nice coral colors after vodka dosing

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

I have been having problems keeping nitrates and phosphates down. Nitrates have been hovering 10-15 ppm, and the nitrates .25-.50ppm. I have started weekly 20-25 percent water changes and added a canister filter with gfo. The numbers a little bit better but not by much. I started vodka dosing and I am only on my 4th day. Most every thing is extremely happy. The color is popping on several of the corals. I checked the nitrates and phosphates, the trates are still up but the phosphate is between 0-.25. So far everthing is great and just wanted to know what you guys have experienced with it.

jenkins2212 · Feb 28, 2011

Awesome, i just started looking into dosing. I just read up and if you dont do it right it could really screw some things up

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

yea, I read up on it before starting. Made sure to start light and staying on top of testing for sure.

demifelix · Feb 28, 2011

How did you dose your tank?

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

I followed this sites suggestions (

a>). I have a 150 gallon with a 55 gallon sump not even half full, so only about 20 gallons of water. I dosed as if it were a 125 gallon. I still can't get over some of the corals. It looks like I swapped them out with bigger and brighter ones.

haninja · Feb 28, 2011

I get amazing colors after dosing myself with Vodka.

merkywater · Feb 28, 2011

Do you have before and after pictures?

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

I think it is all the above, but, with the gfo and water changes running for as long as it has, with not that much difference, and to see that much of a change after starting and seeing an improvement daily, I have to say they are drunk and happy.

Edit: working on the pics, I took some yesterday and I will take some in about a week and post side by sides.

tsukijifishes · Feb 28, 2011

Just got through reading a mag that talked about the same thing, looks like a interesting idea. I'm gonna be watchin this thread, thanks for sharing.
Tsukijifishes

ralph atl · Feb 28, 2011

Amici;619889 wrote: Are you sure it's the vodka? 4 days seems mighty quick with how slow you are supposed to start off..... I've never heard results that quickly which makes me think it's the GFO and water changes.

it took me a month or two before I saw results....

tsukijifishes · Feb 28, 2011

Found the mag it was in Coral sept-oct. 2010
Probiotics Demystified
I'm gonna be looking into this.

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

a few pics from yesterday
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crewdawg1981 · Feb 28, 2011

I'll add that I saw color improvement pretty quickly after I started dosing my last tank. However, algae improvements werent seen for a month or so.

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

like I said in earlier post, I think it has a lot to do with all of it. I can tell you, after the 2nd day, many of the corals were bigger and some had more color. It maybe a combo of the nitrates and phosphate were just a little on the high side to make the corals unhappy but still thriving, and after the dosing, it was just enough to make a change. I like it so far, and as long as it is positive, I will keep it up.

itsamyheff · Feb 28, 2011

pics from today

Edit: from the other day on the bottom

Edit: sorry, I guess I posted to soon again, it was not an edit but another post,the bottom 3 pics are from the other day.
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