sugar vs vodka

[moumda]

I'm thinking about dosing my tank with either sugar or vodka for nitrate reduction. Is there any advantage of 1 over the other? Have read many of the articles and will take it very slowly and test in between doses.

[Billybeau1]

I don't recommend either. Too many negatives and not enough positives. Have you read this ?

Nitrate and the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

[moumda]

Good article. I have a bare bottom tank and the container I was using for my refugium failed and I had to take it down. Since I have setup another 29 with chaeto in it and a dsb in a bucket. I was trying to get the bucket dsb jump started with a small sugar dose. I understand I need to moniter the oxygen content in the water in the event of a bacteria bloom but what other dangers would I have to watch out for?

[bertoni]

Corals can react to organic compounds in the water. I wouldn't add sugar to get a DSB in a bucket going. It just takes some time.

[moumda]

Thanks for the replies.