[rastarainy]

according to someone who is on reefkeeping magazine, they add 6 mLs of vodka to their 400 some gallon reef tank daily. is this a normal additive to the water? what does the vodka do exactly? here's the link btw, he's got a pretty nice tank (scroll down to "food, additives, and supplements" for the vodka thing)

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-12/totm/index.php

 

[Fishfirst]

vodka dosing is to feed bacteria that convert nitrates into nitrogen gas. Unfortunately it is not something I would recommend unless you are willing to possibly lose your entire tank.

 

[smark]

That Reef tank is amazing. And it looks amazingly expensive.

 

[rastarainy]

oh i see. yea i was a little confused when i saw that, whoever owns that tank must seriously know what he's doing if he doses it daily with it.

 

[Sea-Agg2009]

His tank looks amazing, though it looks like half his house is devoted to it's filtration and maintenance. All those pictures of his filtration setup would scare any amateur away from reef tanks.

 

[k-dawg-]

oh i see. yea i was a little confused when i saw that, whoever owns that tank must seriously know what he's doing if he doses it daily with it.

The main thing is just do have a big skimmer to remove the bacterial bloom that will occur when the bacteria feed off the vodka, without being skimmed out the bacteria will run out of food and the colony will collapse crashing the tank.

 

[rastarainy]

as FF described...the nitrates turn into nitrogen gas...but how does this help the tank? does the nitrogen gas just evaporate into the air removing the nitrates with it? or do you need a mechanical device to take the gas out?

 

[k-dawg-]

Nitrogen gas bubbles out of tank-->bacteria absorb Oxygen molecules-->bacteria skimmed out of tank. That is my understanding of it. HTH

EDIT: A Nitrate ion is NO3- if that helps you visualize it

 

[rastarainy]

ah. back to basic chemistry.