Vinegar Dosing

[MadReefer]

My nitrates have stayed steady at 40ppm. After much reading I decided to dose vinegar instead of vodka. According to Randy Holmes Vodka seems to cause more cyano issues when dosing compared to vinegar. Recommended vodka dosage is 0.1ml per 10g and vinegar is 8x that so 0.8ml. I have estimated my water volume to be about 90g and have rounded up to 100g. I dosed 1ml of vinegar today. I will keep this up daily and will post updates as thing progress, good or bad.

100g
Day-1, 1ml

 

[panmanmatt]

Be sure to keep a close eye on your PH if you are dosing vinegar. Since it is an acid it will drop your PH. As far as dosage, I have no clue.

 

[shipwrecked]

Not sure here,IMO I would just cont to do weekly water changes and cont good maint on yr tank.Have you tried vanilla extract?? *smerks*

 

[downbeach]

Try this:

http://glassbox-design.com/2008/achieved-through-observation-and-experimentation/

 

[MadReefer]

Jim,
Thanks for the link. I read that sugar is not as great as people think it is. So I do not plan on using it.

 

[downbeach]

I was using vinegar, mainly to offset the pH problems with my kalkwasser dosing. As to the carbon dosing aspect, it did work, but the bacteria grew in areas throughout my system; in every sponge, prefilter, returns and overflows as a redish-brown snotties(for lack of a better work). I was obviously overdosing, but the results were good, my nutrients were undetectable with my test kits. I have since stopped the vinegar in favor of solid carbon dosing, which also seems to be working.

 

[tgee]

I'm currently dosing 66ml daily in a system of about 135 total gallons. I also get bacteria growing, but not to the same degree as downbeach. I think the trick is to ramp up slowly until you find the spot that feels right. I use a BRS dosing pump hooked up to a controller, so the 66ml are spread across 12 hours.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 1- Saturday 12/10/11 - NO3 40ppm
Day 4 - Tuesday 12/13/11 - NO3 20ppm
After 3 days of dosing 1ml of vinegar my nitrates are now at 20ppm. I am about to add the 4th dose.
I will continue this dosage for a week and then retest, 4 more days.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 7 - 5ppm

After 1 week at 1ml daily. I will continue at this rate and see if it goes lower. Have not seen any adverse affects on corals and no algae outbreaks.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 11 - 5ppm

It is slightly less than 5ppm IMO. The API kit is hard to read with the colors and goes from 0, yellow, to 5, light orange.
The color is a bit lighter than 5ppm. I am now going to double the dose, starting today
will be 2ml daily.

 

[downbeach]

Day 11 - 5ppm

It is slightly less than 5ppm IMO. The API kit is hard to read with the colors and goes from 0, yellow, to 5, light orange.
The color is a bit lighter than 5ppm. I am now going to double the dose, starting today
will be 2ml daily.

I think you would be better served to get a better/more accurate test ket. I've compared the new Red Sea with both Salifert and Tropic Marin, and they are all very close.

 

[MadReefer]

I probably should get a new kit. But overall I am happy with the vinegar. My nitrates always hovered at 40ppm and with aggressive water changes I could get them down to 20ppm. I could never get below 20ppm. If I get into the API yellow, 0ppm, I will be much happier. I have not done a WC since I started as I didn't want to skew the test.

 

[shipwrecked]

Ok, question here and someone else chime in.Not doing a water change woul IMO not be a gd thing to not do.I thght the whole idea of water changes was obviously help keep nitrates in check and also renew any used up minerals etc that are depleted by corals or fish?

 

[mnat]

Yeah you do want to continue water changes especially when carbon dosing. The keys to carbon dosing is good nutrient export through a skimmer and water changes.

 

[MadReefer]

I don't mean I will never do a WC again. Just during this initial period. I wanted to see if the nitrates truly dropped from the vinegar. I will re-start my WC schedule again next week.

 

[saltkreep88]

I started with sugar dosing but I noticed some adverse affects on LPS, I also confirmed that with other internet sources. I now am dosing vinegar and seeing good results. I use it more for phosphates than nitrates. I am seeing some slight cyno algae tho.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 16 and no change in Nitrates, still slightly less than 5ppm. I will resume water changes now.

Saltkreep88, I read that happens sometimes. I had bad cyano when dosing Vodka and stopped, this was about2 yrs ago. I read that if you does vodka and get cyano add or switch to vinegar and vice versa if you started dosing vinegar first. I read that sugar was not as great as initially thought. Good luck and keep use posted. You can add to this thread so all results from everyone can be captured in one spot good or bad.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 18 - 10g water change.
Nitrates - the same, slightly less than 5ppm.

 

[MadReefer]

Day 25 and no change in Nitrates., still 5ppm.
All coral seem to be doing well.
I have now doubled the dosage to 4ml starting today.

 

[panmanmatt]

Mark, I am curious as to what the effects have been on your PH. Are you seeing any drop in that?