Do you have a link for the dosage?
From the article I linked, here ya go...
Vodka Dosing... Distilled
As the article talks about an increase of biological oxygen demand, to combat this, I strongly recommend proper pond husbandry techniques such as good water circulation (i.e., pump "turns pond over" at least once a hour), filtration so to capture the accumulated muck, and possibly an air diffusor.
This solution involves monitoring Phosphate and Nitrate levels from a low concentration testing instrument.
For low concentration Phosphate testing, the options are: 1)
API Phosphate liquid test kit; 2)
Hanna Phosphate Checker; 3)
HACH Calorimeter with
HACH Method Reagant 8048. #2 and #3 is far more accurate than #1. Also, water turbidity impacts water testing and #3 works best in preventing water turbidity from interfering. #1 is the cheapest.
For low concentration Nitrate testing, I found the
Freshwater Salifert Nitrate Test kit the best, but the API Nitrate test kit is sometimes good depending on water turbidity.
My guess is that these dosages are not too scientific so I imagine the dosage could be rounded off a tiny bit to make for easier measuring without having to purchase a syringe, but below dosages is directly from the article.
Also, since this is not very scientific, then I am curious if the daily maintenance doses is actually needed, that is if you have a significant amount of plants in the pond.
I adjusted the dosages to an increment that is more easy to adapt to a pond context and condensed the instructions.
Dosage recommendation from the article,
Vodka Dosing... Distilled :
- Test your system’s NO3 and PO4 levels. Do not dose if you do not know this! We recommend good test kits that have some low level of sensitivity. This will be important later on to determining a maintenance dose regimen. During the initial dosing test often and adjust dosing parameters as needed as each pond’s requirement will be different. Dosing accuracy is of the utmost importance. A journal of additions and test kit measurements is recommended.
- For vodka dosing there is absolutely no harm in underestimating the pond volume and is recommended. As an example, let us assume that your pond is 1500 gallons if you only "think" the pond is 2,000 gallons.
- Do not double dosing to make up for skipped days.
- For dosing, then use a 0.1ml rated syringe would work best. If able, split the dose in half to make two doses each day.
- Days 1~3, dosage is 0.1ml per 25 gallons
- Here are some conversions numbers...
- 0.1 ml per 25 gallons
- 1 ml per 250 gallons
- 1 teaspoon per 1232 gallons
- 1 tablespoon per 3696 gallons
- So, for 1500 gallon pond it is 1.25 teaspoons per 1540 gallons.
.
- Do not increase dosages once you notice Nitrate and Phosphate levels beginning to fall. If nutrient levels start to fall, then skip steps 6 through 8.
- Days 4-7, double the dosage. For 1500 gallon pond, it would be 2.5 teaspoons.
- Each subsequent week, add 50% more too the dosage. For 1500 gallon pond, it 3.75 teaspoons, which is also 1 tablespoon plus .75 teaspoons.
- At week 2, if there is no decrease in Phosphate and Nitrate levels, then add an additional 0.5 ml to Week 3's dosage. 0.5 ml is same as 0.1 teaspoons.
- Once Phosphate and Nitrate levels are undetectable, reduce the daily dosage by half and this will be your daily maintenance dosage.
- Continue to test for NO3 and PO4. If levels become detectable in the future increase your daily dose by 0.1ml increments per week until the levels start to decrease. If you maintain that dose the levels will eventually drop back to undetectable. This would become your new maintenance dose.
