Homemade nopox question, purity?

[Ooh fiddlesticks]

So I get nopox is basically vodka and vinegar,
If we’re making a home made version of this how are we sure we’re getting a clean product?
Many distilleries use copper pipes to cool the vapor, is any of that getting picked up? Tin? Nickel? And the final ethanol is then cut with water. What’s the source of the water? It’s almost certainly not de ionized.
Admittedly I don’t know much about vinegar production but I’d imagine that since it’s distilled it’s got to be similar, however with vodka distillers try to make the cleanest flavor profile possible, with vinegar that just ain’t so.

I see threads on here saying that carbon dosing is ruining people’s tanks, causing tissue necrosis and other issues. People are dosing 20 ml or more of “vodka” into their systems, but what’s in that vodka? Has any testing been done? Is there a recommended vodka to use?
I don’t think I can have vodka sitting around my house because I can’t trust myself, but I think I’m good to pick up a bottle and mix in it’s entirety with vinegar, I just want to make sure I’m creating a clean product. Making something that causes a hundred dollars worth of problems isn’t worth saving 20 bucks in my opinion.

Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There’s no reason to think food grades of vinegar and ethanol are any less pure than commercial NOPOX. :)

 

[Ooh fiddlesticks]

There’s no reason to think food grades of vinegar and ethanol are any less pure than commercial NOPOX. :)

That’s a fair point.
Still, I’d be more comfortable dosing grey goose than popov!

 

[Reefering1]

Isn't gray goose flavored? I've used tito's for about 4 years now..

 

[Pistondog]

So I get nopox is basically vodka and vinegar,
If we’re making a home made version of this how are we sure we’re getting a clean product?
Many distilleries use copper pipes to cool the vapor, is any of that getting picked up? Tin? Nickel? And the final ethanol is then cut with water. What’s the source of the water? It’s almost certainly not de ionized.
Admittedly I don’t know much about vinegar production but I’d imagine that since it’s distilled it’s got to be similar, however with vodka distillers try to make the cleanest flavor profile possible, with vinegar that just ain’t so.

I see threads on here saying that carbon dosing is ruining people’s tanks, causing tissue necrosis and other issues. People are dosing 20 ml or more of “vodka” into their systems, but what’s in that vodka? Has any testing been done? Is there a recommended vodka to use?
I don’t think I can have vodka sitting around my house because I can’t trust myself, but I think I’m good to pick up a bottle and mix in it’s entirety with vinegar, I just want to make sure I’m creating a clean product. Making something that causes a hundred dollars worth of problems isn’t worth saving 20 bucks in my opinion.

Thoughts?

Some of us routinely do icp testing which would flag some of the impurities you mention.
You might be more likely to have contaminants in 'store bought' nopox than diy sourced from products made for human consumption.

 

[rishma]

NOPOx is almost certainly made as cheap as possible. I have zero concerns about using food grade vinegar and vodka.

 

[Ooh fiddlesticks]

Well good, it seems my mind is put to ease.

 

[Gribbles]

Isn't gray goose flavored? I've used tito's for about 4 years now..

Grey goose (and most vodkas) have unflavored and flavored offerings

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here’s a paper that puts some numbers on this concern:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024083488
Our findings showed that 11 % of the home-distilled alcohols exceeded the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's copper safety limits of 0.5 mg/L for wine. Additionally, 36 % of these samples surpassed the European Commission (EC)'s lead legal threshold of 0.15 mg/L set for wine products. Results from commercial alcohols indicated that no samples exceeded the same safety limits for copper, and 33 % exceeded the same legal threshold for lead.

What would 1 ppm copper add to a reef tank? From typical dosing guidelines, 10 mL per 100 gallons would dilute that 1 ppm down to 0.03 ppb, which would be insignificant.