Vodka For Algae Control

[forlando]

My brother-in-law tells me that he was told to add vodka to his aquarium as a benign method of controlling algae. Has anyone ever heard of this?

 

[Truck]

find the thing that is not right that is causing the algae and rectify it instead of reverting to voddy

 

[rossyt99]

....I would be very intrigued to know how many have tried!?

 

[Truck]

....I would be very intrigued to know how many have tried!?

loads of people. many use it in salt water tanks

 

[AdAndrews]

bit of a waste, but whatever floats your boat

 

[three-fingers]

If I remember correctly, vodkas just a way of adding carbon (in the form of sugar? or alcohol) into the tank, which gives bacteria a boost allowing them to consume more nitrate

Interestingly, in FW tanks, excel and easycarbo are used to give plants a boost of extra carbon and it has been noted to kill algae too, though for different reasons.

 

[bighammerfan]

What a waste of vodka. Try a UV sterilizer. That worked great for me.

 

[aaronnorth]

What a waste of vodka. Try a UV sterilizer. That worked great for me.

that only kills free floating algae cells.

 

[bighammerfan]

Get a pleco

I was actualy told to use vodka to euthanaise my last fish !

 

[Liam50]

Get a pleco

I was actualy told to use vodka to euthanaise my last fish !

get a sponge and scrape it off. pleco's are useless.

 

[helterskelter]

Vodka!!!!! i got 5 bottle's here but none will goto the fish!

 

[RadaR]

Get a pleco

I was actualy told to use vodka to euthanaise my last fish !

get a sponge and scrape it off. pleco's are useless.

Only some species aren't very good at cleaning algae. For example, Panaques prefer to graze on wood. Golden Nuggets also like meat. However, Bulldog plecs and Bristlenose plecs are great at algae. I do believe in finding the cause of the algae and treating that rather than a quick-fix method that might not be successful in the long term.

 

[nitro7]

well all i can say is try it ,get the vidio ready ,because ive never see drunk fisn before lol,
hope it works

 

[RadaR]

This sort of thing would only work in a marine tank.
In marine tanks, the owners strive to decrease the nitrate levels as much as possible. Areas in the rock and sand where there is no oxygen allow anerobic de-nitrifying bacteria to populate, which break nitrate into nitrogen gas and oxygen. This doesn't give them "food" (unlike what happens with nitrifying bacteria when the two types breakdown ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite to nitrate), therefore to ensure maximum efficiency, marine owners may add vodka to the tank as a source of food for the de-nitrifying bacteria so that the de-nitifying bacteria can continue to effectively break down the nitrate. Lower levels on nitrates in marine tanks seem to minimize the algae.
In freshwater aquariums this doesn't work anywhere near as effectively and it's not worth the hassle and would probably give more problems than you had originally.

 

[FishBeast]

thats classic. I wouldnt do it for moral reasons alone lol