Vodka Dosing for Reducing Nitrates in a Reef Aquarium

Aquaviki’s Monthly “Service Inspirations” Update:  Awesome, Fast, Effective Method for reducing Nitrates in the reef aquarium

Vodka Dosing

Before   |   After 

Pictured above is miwoodar's tank. This aquarium successfully used vodka to lower nitrates and phosphates. His setup utilizes a skimmer but does not utilize ozone. After reduction, continued growth and coloration was observed amongst SPS and LPS corals.

Because it is a source of organic carbon, Vodka addition results in bacterial growth and reproduction which in turn causes NO3 and PO4 levels detectable by most test kits to drop quickly. The increased biomass of the bacteria leads to a notable increase in skimmate production therefore a good skimmer is a must if you are thinking about Vodka dosing.

Vodka is used in comparison to other spirits such as whiskey, gin, or brandy because it is more pure in composition than most other spirits due to the process of distillation.  For this reason vodka is a safer addition than other spirits by eliminating the possibility of adding other organic molecules that may act negatively within the reef environment.

These instructions will focus solely on using 80 proof vodka:

As an example, let us assume that your setup contains 100 Net Gallons.

1. The starting dosage is 0.1ml of vodka per 25 gallons daily continued for three days. For 100 Net Gallons, your dosage would be 0.4ml daily during this period.
2. Days 4-7, double the daily dosage to 0.2ml of vodka per 25 gallons. Your example dosage would be 0.8ml daily during this period.
3. Each subsequent week add an additional 0.5ml of vodka regardless of aquaria volume. At this point your example dosage during week two would be 1.3ml daily.
4. When your NO3 and PO4 levels start to drop maintain the current dose. For example, if you were on week two when NO3 start to fall on 100 Net Water Volume you would add 1.3mL daily at this time for the continuing weeks until the NO3 becomes undetectable.
5. When your NO3 and PO4 levels drop near undetectable with your test kits cut your current dose in half.
6. Continue to test for NO3 and PO4. If levels become detectable in the future increase your daily dose by 0.1ml increments per week until the levels start to decrease. If you maintain that dose the levels will eventually drop back to undetectable. This would become your new maintenance dose.

In summation... Vodka can be used to get some fresh looking water in your fish tank, or maybe you could hire someone to clean your aquarium. AquaViki has tons of experience and does fish tank wonders in the tri-state area. Check out some of AquaViki's available services.