Well, I have been dosing vodka for a month now and so far so good. The tank is clean and growth has really exploded. The only thing I did not like was the growth of red slime. The vodka is feeding the slime and causeing it to grow.
I dropped in some red slime remover the other day and my corals were not happy with it. I have since done a 40% water change and added a large bag of carbon. My skimmer has not been able to come online for 3 days now because the medication is making it go nuts. The red slime remover didn't even take out all the red slime.
I hate medicating my tank so it looks like the vodka is going bye bye.
Ohh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I have been dosing vodka for about two weeks now with great result. My thoughts are as follows:
Good
-My skimmer is pulling out more gunk then ever
-My water is even clearer now
-Polyp extension in corals has greatly increased
-Coral growth has exploded. Within two weeks of dosing I have counted 36 new, small coral heads coming out of my large mille.
-The sand bed is whiter.
-Glass and overflow box stay cleaner longer.
-Dino's are now gone :D :D
-Coraline algae has begun to show up on pumps and over flow.
Bad
-Some corals have lightened up even more.
-Red slime is appearing in spot it hasn't before.
-Bacteria is making my sand bed clumpy, so I have to gravel vac it twice a month.
I am happy with the dosing thus far. I have discontinued dosing of Reefbooster until my skimmer stops pulling gunk out.
I uploaded some new shots of my rimless reef. Check them out in the picture section!
Update:
1. Since I have the Dino's under control I have decided to destroy them once and for all! I have had the lights off for about 36 hours now along with dripping Kalk to drive up the Ph. A couple more days of darkness and high Ph should do the trick. Hopefully my SPS don't hate me for it. :D
2. Looks like I have a ton of bacteria on my sandbed. It is really clumping up. Looks like the bacteria is binding to the carbonate. I may end up replacing the sandbed for a new one, possibly this weekend.
3. I picked up a few new frags the other day from a local reefer. Ended up getting an Idaho grape monti, green slimmer, and orange digi. They are bland corals to many people but I love them.
4. I am still dosing the vodka method but may stop dosing it. I have noticed increased red cyano bacteria since starting dosage. I am probably going to be adding a cheto refugium this weekend and ditching the vodka. Im gonna monitor the red cyano carefully and continue vodka dosage for another week.
5. I rearranged the entire right side of the aquarium. I moved some rocks around and created a nice set of caves for my fish to live in. Plus I now get better flow between the rock work.
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will have some pics of the new aquascape today.
I have a minor issue with Dinoflagellates that I have been able to keep under control so far, but need to get rid of it completely.
I had Dino's many years ago when I was first getting into the hobby and it nearly wiped my tank out.
Because of my past experiences with Dino's I have decided to increase my dose of Prodibio Biodigest. Along with the increased dosage of bacteria I have started dosing Vodka.
I started with 0.5 ml yesterday and will follow the dosing instruction in this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/
I am hoping that by feeding another form of bacteria it will out compete the Dino's for food.
Like I said, the Dino's are not that bad right now, only enough to annoy me, but they need to be wiped out before they can get a foothold.
Hey guys and gals, Just wanted to drop a line and let you know that I have added a new "Pictures" section the the site. Let me know what you think.
Sonny
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