Vinegar Dosing

[MadReefer]

Nitrates are down to 10ppm. I tested today and glad I did. I was doing maintenance on the tank and unplugged the skimmer yesterday and forgot to turn it back on.

 

[MadReefer]

Nitrates still steady at 40ppm. I am wondering now if I should increase the dosage. It seems at 20ppm Nitrates were at 5ppm or a bit lower.
Any suggestions from you vinegar dosers?

 

[twisted]

Do you get brown crap growing on your rocks? I'm dosing a 250 gal system with 4mil daily and on the left and right sides it's on the sand and rock. My trates do register as 0 as do phates. No algae or cyano, just brown stuff.


Twisteds 180 Reef

 

[spotter]

Nitrates still steady at 40ppm. I am wondering now if I should increase the dosage. It seems at 20ppm Nitrates were at 5ppm or a bit lower.
Any suggestions from you vinegar dosers?

I think you need to figure out what's causing the elevated nitrate levels before increasing the vinegar. something has turned into a nitrate factory.in system. are you using sponges, bio balls or anything else that could promote nitrates? I saw your post for the light and how much ha is in the tank. seems like a lot and to still be registering those levels. Have you tested your phosphates and have you taken water to your lfs yet for testing?

Steve

 

[MadReefer]

I only have use filter sock from DT into sump. The Hair Algae was there before I started dosing and was hoping to eliminate or control it this way.
From what others have told me is I need a better skimmer and am saving for one. I hope between that and the vinegar things will get better.
Also, will be ordering Kent Magnesium to rid HA as others here have used it with success.

 

[spotter]

I was thinking the skimmer might not be cutting it. I will be selling an SRO 1000-INT in about 2 months once I move everything over to my new tank. Its about 14 months old and it has the neck cleaner kit on it too. Not sure what your time frame is but send me a pm if you might be interested.

 

[jsciarrino]

calcium acetate

Nitrates are down to 10ppm. I tested today and glad I did. I was doing maintenance on the tank and unplugged the skimmer yesterday and forgot to turn it back on.

Question if you mix vinegar with calcium sand you'll get calcium acetate would this give you the same results as dosing vinegar but with a higher pH value?

 

[MadReefer]

I am not a chemist and cannot answer your question. Look at the links in this thread for article references.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Question if you mix vinegar with calcium sand you'll get calcium acetate would this give you the same results as dosing vinegar but with a higher pH value?

First off jsciarrino, welcome!

I’m not sure what you mean by “calcium sand.” Although calcium could be present in some sands, the primary ingredient in sand is silica. However, hopefully you have considerable free calcium present in your tank water from the salt you use, dosing limewater or some type of two-part….so for that reason, your chemistry is correct. Anyway, Dr. Randy talks about dosing calcium acetate in the article found HERE. Hopefully this would answer your questions.

 

[downbeach]

Aragonite is calcium carbonate (CaCO3).

 

[jsciarrino]

First off jsciarrino, welcome!

I’m not sure what you mean by “calcium sand.” Although calcium could be present in some sands, the primary ingredient in sand is silica. However, hopefully you have considerable free calcium present in your tank water from the salt you use, dosing limewater or some type of two-part….so for that reason, your chemistry is correct. Anyway, Dr. Randy talks about dosing calcium acetate in the article found HERE. Hopefully this would answer your questions.

Aragonite sand yep that what i use in my tank. I know this may sound weird but I and a tablespoon of Aragonite to 5 mL of vinegar in the morning and at night I throw it in my tank. I hope I am not doing something wrong I have been doing this for years with no ill effect. Calcium levels are stable at 410 ppm. This may also be caused by the 8% water changes I do every two weeks my n02 levels have always been very low. I never add any additives to my tank my coral has been flourishing until I lost my tank from the hurricane we had in August. 1Just redone the tank and everything is growing fantastic. Been having daily battles with red slime and brown slime lately which I believe is to to a crappy skimmer. Thank you for the welcome it's great to be involved with this organization I hope to be more involved in the future. If there is anyone in Hillsborough area let me know love to trade tank war stories over a beer.

 

[redfishbluefish]

OK, now I’m onboard on what you’re doing. You are producing a calcium acetate by allow acetic acid to sit around with calcium carbonate. The only concern I would have, as a means to maintain calcium levels while “feeding” acetate to bacteria, are the impurities that may be present in the Aragonite. Read the above link where Randy talks about copper contamination.

 

[jpelzer]

This thread now comes up first when you search for 'vinegar dosing' in google. Cool, huh?

I started dosing last night, set to dose 1.1ml every 3 hours to start...

 

[TanksNStuff]

Jason, that's probably because Google tracks what sites you visit and usually sticks the ones you frequent most up front.

 

[jpelzer]

Third result on a fresh browser with no tracking cookies. Still cool!

Also, re dosing, when the power went out last Friday, it scrambled my Apex, so my doser ran for a couple hours before I noticed. Probably dropped about 100 ml, pH was temporarily down a half point! No visible damage to creatures though. Dosing 13.2ml/day now.