Sugar dosing

[RandyN]

I'm thinking about trying to start sugar dosing and I got a 55 gallon tank with 1 coral and a couple of bubble tip anemones and some snails but I got fish in a quarantine ready to come out and I got another tank that is a 30 gallon tank with some clownfish and gobies in it and a red mushroom anemone and 1 bubble tip anemone in it but I want to dose sugar to my 55 gallon and I wanted to know if I can put it right into the tank and how much cause I've been reading about it and it says 1/8 of a teaspoon so if anyone knows about this please let me know thanks

[Sk8r]

THe essential question is WHY do you want to do it? What condition are you trying to combat?

[DrPheel]

Do you mind me asking why you want to start carbon dosing ? from what you describe I think 1 pound of LR per gallon and good circulation is good enough for bio filtration. The dosage itself can vary from tank to tank and it is a very complex process for the outcome , Carbon dosing in the long run will give you a LNS ( low nutrient system ) this will not benefit any of the current corals you have now. They are more popular in SPS tanks and heavy stocked system were you want to lower nutrients due to heavy feeding or bio load.

My suggestion would be to figure out why you want to dose carbon first and also look at other options like vinegar , vodka and bio pellets!

[Dkuhlmann]

Sugar dosing will drop nitrates in a hurry. I used it with no ill effects and only took just over a week to drop nitrates from 80+ down to below 10.

[gone fishin]

I agree with the others, why do you want to carbon dose?

[Dkuhlmann]

He wants to reduce nitrates, he added to another thread in the reef forum;

I have a 55 gallon tank with 1 coral and 2 bubble tip anemones in it and some snails and crabs and a lobster and my nitrates are at 50 and I got some fish that gotta come out of my quaritine tank but I want to get the nitrates down and I want to try the sugar dosing regimen but I don't know how much to dose but after reading a bunch of stuff on sugar dosing I think I gotta do 1/8 of a teaspoon every 2 days cause of the coral and I got a coralife super skimmer 65 but no sump so can I put the sugar right in my tank and how much should I put in and how often

[Dkuhlmann]

I dosed 1/8 teaspoon every other day for about 10 days, I had a total water volume of around 40ish gals. Yes I put the sugar right into the main tank in a high flow area and just sprinkled it around. My nitrates were in the 80's and after the dosing I was less than 10

[CStrickland]

Sprinkling sugar into a tank seems like a pretty harmless thing to do b/c we don't think of sugar as a "chemical" but it is and you are tweaking the tanks biofilter significantly.

IMO before someone starts a carbon dosing regimen they should have their other husbandry in order: water changes, feeding schedule, appropriate filtration and maintenance (like is the skimmer broken in and pulling the right "wetness," are filter flosses being cleaned on sched), stocking, etc. That should keep nitrates pretty close to ideal. Then they should research the topic thoroughly and understand what they are doing to the system writ large, how to step up and how to back off when the results are achieved. After all that, carbon dosing is a great way to polish off the last nutrients that are hanging around.

This idea that you can sprinkle a little sugar, or pour a shot of vodka, into your tank as a magic bullet is dangerous b/c is can cause all kinds of blooms, and is often a bandaid for lazy reefing.

[gone fishin]

If water changes are not cutting it then I would look into a different skimmer. I had one of those coralife skimmers and to be kind they do not work very well.

I also agree with CStrickland look into your feeding regimen and maintenance schedule.

[Dkuhlmann]

When I got back into reefing at the first of the year the 20L I setup along with the 20 sump had high nitrates 80 ish and the skimmer was working overtime and I was doing wc's but wanted to see if the sugar worked, it did and after my nitrates were down to 10 or so I did a wc and never had a nitrate issue since. Keep in mind this was right after cycling my tank.

So people can think what they want, but I used it for this reason and it worked very well I might add.

[Wilsontank]

Originally Posted by Dkuhlmann

When I got back into reefing at the first of the year the 20L I setup along with the 20 sump had high nitrates 80 ish and the skimmer was working overtime and I was doing wc's but wanted to see if the sugar worked, it did and after my nitrates were down to 10 or so I did a wc and never had a nitrate issue since. Keep in mind this was right after cycling my tank.

So people can think what they want, but I used it for this reason and it worked very well I might add.

I sow online that it sometimes leaves a sewer smell in your tank is this true ?? And once you start dosing did you have to continue doing this to keep the nitrate low at all time ? Or did you do it for a week or so and kept up with maintenance schedule ?

[Dkuhlmann]

No I didn't have any strange odors, This is such a small amount of sugar I laughed when I put it in thinking there's no way this is going to work. But it did.

I've never used it again since. Like others have said good husbandry is necessary in keeping nitrate down. I've got a huge ball of chaeto that does a great job of keeping nitrates down. I only used the sugar after the initial cycle to get rid of the 80 nitrates that I had after my cycle was finished. My nitrates were over 120 right after ammonia and nitrites went to 0 I did two wc's and still was at 80 so I did the sugar thing and in 10 days I was at 10 or less nitrates.

[Sk8r]

Not against your doing it, just want to be sure you don't overdo. Find a table and stick to it, and you should see a reaction from your skimmer.

[disc1]

I would strongly recommend carbon dosing with ethanol or vinegar before trying sugar. Many people dosing sugar alone have reported starting red slime infestations or weird bacterial blooms. These seem to happen much less with vodka or vinegar.

[Dkuhlmann]

Oh yeah I had to take my skimmer offline, the table was 1/8 teaspoon every other day sprinkled into the heavy flow of the tank per 50 gal of tank volume if I remember correctly. I was just surprised that it worked as well as it did. It was such a small amount.

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by disc1

I would strongly recommend carbon dosing with ethanol or vinegar before trying sugar. Many people dosing sugar alone have reported starting red slime infestations or weird bacterial blooms. These seem to happen much less with vodka or vinegar.

Yes I had a red cyano bloom after that lasted about 3 weeks, I had never considered that they were related to each other

[CStrickland]

Yup. You're basically adding bacteria steroids, cyano and nasty slimes are bacteria.
Idk if the prevalence of cyano with sugar has to do with the structure of the carbon itself, or the polyhydroxyalkanoates, or just that people follow established protocols carefully when they use vin/vodka so there is less user error.

Also, when monkeying with the delicate balance of bacteria in a tank, one should consider gas exchange in addition to actually removing the nutrient laden bacteria. Turning off the skimmer during carbon dosing is a sketchy proposition.