advice Archives - Homemade Ocean

Recently, Tim and I had a bit of a nitrate problem.
We did some research and kept coming up with a very strange remedy.

Vodka dosing.
This perfect drawing found right here.

Let me tell you that the night T came to me and said he wanted to put vodka in our tank with my beloved fishies, I was a little more than leery.

I did my research right away since like most men, he couldn’t wait more than five minutes to get started.

Since we are still officially “youngins” we did happen to have an extra bottle of vodka just lying around, but before he started ~~popping bottles~~ pouring away…I had to get my facts.

I have heard stories of haters pouring nasty bleach in their enemies tanks to kill everything in the tank…..so mean.
If you ever want to break my heart, just threaten that above sentence.

I did what any caring fish mama would do….I made a pun.
Then I got my research on and found out where this crazy idea came from.

Charles Delbeek, M.SC. who is a marine biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium explained that: “the “vodka method” is a means to add inorganic carbon in the form alcohol to cause bacteria to grow. In boosting bacterial growth, nitrate and phosphate are incorporated by the bacteria, lowering these values in the water. The excess bacteria are then either removed through skimming or are consumed by other organisms, such as sponges.”

There were a few debates over this method but the general consensus was it works really well but is a little bit of a shock to your tank so don’t dose alcohol everyday or anything. Which is fine by us because we don’t want to host an A.A. meeting in our tank every Monday.

I gave Timbo the go ahead and he poured in the dose he already had preportioned and waiting.

We are by no means recommending this, because we haven’t done it enough. I will say that we have seen a drop in the nitrates and maybe it’s just in our heads but the colors seem to really be popping!

Check out what my phone thinks…

We shall see…I will keep you posted.

Don’t you love learning new things about your hobbies!

Tim works…..a lot.

We both have full-time jobs to support our saltwater addiction, and you know the whole roof over our heads thing. Details.

The difference is, most nights he comes home and works instead of watching TV with me or snuggling. He actually forced me to start blogging so that I could keep him company in the office. Ok, that last part is a lie, but he does enjoy ~~me not constantly begging him to come snuggle~~ the extra company.

He works in real estate, foreclosures to be all literal. In order to make money in that dog-eat-dog world, you have to put in some extra hours. Which includes late nights and even get this….weekends.

He has a lot on his plate, and even more on his mind. Which would explain why he can never sleep.

I have a hard time falling asleep, you know with all of my compulsive list making. But Tim can’t fall asleep OR stay asleep. Poor thing.

And it has nothing to do with this…

Still sorry honey.

Recently, one of our friends told us about a miracle. Hi Nikki!

We had never heard of Melatonin, but she told us it is all natural and it actually works. As opposed to most things you read and then try and then wonder who thought it was a good idea in the first place.

I’m the skeptic, so Tim took it about a week before I gave into the peer pressure. I was jealous, he was sleeping so soundly that now I was the one that had to get up to let the dogs out.

I needed in on that.

I don’t want to jinx us like I did our Dori. So I am just going to say we give it two thumbs way up in the air. We have been giving it out like candy….to dogs, family, even the kids across the street.

Original photo found here.

Please don’t take that literally, we do not condone drug dealing. Even if it is all natural.

If you look around here you can tell we are clearly not endorsed or perked for saying nice things. But we like to share things that we like.

And we like Melatonin.

Most nights we take it about a half an hour before we climb into bed, so it can work it’s relaxing magic. Then when our heads hit the pillow, we are out. I usually have to get up at least once to go potty, but Timbo is now sleeping through the night.

I’m not saying it’s a miracle…but that’s only because last time I bragged about something, it died.

Are there any other miracles out there that we don’t know about yet?

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Our fish get crunk when we vodka dose....

Sharing our drugzZZzzzZZz....