishie]

so the tank is still cloudy perhaps more today than yesterday

 

all the fish are swimming around like normal

 

My ph has been dropping though .. it has usually been at 7.8 and is now showing 7.54 ( that may not reflect the right number but i am paying close attention to the swing  more than anything) 

 

the sump still gets a good amount of foam..i am cleaning the skimmer collection cup...which is full of foam every 12 hours

 

pretty sure its a bacterial bloom at this point...what i am concerned about is the ph swing...how does a bloom like that make ph drop..

anything i should do or just keep cleaning skimmer out and i am also removing the foam from the sump manually..

[Fishie]

i read that the bacterial bloom causes o2 reduction which causes ph drop

 

so added couple air stones...removed my night modes for which wud cause slow water flow..

 

i also cleaned some foamy stuff around the probe ..and my ph went back up to 7.8 ...so it cud have been that interfering with a correct reading..

 

cleaned the bacteria settled on tank glass..cud see it come off with every swipe..

 

all inhabitants seem normal