petplanet Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Any herbivore such as tangs, lawnmower blenny, snails, will have an effect, but mostly not eradicate it completely, although sometimes lawnmower blennies can do a good job, other times not. 400 litre tank, high phosphate, high nitrate, 3 tangs and not a stitch of algae on the rocks. Lucky me. Don't feed the tangs to much and they will have to eat it. Get an old tooth brush and scrub it off. Great for cleaning around the corals. Don't sweat it to much. Early days yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 started vodka yesterday , twice a day at 1ml per 100lts per dose. 3 doses later (1 and 1/2 days)and the water has gone white/opaque. seems to have happened quicker than i thought it would. meanwhile the tangs are chowing down on algae and if not eating the brown in preference to the green, they are dislodging alot of brown to go down and get filter wooled out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Tel you should stop dosing till the cloudiness settles down. This bacterial bloom will clean your tank, in a few days you will see the algae start to die. It also becomes more palatable to fish as it dies and they enjoy eating it more. The downside of this bacterial bloom is the bacteria can use a lot of oxygen in the water. Not an issue during daylight due to photosynthesis, but at night, make sure you have max aeration so the livestock will not suffer. Don't get too worried though I recently saw a vodka induced bacterial bloom the water was so white you could barely discern the back of the tank, and all livestock came through fine. The cloudiness will subside in 2 - 3 days, when it does you should start dosing again, at 1/2 the quantity, ie 1/2 ml twice daily per 100 litres. If after a time algae appears to be gaining ground, increase the dose slighly. If the tank is crisp and clean, try lowering the dose, until you find the correct minimum dose for your tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 cloudiness was anemone blended by stream. so going to continue on with vodka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 my tank looked white and cloudy this morning and i thought it due to vodka...nup...anemone went wandering last night and paid the ultimate price just finished picking him out of tank and definitely is gonna be a closed casket skimmer doing its job well and smelling alot, the other livestock seem unaffected on a more positive note the clowns never did get to know him so they arent shedding any tears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 my tank looked white and cloudy this morning and i thought it due to vodka...nup...anemone went wandering last night and paid the ultimate price just finished picking him out of tank and definitely is gonna be a closed casket skimmer doing its job well and smelling alot, the other livestock seem unaffected on a more positive note the clowns never did get to know him so they arent shedding any tears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slappers Posted April 24, 2006 Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 24, 2006 Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 Bummer! Thought it seemed odd the vodka had such a reaction so fast! Also, when I blended an anemone, I had an algae spike afterwards, so things may get worse before they get better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 filtered out anemone ''cloudiness'' and continuing on with the vodka. today only day 4. anyone got feedback about how long it takes?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted April 24, 2006 Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 for what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2006 for the white bloom of bacteria and recession of algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 You may not get a white bacterial bloom, that is only if you overdose. Just increase the dose each week until it starts to work, may take several weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feelers Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 I dont get why you cant just dump in a relativly larger dose and make it bloom in one go? There is the supposed oxygen depletion thing - but from the sounds of it thats isnt really a problem. If you have a tank with no livestock can you just lump in heaps? I think I'm gonna do that with my one when it's finally up. Seat of your pants algae removal, overindulgence in Vodka dosage is one of my specialties. :lol: I'll try it on my tank so I'll geuss we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 you need to do about 4 x 50% water changes over a week. That will sort it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 I dont get why you cant just dump in a relativly larger dose and make it bloom in one go? There is the supposed oxygen depletion thing - but from the sounds of it thats isnt really a problem. If you have a tank with no livestock can you just lump in heaps? I think I'm gonna do that with my one when it's finally up. Seat of your pants algae removal, overindulgence in Vodka dosage is one of my specialties. :lol: I'll try it on my tank so I'll geuss we'll see. I know of several occasions that has been done, a big dollop of vodka, followed by a cloudy bacterial bloom, and in each case it nuked the algae and cyano. However, there is a risk to livestock so it's not recommended. But it just depends how desperate a person is to deal to their algae. The other thing is that a longer term view should be taken of nutrient control, to make sure things stay good. So a regular dosing program should be followed, always with a view to seeing how little you can get away with, eventually vodka might be able to be phased out altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tel Posted April 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 vodka dosing now day 5.....1.0ml/ 100lts twice daily, hair algae turning whitish. looking back the hair started just as my PO4 went from .25 to 0 ,so it uptaking the PO4 before its testable makes sense. the tank actually smells of vodka which i didnt expect for some reason. no cloudiness so i think ill continue at that dosage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneo Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 the tank actually smells of vodka which i didnt expect for some reason. no cloudiness so i think ill continue at that dosage. I'm dosing too and my tank smells of voddies aswell, is it a bad thing or a sign to change some water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossco Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Just to add a few different thoughts...you are dosing vodka to put into your tank as much unadulterated alcohol as possible. You CAN'T smell alcohol! You immediately think cops and breath test - you can smell the OTHER bits of the liquor remaining in the mouth/throat not the alcohol! Which is why we have to get the most pure vodka we can get. So what are you smelling in your tank - the additives in the vodka or something your tank is generating? :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 what you are smelling is on your breath, one shot for the tank, three shots for yourself. try it the other way around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Exactly what I was thinking Ross. Perhaps it's the extra bacterial activity? Long as it's not affecting any corals & they're sliming or something, everything looking healthy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneo Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 one shot for the tank, three shots for yourself ahaha not me, had a bad voddy experience so the tank has it all to itself :lol: All livestock is good, including mushies. I feel nervous putting booze in my tank. Its got only a faint smell of vodka I'm using smirnoff triple dist. Chimera your local. Do you have any spare snails maybe they can help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 yeah got plenty of snails, pm me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelifaxNZ Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 What brands of Vodka are you all using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 absolut when i was dosing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Smirnoff when I was dosing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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