Max vinegar per gallon of kalkwasswer

[Wildreefs]

I have read some use 45 ml vinegar per gallon of kalkwaser to saturate it.

if I am looking to carbon dose for nitrates at the same time, what is the most ml or vinegar I can use per gallon? Right now I’m dosing with a dosing pump 1300 ml of kalkwasswe for alkalinity needs, with 45 ml vinegar per gallon , which means only about 15 mls of vinegar are added each day, which probably isn’t enough for the nitrate to come down.

can I go more than 45 ml vinegar per gallon , say 90, this was 30 ml of it actually get put into the tank daily?

 

[Fish Styx]

There's a great thread on this from a few years back where Randy provides some sage advice, and links to helpful information:

Thread 'Vinegar to kalkwasser ratio' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vinegar-to-kalkwasser-ratio.267456/

 

[Wildreefs]

I’ve read that, from what I can see it doesn’t give a max number of vinegar per gallon of kalk. They talk about 45 because that was one of the references, I don’t see where it says you can go more etc

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There is no max concentration from a chemical perspective. I’ve dosed straight vinegar saturated with calcium hydroxide.

The one thing you want to avoid is adding an amount of both that had pH in the range where bacteria will thrive and consume the acetate acid from the vinegar.

 

[Wildreefs]

There is no max concentration from a chemical perspective. I’ve dosed straight vinegar saturated with calcium hydroxide.

The one thing you want to avoid is adding an amount of both that had pH in the range where bacteria will thrive and consume the acetate acid from the vinegar.

Understood. And not having a ph probe, what would you hypothesize to be around the number where regular 5 percent vinegar, in Saturated kalk, starts to put the ph in favor of potential bacteria?

Like do you believe it would be 100 ml of vinegar in 1 gallon of kalk, 200 ml? Or is does that sound way to high?

basically my tank is eating about 1.5 liters of limewater a day, and at the 45 ml per gallon Bingham equation, means I am only putting 15 ml a day of vinegar (1/3 gallon kalk, =1/3 or the 45 ml, or 15)

and believe me I’m spelling it out not for your sake, I know these numbers are elementary, just laying them out to be sure I am correct in my thought process.

And last question, if you take 10 gallons of ro water, mix in well 30 teaspoons of kalk, 450 ml of vinegar) just an example, and you mix one time well, I ver the course of 20 days or so, without any time or pump or mixing during those 20 days, do all those tests ingredients stay equal throughout the suspension? Or do some of those without agitation, fall to the bottom and make it uneven?

 

[Wildreefs]

Bump

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

IMO, combining them is not optimal. I dosed both kalkwasser and vinegar independently because I wanted control over both in terms of both amounts and timing of dosing.

If you do want to combine them in a fixed ratio, there are several options to estiamte the final pH and whehter bacteria will grow in it.. The easiest is a pH meter, but I can try to calculate the effect from the amounts you want to dose.

Since I only want to do it once, let's be sure the amounts are what you really want. The alk equivalent of 1300 mL of saturated kalkwasser, and 90 mL of vinegar, or something else?

 

[Wildreefs]

I’d like to combine just so I don’t have to buy another dosing pump.

Right now I’m dosing about 1300 ml of kalk, 3 teaspoons per gallon, with 45 ml per gallon vinegar. So about 15 mls per day of vinegar is actually getting into the tank, assuming the vinegar stays in the suspension evenly throughout the 10 gallon reservoir without any pumping or agitation aside except for the initial mix when I put the kalk together.

my tank is 150 gallons roughly with sump. My nitrates are at 54 on Hanna checker, rising about a point every two days, despite having chaeto and a scrubber that doesn’t seem to be working right .

I don’t think the 15 mls a day I’m at with vinegar is going to be enough to move the nitrates.

 

[MoshJosh]

forgive me ignorance, but why are we adding vinegar to the kalk for top off? I use kalk to top off but have not heard of adding vinegar???

 

[Wildreefs]

So i suppose with the saturated alk as I’m using as if with the vinegar , what would be the breaking point as far as ph goes? Or am I too far off side of tank wise and consumption of kalk per day that I would be foolish not to get a second dosing pump?

also, reason I am somewhat against a second dosing pump is, or just cost, but I figure if pump fails and puts into much of either, separate or together, they both can crash a tank, so rather than play Russian roulette twice with two pumps and two different compounds, 1 sounds like half the risk.

 

[Wildreefs]

forgive me ignorance, but why are we adding vinegar to the kalk for top off? I use kalk to top off but have not heard of adding vinegar???

Nitrates , carbon dosing

 

[Wildreefs]

@Randy Holmes-Farley