Carbon dosing

[LIreefguy]

I been carbon dosing over a year
Been basically doing the diy nopox
Vodka water vinegar
Was thinking of changing to just vinegar since I have about 700 gallons and so much easier to just use vinager

it’s the mix better than straight vodka or vinager

does anyone know the pros and cons of each one and is there a risk of going back and forth

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Folks are successful with vodka, vinegar or combinations.

IMO, vinegar can lead to less cyanobacteria, but that may depend on what species are present.

I personally prefer vinegar only because it is very widely used by organisms, including corals.

 

[GlassMunky]

Folks are successful with vodka, vinegar or combinations.

IMO, vinegar can lead to less cyanobacteria, but that may depend on what species are present.

I personally prefer vinegar only because it is very widely used by organisms, including corals.

Randy, would using a living vinegar with mother, like say an apple cider vinegar, would that have any different effects on the tank since you are also adding those living bacteria that created the vinegar or does that not matter since they are being added to a saltwater environment, and this not able to survive

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would use distilled white vinegar.

 

[GlassMunky]

I would use distilled white vinegar.

And most people do, but that wasn’t exactly what I was asking.

just out of curiosity, from a theoretical standpoint, could those bacteria even survive and continue to reproduce?

 

[LIreefguy]

Folks are successful with vodka, vinegar or combinations.

IMO, vinegar can lead to less cyanobacteria, but that may depend on what species are present.

I personally prefer vinegar only because it is very widely used by organisms, including corals.

Yes I do get a lot of slime in my tank In certain spots. Good I’ll change to vinager

 

[Jonify]

I been carbon dosing over a year
Been basically doing the diy nopox
Vodka water vinegar
Was thinking of changing to just vinegar since I have about 700 gallons and so much easier to just use vinager

it’s the mix better than straight vodka or vinager

does anyone know the pros and cons of each one and is there a risk of going back and forth

The only risk I'm aware of is if you swap to one or the other quickly--vodka has more carbon than vinegar, so a fast swap may cause bacterial blooms or nitrate swings for a bit until the bacterial colony catches up.

 

[LIreefguy]

Couldn’t you just offset that with more vinager

 

[Jonify]

Couldn’t you just offset that with more vinager

In theory? But then you're going to run into slightly lower pH because you're dosing more volume of an acid.

 

[LIreefguy]

Is that true. Dosing 100 ml of vinegar will lower your ph in a 650 plus gallon system

 

[Jonify]

Not appreciably, no. I can always see the dip shortly after my carbon doser kicks on, but it’s a small tank, and the effect doesn’t last very long. The only thing that would matter to me in your case is the speed of the swap over to just vinegar.

 

[LIreefguy]

I switch quickly. But I was using a mix not straight vodka
I started with nopox but it got too expensive
Switch to 50 percent vinager 50 percent vodka water mix
Not doing all vinager

will watch my numbers to see how things go

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And most people do, but that wasn’t exactly what I was asking.

just out of curiosity, from a theoretical standpoint, could those bacteria even survive and continue to reproduce?

Vinegars such as apple cider vinegar, with or without the mother vinegar, can contain bacteria. Some may grow in a reef tank, but I have never seen any sort of study of that specific question.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is that true. Dosing 100 ml of vinegar will lower your ph in a 650 plus gallon system

Dosing vinegar lowers pH instantly. Dosing vodka or NOPOX lowers pH slowly. Over time, the net effect on pH will be about the same if the vinegar is dosed slowly, and I recommend that for all organics for other others (such as O2 lowering).

One way around the instant pH drop with vinegar if manual dosing once a day is to saturate it with calcium hydroxide before addition. That eliminates the pH drop.

 

[LIreefguy]

Can you use kalkwasser to a do a Similar affect ?

 

[Maximitsurugi]

Can you use kalkwasser to a do a Similar affect ?

Aint calcium hydroxide Kalkwasser?

 

[LIreefguy]

Dosing vinegar lowers pH instantly. Dosing vodka or NOPOX lowers pH slowly. Over time, the net effect on pH will be about the same if the vinegar is dosed slowly, and I recommend that for all organics for other others (such as O2 lowering).

One way around the instant pH drop with vinegar if manual dosing once a day is to saturate it with calcium hydroxide before addition. That eliminates the pH drop.

no idea not a chemist lol

 

[LIreefguy]

Just used the google. It is.
Good I got plenty of that

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sort of.

Calcium hydroxide (lime) or calcium oxide (quicklime) is the solid material. The solid material is not ever correctly called "kalkwasser".

Kalkwasser is a german word. You can see the parts of it: wasser (water) and kalk (lime). The english word is limewater.

But the "water" must be there. it is the solution that is made by dissolving lime into water.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have always had better luck with nutrients using both vodka and vinegar. Just start a 50/50 mix that equals what you were dosing in vodka previously and you should be fine. But if your seeing clear slime which is bacteria from the carbon source it may not help. If your seeing red slime it may help some.