I stopped dosing vodka- tank is getting better!

[gregr]

Wondering what others experienced when they stopped dosing vodka. I stopped about a month ago. Since then the cyano has totally disappeared. The water is still super clear and the hair algae I've been fighting for months and months seems to finally be disappearing. Since I stopped dosing I added some sea hares and I manually removed some of the hair algae by plucking it out while vacuuming with a 1/2" hose at the same time. I did the plucking during the last two (bi-monthly) water changes. Nothing besides that, and I did plenty of plucking while I was dosing vodka.
I'm a little worried that there will be another algae bloom because the bacteria that the vodka fed will die off but one month out the tank is looking better than it has in a year.

[Ninong]

I have never tried dosing vodka, or any other carbon source, to boost the bacterial load but I can say that I have never had nuisance hair algae. I'm not sure why but I can say that I ran a 6" DSB (120-gal tank, 27.5" tall) and I keep my calcium ~475 ppm and my alk ~10 dKH. I dosed limewater nightly in the sump and I had to add Mg every few weeks to keep it >1300 ppm. With calcium and alk that high, my pH pretty much took care of itself. Dosing limewater at night mitigated the swings in pH that I would have had otherwise.

So something in there may have helped me avoid green hair algae??? I never had that stuff. Ever. I did have a nasty case of unknown red turf algae that I finally got rid of after about a year. I'm not sure how I got rid of it but I did. And I never had any problems with either diatoms or cyanobacteria either.



P.S. -- I did a 15% water change every other month.

[gregr]

Wow- I do 15% water changes usually twice a month. But I know what caused my problems- bad bulbs, bad ro/di water and overfeeding (not rinsing the food either). My alkalinity is around 12 dkh usually and calcum right around 420. No kalkwasser dosing- it's something I've been considering though.
Thanks for your thoughts.

[gregr]

I just heard something that if it's true... it explains a lot. I could not understand why the hair algae kept growing and growing even after I identified and eliminated the problems that caused the outbreak in the first place (bad bulbs, overfeeding/not rinsing the food and bad ro/di water). I just heard that when you add a source of sugar [vodka, aka carbon or ethanol] CO2 is produced. CO2, as in what people with freshwater planted tanks use to make their plants grow. So for 4 months I was feeding the hair algae at the same time the phosphates and nitrates were dwindling Now that I'm no longer adding vodka the tank is looking better than it has in 8 months. Doh!

[charlie]

Sometimes it hurts when you get slapped in the face. I am glad you put that fact out here Greg, I hope alot of folks read this and then think twice!!!!

Glad to hear that things are looking good again though!!!

[gregr]

Thanks Charlie. I hope it does help people that think, like I did, that vodka would help get rid of hair algae. It most definitely increased the skimmer output and lowered the phosphates and nitrates though.

[charlie]

Hey........2 out of 3 ain't bad.;)

[reefhead728]

Good hope your tank recovers, as for me I dodnt share my Vodka with any one.

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[Ninong]

I just heard that when you add a source of sugar [vodka, aka carbon or ethanol] CO2 is produced.

Yes, respiration of aerobic organisms consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. This is just the opposite of photosynthesis which consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen. Most bacteria (cyanobacteria is an obvious exception) are not photosynthetic, so they do not produce oxygen.

When you add additional carbon to your water, you are boosting the available food for aerobic bacteria, leading to rapid multiplication of these aerobes and then respiration of these bacteria consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. So it's a double whammy. Most people already know that increased bacteria can lower the oxygen content of the water, leading to fish kills, but they ignore the fact that aerobic respiration produces CO2.

P.S. -- I forgot to mention the obvious. Respiration also leads to lowered pH. I have never added sugar or vodka to my aquarium and I always tried to maintain the calcium and alkalinity at reasonably high levels. I kept the calcium in the 450-475 ppm range rather than the 425-450 ppm range mainly because I wanted to keep alkalinity at least 10 dKH and calcium and alkalinity are linked. That way I never had to worry about my pH falling too low. That and the fact that I dripped limewater (Kalkwasser) in my sump every night may have been why I never experienced a problem with nuisance hair algae. I did have a problem for about ten months with some nasty mysterious red turf algae but it finally went away.

I really don't know if the combination of 450-475 ppm Ca and >10 dKH Alk has anything to do with fighting nuisance hair algae because I never wanted to keep it lower just to see what might happen.

[Ninong]

I googled "chemical equation for aerobic respiration" and came up with the following:


Here.

They're talking about glucose but the idea is the same. When you add carbon (sugar, vodka, etc.) to your aquarium, the population of aerobic bacteria shoots up to take advantage of the available carbon, consuming available oxygen (from the water), resulting in the production of CO2 and the lowering of pH. Vodka is about 40% ethyl alcohol and 60% purified water.

Remember, the difference between aerobic and anaerobic respiration is that aerobic respiration uses oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor but anaerobic respiration uses nitrogen. I think we're all more familiar with the nitrogen cycle: nitrite to nitrate to nitrogen gas. That last step, denitrification, is anaerobic.

P.S. -- I googled "ethyl alcohol" and came up with: CH3CH2OH

Here.

[gregr]

Thanks for that excellent info. I know better now
The pH in my tank seems pretty good: 8.2-8.3 and I started a kalk drip, very slowly (10-20 drips a minute roughly). Seems like the corals like it. Hard to tell though because they looked really good before. I think there is slightly better polyp extension now. Alkalinity has always been pretty high- close to 12.

[charlie]

Thanks for that excellent info. I know better now
The pH in my tank seems pretty good: 8.2-8.3 and I started a kalk drip, very slowly (10-20 drips a minute roughly). Seems like the corals like it. Hard to tell though because they looked really good before. I think there is slightly better polyp extension now. Alkalinity has always been pretty high- close to 12.

Hey Greg, good to hear things are straightening out for you!! Are you dosing anything for the alkalinity?

[Jayne]

WHAT A WASTE OF VODKA!!!! jAYNE

[charlie]

WHAT A WASTE OF VODKA!!!! jAYNE

[reefhead728]

better vodka than scotch. my tank looks better and better when i dose myself with vodka,.

[gregr]

Well, it was a waste of very cheap vodka if that makes you feel better
Charlie- the alkalinity is naturally high [12-ish] in my tank. The Ocean Pure Pro salt I use is around 10, add to that the calcium reactor and no buffer required. The kalk drip I started seems to be increasing the coral growth- it's only been a week or so but I think I see quite a bit of new growth. I need to measure the alkalinity to see if the kalk drip has made the alkalinity drop any.

[charlie]

I think you will find that the addition of the kalk drip will maintain your alk levels also Greg. Just speaking from what I have found. I have been dripping kalk 24/7 since I redid the 300, and I have found that if I keep up with the kalk, the alkalinity stays at the levels I prefer.

[gregr]

What's the alkalinity level in your tank? I know that 12 is on the high side but from what I've read it's not dangerously high. I would love to have it at 10 though.

[charlie]

My level is at 8.6 DKH Greg, I have a tendency to keep it lower and try to balance with my Ca level, which are usually at 400-420. If you want, take a look at my aquarium log and you can see the weekly results of each test.

[gregr]

Wow! That is an incredibly cool log. I'd love to see some more tank pics
So how exactly do you keep the alkalinity lower than it would be naturally? From what I know about alkalinity, admittedly not as much as I need to, there isn't any additive that lowers alkalinity- only stuff to raise it.