vodka rather then excel

you must be joking? vodka will kill your fish. people use it for culling fish also.

^ vodka is actually used by alot of people as a carbon source in the saltwater reef hobby, the dosage is really small so it is not harmful to the fish. You can also use vinegar. They use it to provide a carbon source for bacteria to help reduce nitrates and phosphates in the tank. I have tried it in my reef tank and worked well.

I have never heard of it used in freshwater tanks though, I am not sure how well plants are able to uptake the carbon from this source.

Maybe im mistaking vodka for another form of alcohol.

I've never heard of such a thing... i'm appalled. Why would you ever want to put vodka in there. You know you can drink that stuff right

I was thinking shot for me, shot for tank

It was a one for the tank one for me kind of deal haha. It works though and it is well documented in reef forums to help reduce nitrates.

The dosage is incredibly small, you start of at 0.1ml per gallon and slowly increase the dosage until you begin to see the nitrates drop. I would imagine you would have to dose more in freshwater tanks... I have no evidence, but my inclination is that bacteria are more efficient at using the carbon than plants are.

Glutaraldehyde works well in planted tanks though and dosages are well established so I think it is probably better to use that than vodka.

Vodka is good for disinfecting stuff, and can even be used as a fuel in a pinch. So, does it follow that it would be a good carbon source for aquatic plants? If so, I'm really missing something. Plants are a good source of carbon too, so why don't we put plants in our tanks to supply carbon to the plants in our tanks? :confused1:

Vodka is a source of bioavailable carbon, just like vinegar, just like glutaraldehyde.

C-O-H chains can be broken down so that the carbon becomes available...some chains are more easily broken down than others making some carbon sources more useful than others.

O ok cause i was using excel and it was working great but ran out so i was talking to a friend and he suggested the vodka. Soi figured i ask around here before i just did it. He said the dosage was the same as excel.

The plants may not be as efficient at breaking down the alcohol as they are with glutaraldehyde so you can't say that the dosage will be the same.

Hoppy said:

Vodka is good for disinfecting stuff, and can even be used as a fuel in a pinch. So, does it follow that it would be a good carbon source for aquatic plants? If so, I'm really missing something. Plants are a good source of carbon too, so why don't we put plants in our tanks to supply carbon to the plants in our tanks? :confused1:

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well on that argument Excel(glut) is also a good disinfectant. It is actually used in cold STERILIZATION of surgical instruments like endoscopes that cannot be autoclaved.

Plants don't break down glutaraldehyde. Glut breaks down through reaction with the atmosphere of your tank and provides bioavailable carbon.

Well, I use vodka-but on me, after working on my tanks...

crossett said:

I was told that you could use a cheap vodka rather then excel. Is this true, will it harm the fish,will it work the same.

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Vodka is used in tiny amounts to feed anaerobic bacteria in denitrators.

crossett said:

O ok cause i was using excel and it was working great but ran out so i was talking to a friend and he suggested the vodka. Soi figured i ask around here before i just did it. He said the dosage was the same as excel.

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Does your friend recommend vodka for all questions you put to him?

Whoa whoa whoa, we have all missed a very important thing here!? drunk fish!? good God... The mess and I can only imagine the drunk texts they would send to the shrimp....

Lol.

Seriously though, that would be an awesome substutute if it worked... Glut is not readily available around here

Excel isn't even that expensive, just use Excel. I'm all for DIY and home solutions, but only if it really saves you substantial money with no risk of fauna/plant death.

A reef person crossed wires with a FW plant person on this one, ETOH stay away from for planted tanks.

ETOH, if you feel the system is carbon limited...try feeding the reef a little more, get some macro algae(which leach about 10% of their photosynthate- a carbon rich source for bacteria) in the refuge etc.

NWA-Planted said:

Whoa whoa whoa, we have all missed a very important thing here!? drunk fish!? good God... The mess and I can only imagine the drunk texts they would send to the shrimp....

Lol.

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First off, XD...

plantbrain said:

A reef person crossed wires with a FW plant person on this one, ETOH stay away from for planted tanks.

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Secondly, I concur :icon_lol:. And OP, people that dose vodka in their SW tanks usually use triple distilled vodka. It's not that cheap.