Question on Vodka and Sugar dosing.

[ouling]

Anyone here does this? Even I would never think about something in this nature unless the vodka or sugar have orange flavoring and peptide bonded amino acids:thumbs: . But, I have a BB with no sand anywhere, 2 intermediate large skimmers, very very little live rocks, and a reputable amount of corals. Some of the heavy feeders are begining to fade, and my mili today starts to slowly bleach at areas where it receive high light due to no food (2.5 times the light as a week ago due to upgrade). I feed like crazy, and have 7 little fishies that poop their own weight daily to supplement the corals. Not enough food/bacteria to feed the tiny mouthed stony corals.

I don't think sugar in water will directly benifit the corals in a way that they absorb it through their cells; instead,bacteria content will go up, and when they die slowly as the carbon source gets exhausted, corals have some food, and whatever is not consumed gets skimmed away.

I am adding a sand bed fuge later on, but it takes time for the new sandbed to populate.

Any opinions?

 

[jessezm]

Boy I have read a lot on this but not lately, and not necessarily in depth... My limited understanding was that the carbon source was to cause a bloom in denitrifying bacteria in order to lower the nitrate levels and create a low-nutrient environment, rather than to actually provide nutrients to the coral via dead bacteria. Anyone else care to chime in?

 

[ouling]

Yea I learned that the hardway by dosing the bottle of SeaChem's Calcium Gluconate. My nitrate was a 10 and ended up at 0 in 1 day. But as the denitrifying bacteria dies (when the nitrates are too low), would it get ate by the corals? I want to learn more about this... Ima check JASTOR to see if they have some articles on this Jess. You know JASTOR have alot of stuff about corals, especially the one about table acroporas.

 

[sprayin70]

Hey Ouling alot of Barebottom people use lower lighting than on a DSB tank. Due to the nutrient needs. They also run alittle lower alk for the same reason. The biggest thing with corals is to find a balance between light, nutrients and water chemistry. With a BB the best balance I have found is lower light alot of feeding, good flow, and 10ish Alk. I haven't had any problems since I switched to barbottom. I am full BB with no sand anywhere. The corals are doing much better and seem to be growing well too. I feed the corals twice a week and the fish everyday. I hope you figure things out.

 

[linda lee]

ouling;70206 wrote: Ima check JASTOR to see if they have some articles on this Jess. You know JASTOR have alot of stuff about corals, especially the one about table acroporas.

What is JASTOR? Did you add the link to Showtime's *Informative Links* thread? If not, please do!!! I'd like to check out the site.

 

[jessezm]

O--Are you talking about Jstore, the Johns Hopkins academic journals database? Now that you mention it, I coulf probably find a lot of stuff through Ovid from Emory as well. I'll check it out if I get a spare moment...

 

[ouling]

Sorry. JSTOR. I did some vodka dosing myself yesterday.

 

[flyingarmy]

I use the two part dosing method. Once part Grey Goose, the other part olive juice!

 

[roundman]

LOL enough grey goose and the tank will look great.