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I had a Phosphate spike. I took my filter sock out of the sump as I believe this and expired GFO was the culprit. Caught it in time before I had a diatom and algae outbreak, but want to experiment with vodka dosing as a backup control for my phosphate reactor. What is recommended dosage for a 300 display with a 100 sump? What proof of vodka, I'm assuming maximum proof is better so I'm not feeding other things into the system besides carbon. Is a diaphragm dosing pump recommended, or measure and dose on a timed interval?

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When you say phosphate spike, how high did they get? I have dosed vodka for a lengthy period of time in the past. My water was extremely clear but i basically turned my tank sterile. I would start off dosing low, like 5ml a day for a 300g and monitor if you are going to do it. Use a decent 80 proof vodka. You don't need grey goose but something like Brandon said would work. Tito's, Absolute....etc no dark eye's, leave that for the college kids to kill off brain cells.

 

Also for anyone carbon dosing you need to have a decent skimmer.

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I used to do this year's ago when I had a 20g setup. Seemed to do alright because I had crap for equipment. My best thing was a sea clone skimmer. Lol. I was able to keep a coral banded, a couple fish, a rock flower nem about 5" across that ate chromis and had decent success before I tore it down and took a break when our oldest was born.

 

The chart Brandon posted is what I went by. I just dosed it with one of those tiny syringes that measured in .1 increments. I think I have a few lying around here if anyone is interested in giving this a shot and can bring to the meet if I can track them down.

 

I just used grey goose because it's what I like and had it and I probably accidentally spilled more pouring a shot than I would in the tank in a month.

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Also realize that this is going to have very small impact on phosphate. If you've not looked at Redfield ratio do as you'll see that it's more effective with nitrates and if you don't have nitrates phosphates can't be consumed.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

 

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Nitrates are 0. PO4 is 38 ppb. Doing another GFO change to see if I can drive that number to 0. I will hold off experimenting with Absolut as I have no nitrates. Probably need to look at changing RODI particulate and carbon filters as they may be the phosphate source, our tap water is 78 ppb PO4. RO specific gravity is 1.000, need to invest in a hand held TDS meter to see what solids I am putting into the tank. Thanks everyone.

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Nitrates are 0. PO4 is 38 ppb. Doing another GFO change to see if I can drive that number to 0. I will hold off experimenting with Absolut as I have no nitrates. Probably need to look at changing RODI particulate and carbon filters as they may be the phosphate source, our tap water is 78 ppb PO4. RO specific gravity is 1.000, need to invest in a hand held TDS meter to see what solids I am putting into the tank. Thanks everyone.

 

I wouldn't try to pull po4 to 0 as you really want to target .02-.08 as that works best for your corals

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