also isnt vodka made in a distillery which if you are familiar with a "still" it often runs through a copper coil of sorts which may cause inverts to croak..

also a question... you dont have to/recommend using top shelf do you? grey goose can get expensive... how about a cheap 8 dollar pint of seagram's? lol.

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If its not broke dont fix it!!! If its broke save yourself the time and buy a new one!!!

Mcormicks in the plastic bottle for me. I ain't got no high faluting fish!

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All information supplied is in my humble opinion. I am sure there is always someone out there who knows more then I, that will chime in soon.

Now back to trying to figure out how to combine my passions and either make an aquarium that does 0-60 in under 3 seconds, or ride motorcycles in aquariums....

The cheaper the vodka the better, a pint f
should last you a very long time.
Michael

heheh some hawkeye vodka.. just thought i would look over my old posts and sure enough i found this one and got a laugh.

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If its not broke dont fix it!!! If its broke save yourself the time and buy a new one!!!

My thoughts exactly. But this is a new (to me anyway) method of consuming nitrates (and hopefully phosphates also). The vokda feeds bacteria that consume nitrates. Which I always thought was anaerobic bacteria and therefore something I don't want. And you must start with very low dosing and build up slowly. Too much and you will kill things.

But some including dr Randy Holmes Farley are considering/using this methods as one way to avoid the expense of lights required to keep refugium macros thriving.

One poster here has reported excellent results.

see: I started Vodka Dosing today

One lfs reported that sugar/vodka dosing actually led to cyano problems. Because I suspect the phosphates were out of balance with relation to nitrates as I posted earlier. And a few months later the fustrated owners reported their nitrates were higher then ever.

This also goes against my personal preference which is basic the saltwater equilivant of the balanced or natural or leiden method of using plant life to maintain the system. Basically the animals produce wastes and the plant life consumes that waste and recycles it into fish food.

So you may get cyano, have to kill lights,or whatever. But without antiboitics, clean ups, water changes, new filters, new lights and so on , you can get the tank balanced out. From that point on the tank will be extremly stable and can run for years.

To me the key is to reach that point.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

How long have you been dosing?

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If It Is To Be It's Up To Me!!!
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Since they were 21?

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I think that Vodka dosing is the end all be all for excessive nutrient export. I didn't have a problem with red slime but I did have a high nitrate and phosphate problem for the most part from over feeding. You don't have to use Gray Goose Vodka any 80 proof vodka will do. Do the research on the affects before you begin using vodka.(that's dosing or drinking) As Bob said you have to work up slow. My dose got up to 4ml after raising it .5ml a week before I saw it start to work, but I do have to say the tank was clearer than it had ever been in just a few days. It had gone all the way up to 6ml before I cut the dose in half to maintain the tank at 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate. You should find the problem that is causing the red slime first and then fix that. Lights out will starve the cyano but you have to find the fuel or it will keep coming back. Sometimes it is as easy as cutting the lights and moving a power head or two and cut back on feeding.

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If It Is To Be It's Up To Me!!!
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