Adding vinegar to alk dosing

[Wildreefs]

I know some have put vinegar in kalkwassser to have carbon dosing (nitrate and phosphate control) at the same time in their two part.

Can vinegar be put into the alk dosing container if you are using actual two part instead of kalk or lime water?

in other words, if I no longer use kalkwaser , and I use Randy’s alk recipe, can I put vinegar in with the alk or it only works with kalkwaser?

thanks

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Bumping for clarity!!

 

[Jekyl]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This has issues, both chemical and biological.

The acidity will convert some carbonate to bicarbonate and thereby reduce the solubility. Thus, you may need to add more water to get it to dissolve.

If you put it in the calcium part, or put too much in the alk part, the pH will be low enough to possibly allow bacteria to grow, converting the vinegar to CO2.

 

[Wildreefs]

This has issues, both chemical and biological.

The acidity will convert some carbonate to bicarbonate and thereby reduce the solubility. Thus, you may need to add more water to get it to dissolve.

If you put it in the calcium part, or put too much in the alk part, the pH will be low enough to possibly allow bacteria to grow, converting the vinegar to CO2.

Ok, so for my tank, a 150, my nitrates around 30, phosphate.2-.3 , (rock leaching some I’m sure) if I wish to start using vinegar, I believe 10 ml a day is the starting point if im not mistaken, is there anything I can put the vinegar in to dose? Plan on dripping it in via a bucket with bulkhead and ball valve, I can get it to drip let’s say a gallon a day, anything to mix that vinegar in, to get a bigger volume? I can’t get drip down to just 5 ml a day reliably.

thanks