Vinegar Dosing SPS Tank

[mguili1947]

peroxide

My Tank is full of Sps I was also afraid to do it.Type in peroxide on this site that is where I got the idea from,I did a lot of reading before I tried it. I must say it worked. I even sprayed the peroxiide directly on a couple of corals with a baster under the water. I used 14 mil for my 120 gallon tank allowing for the sump and 17 mil for my 150 gallon. I have continued to dose for two months now with no problems. I also do my weekly water changes

 

[mcarroll]

Definitely good to be sure that's not the case before

 

[Jimbo]

I've seen those bucket-vacs before....might have to pick one up. I've been doing sump-cleaning using a regular siphon hose....not efficient to siphon at ground level!! As a result it's never gotten done very often. :thumb:

On an unrelated note, isn't an 8-bulb T5 fixture a ***-load of light for an 18" tank?
(Not a T5 junkie, but my rule of thumb was always that 4-tubes would be fine for that depth...and I've seen 6-tubes run a 36" deep reef...fwiw.)

I'm guessing you did that big of a fixture for the coverage since 30x30 is a lot of surface area?

Have you ever measured your lux at the water surface?
Lux meters are dirt cheap - $15 for a good handheld...or free if your phone camera will work well with a lux meter app...worth trying. And you should get a lux meter if you don't already have one (or something better).

I bet (without seeing your lux measurement) that this may also be a small part of your algae issue. There isn't a lot of concrete data that I could find in a quick search, but this seems to indicate that if your light is 12" from the water, you could be beaming your tank with over 1200 PAR. Maybe up to 2600 PAR if your light is only 6" from the water or lower. If I'm close to correct in these guesses then you could definitely get away with much less light in terms of keeping your corals happy.

Lemme know your thoughts on this.

I have considered this was too much light before ( I went with 8 bulbs because of the 30" width of the tank)and is the reason that I run 2 Actinic Bulbs as I've read they are low on PAR. I have never tested before but I did just download a LUX app on my iPhone.

With just the 2 Actinics on I'm getting a reading of about 1900 Lux
All 8 bulbs getting a reading of 36,000 lux

How do those numbers sound ? That's just about right at the water surface

 

[mcarroll]

Possibly correct, but actually on the lower end (which is fine, if true).

How far is that from the bulb?

And which iPhone/which app? I'll download and compare on mine to see if I get sensible numbers.

 

[Jimbo]

That's 9" from the bulbs, dead center, peaks at about 38,000. Iphone 5, it's called LuxMeter and it's a Free download.

 

[mcarroll]

App color mostly red and made by Application Manufactory? Downloading...

 

[mcarroll]

It doesn't register over 3500 lux for me...can't say whether I trust your number or not. :-/

 

[Jimbo]

App color mostly red and made by Application Manufactory? Downloading...

Yes, thats the one. Wow, only 3800 for you? my lights cant be that bright ! registered half that with just the 2 Actinics. Is there an APP you recommend I could try?

You made sure the camera was set on the front of the phone right? I tried it with the camera set at "Rear" and I got low numbers like you.

 

[mcarroll]

Ya...front cam. I think the cameras aperture logic is getting in the way...for me at least.

All I could say is try all the free apps and see if any of them agree.

Or better, pony up $15 for a handheld on eBay, Amazon, etc.

 

[Jimbo]

Tried a couple of the other freebies. Was getting 300,400,500 readings with them. Less as I moved them toward the light....

Seems like the LuxMeter app was working the best. Numbers varied as I moved it to different locations but not wildly so. Also numbers went up as I moved it closer to the light. Assuming it s somewhat accurate, how are those numbers I mentioned ?

Tried it on my IPad too and obtained similar numbers. A little bit higher , I didn't want to get too close to the water !

 

[mcarroll]

~20,000-80,000 lux is acceptable for "direct sunlight" conditions. (Check out wikipedia's Lux article.) I was really expecting something to the greater end of the scale though....which would make sense given your wattage/bulbs. My lowly 160w LED fixture gets around 80,000.

 

[Larry L]

Jimbo - I'd try a different nitrate test on your tank water (e.g. Salifert) to see if it also gives a zero reading, just to make sure... Could buy one, borrow from someone local, take a sample to the LFS, etc. Also, even though your topoff water reads zero TDS, I'd do a nitrate test on that too, just to rule it out as a potential input to the system.

Larry

 

[BB Smith]

If you dose vinegar, here is what I am doing based on a lot of research. First week dose is 15 ml of 5% white vinegar per 100 gal of water (Not rock). Second week double the dose to 30 ml per 100 gal. Third week go to 45 ml per 100 gal and go no higher. Keep at this level until your skimmer seems to have "caught up". You need a good skimmer to do dosing. Some people continue to dose long term.

Are you adding this vinegar once a week or daily

 

[bobnicaragua]

Zombie thread!!

 

[Screwgunner]

Get a small syringe get some peroxide from your local drug store 3% with no stabilizer. Turn of your pumps and shot it into the hair algea. It will kill it alittle at a time.

 

[bobnicaragua]

The zombie rises again!!

 

[Reefahholic]

I obviously have phosphate and nitrate available or I wouldn't have a problem. I am considering dosing vinegar but how do I gauge my dosage when I have no detectable nitrate?

Jimbo after looking at your pictures IMO, you don’t have enough phosphate available if you’re getting .02 on a accurate test like Hanna Phosphorus ULR. Here’s why…the majority of the phosphate that’s available is being consumed by the GHA. So in actuality, it’s not available to anything else. The algae is outcompeting the corals, biome, etc. What’s leftover is very minimal and not enough to keep the corals healthy or support the microbiome especially in a younger tank. It may seem counterintuitive, but the way to end this battle is to raise the phosphate level. This brings competitors to the battlefield, and you’ll see the GHA start to weaken. At the same time you need to remove as much as possible so that you don’t overdose PO4. Once you hit the threshold, you need to push past it (beyond what the algae is consuming) so that the biome will begin to thrive. Hope that makes sense. Dosing vinegar will likely complicate the situation, and bury nutrients even further. I’d also be careful dosing H2O2.

Is this tank under 2 yrs?

 

[bobnicaragua]

Jimbo after looking at your pictures IMO, you don’t have enough phosphate available if you’re getting .02 on a accurate test like Hanna Phosphorus ULR. Here’s why…the majority of the phosphate that’s available is being consumed by the GHA. So in actuality, it’s not available to anything else. The algae is outcompeting the corals, biome, etc. What’s leftover is very minimal and not enough to keep the corals healthy or support the microbiome especially in a younger tank. It may seem counterintuitive, but the way to end this battle is to raise the phosphate level. This brings competitors to the battlefield, and you’ll see the GHA start to weaken. At the same time you need to remove as much as possible so that you don’t overdose PO4. Once you hit the threshold, you need to push past it (beyond what the algae is consuming) so that the biome will begin to thrive. Hope that makes sense. Dosing vinegar will likely complicate the situation, and bury nutrients even further. I’d also be careful dosing H2O2.

Is this tank under 2 yrs?

Jimbo’s last post in this thread was over eight years ago.