damn reef central let me down

[baldomero]

i cant believe i went into the chemistry forum and took the advice of some reefers on how to dose vodka and i did my first doose last night and all my fish died today at 12noon what the heck did i do wrong i should of left the nitrates the way they were DDDDDDAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[KillerReef]

Totally sorry to hear that, how much did you dose?

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by baldomero
i cant believe i went into the chemistry forum and took the advice of some reefers on how to dose vodka and i did my first doose last night and all my fish died today at 12noon what the heck did i do wrong i should of left the nitrates the way they were DDDDDDAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

That is very distressing and sad to hear

I have always made a point of not making my main tank a science fair project. It is very easy on a site as huge as this to take the advice of a very select few and act on it instantly. Not realizing your ecosystem is different from everyone elses.

Did you make measurements of nitrates in your system before dosing?

Here is the mother of all threads on vodak dosing

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1589131

[baldomero]

TO TELL U THE TRUTH I ONLY DOSED 2CAPFULS THATS IT MY NITRATES WERE BETWEEN 60 AND 80 AND EVEN WITH WATER CHANGES DIDNT GO DOWN SO I RESORTED TO THE VODKA AND LOST 14 OF MY 16 FISH sorry i had caps on by mistake

[seapug]

Do you have a protein skimmer on this tank?

[brdracing]

Your first dose should have only been about .6ml of Vodka that is if you were dosing your 150gallon fowlr tank.
Brooks

[baldomero]

maybe that was my mistake i just added 2 capfuls so it must of been my fault not reef centrals sorry for saying that i take it back and yes i do have a protein skimmer a coralife 250

[brdracing]

Way to much! Sorry to hear about the loss!
I would keep doing water changes for a couple weeks then you can mostly likely start adding fish. Just check all your water Perms first.
Sorry again
brooks

[seapug]

Originally posted by baldomero
maybe that was my mistake i just added 2 capfuls so it must of been my fault not reef centrals sorry for saying that i take it back and yes i do have a protein skimmer a coralife 250

A typical cap from a bottle of Vodka is probably at least 2 or 3 ml, so that was an overdose for sure.

[baldomero]

well im gonna do a 50% water change right now and just check my parameters from there and see when i can stock again

[sedor]

That really does suck man! I hate to hear about the loss, I know there is almost no positive way to look at it, but next time you won't make the same mistakes, and hopefully this thread will help someone else that's about to make the same mistake.

So sorry again!

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally posted by seapug
A typical cap from a bottle of Vodka is probably at least 2 or 3 ml, so that was an overdose for sure.

It's more than that. My bottle is almost empty so I fill the cap up and use a syringe to pull it out of there and I get about 6ml out of a cap. OP, have you read the RK article about it? it describes in detail what and how to dose.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Here give this a good read and make sure you understand it before you dose next time. Sorry for your loss, I would be mad as well.

[baldomero]

man and i was looking for something to measure the ml of vodka and couldnt find it so i thinking i was on the dime more or less put in 2 capfuls the good news is as im emptying out my tank to do the waterchange it looks like i didnt lose all my fish after all ive seen about five fish so far but im still mad cause i lost my prized blacktrigger and four soldier fish and my pork fish and lets see what else i find in there that died or didnt make it

[Sisterlimonpot]

Run the skimmer really wet. Did you get cloudy water from it?

I did something similar a long time ago when sugar was being talked about as the carbon base. I added a spoon full of sugar and the next day the tank was super cloudy. I added an air stone and ran the skimmer wet, it saved the tank.

[seapug]

Definitely a good idea to invest in a proper measuring device before getting involved in any sort of carbon dosing routine. If you can't find one elsewhere, most salifert test kits come with a 2 ml syringe.

[Ohiomom]

You can also use a baby medince dropper..can get them from any drug store..

[baldomero]

i know but i did this late last night and i couldnt find the measuring tool and yes the water was a little cloudy but hopefully by tomorrow it should be clear

[jlemoine2]

Sorry to hear about the losses. From my experience in this forum, there is a great deal of advice, some good while others bad. All advice needs to be researched before jumping into something. As you know by now, you overdosed on the vodka... a little more research would have prevented this.

Keep your chin up though, you are not the first one to make a mistake.

Oh, you might want to figure out why your nitrates are so high. While proper carbon dosing may bring this down, you may want to take steps to correct the root cause of your problem.

[Sisterlimonpot]

My root cause is I feed too much and don't change the water as often as I should and that my friend is why I dose carbon. Although not something that is recommended to new tanks or someone that is new to the hobby it’s an easy way to control N03 and P04.

[baldomero]

yeah i should of researched and asked more questions but u learn from your mistakes and ive definitely learned but on the bright side now i get to put some new fish that ive been looking at and also this saturday i will finish that bottle of vodka in memory of my fish that i killed (by mistake)

[jlemoine2]

Originally posted by Sisterlimonpot
My root cause is I feed too much and don't change the water as often as I should and that my friend is why I dose carbon. Although not something that is recommended to new tanks or someone that is new to the hobby it’s an easy way to control N03 and P04.

You don't have the time to do a water every once in a while, but you have time to go through the tedious procedure of measuring vodka each and every day, while doing regular measurements of nitrates and phosphates? Sounds backwards to me, but it sounds like a good reason to handle vodka

[jlemoine2]

Originally posted by baldomero
yeah i should of researched and asked more questions but u learn from your mistakes and ive definitely learned but on the bright side now i get to put some new fish that ive been looking at and also this saturday i will finish that bottle of vodka in memory of my fish that i killed (by mistake)

That's the spirit!

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by baldomero
yeah i should of researched and asked more questions but u learn from your mistakes and ive definitely learned but on the bright side now i get to put some new fish that ive been looking at and also this saturday i will finish that bottle of vodka in memory of my fish that i killed (by mistake)

I would strongly suggest you wait for awhile before adding new fish. Do your water changes and measure your ammonia and nitrates for awhile until you make sure they are zero or close to it---it should not be hard if you only have a few fish left.

On a heavily loaded fowlr tank like you had the less drastic way to control the nitrates is weekly water changes.
Also I would consider not having so many fish again in that size of tank--just a suggestion

[baldomero]

hey captain how many fish do u recommend for a 150 more or less