New to auto dosing

[bump3rb33tl3]

Hi,

I just picked up a auto dosing unit. My plan is to dose 2 part, mag, and vinager. I have my weekly usage figured out for the first three and can figure my daily from there. My question however, is how do I determine how much vinager to dose? A friend of mine passed along a 16wk chart to me that has a gradual increase upto 16wks, but then nothing after that. Im also concerned about how much it instructs you to dose per day, it just seems like alot to me.

The doser will be for my 45gl. I recently switched from a canister (that served me well) to a HOB skimmer/sump. I have about 5lbs of good LR in there with a great chaeto mixture. The tank has about 40lbs of LR with a 2" sand bed. 2 mp10's and some evergrow led's. It has a pretty even balance of softies, zoas's, sps and such. Fish wise i only have 2 small clowns, 2 firefish, and 2 skillet fish i harvested from the bay.

My params are as follows
Salinity 1.026
Ca 440
Alk 9
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 50 (high I know...it has never read below 50 in the 2 years its been set up and I have tried everything! Its really the only reason I switched to a sump)

Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated!

Pictures for reference

Dosage chart I referenced

 

[CodyRVA]

There's a method to the madness of vinegar dosing which i'm sure someone else can jump into.

I personally would start slow regardless; and slowly increase the dose as needed. If you change your feeding habits, introduce more fish, remove rock, add it, etc... this all affects your bio load and in turn will affect your need for dosing vinegar. It's the same principle as how much CA you need to dose, if you add more stony corals, and they grow over time, you'll likely need to slowly increase your dose as the demand increases.

I'm surprised your tank looks that good with nitrates that high, assuming they are that high. I would personally start with water changes and improving your filtration to bring your nitrates down on their own without carbon dosing. Once you have them at a respectable level, then introduce your carbon source and adjust accordingly. For all the more fish you have, my guess is your filtration is not adequate which is a broad term for many other possible issues.

My guess is you're either using a cheap test kit, a defective test kit, or testing inaccurately. Make sure you test with a wide array of kits, different times of the day and week to confirm your nitrates. If they are actually quite low and you start heavily dosing a carbon source, you may end up accidentally stripping your system of nutrients which isn't good either.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not a fan of that chart since it does not, IMO, accurately reflect different tank sizes. It also starts excessively slow, IMO, but that isn't likely to hurt anything.

That said, IMO vinegar should be determined by trial and error, seeing what benefits the tank.

For a long time I was dosing close to 1 ml vinegar per gallon, but that was higher than most folks use.

 

[bump3rb33tl3]

There's a method to the madness of vinegar dosing which i'm sure someone else can jump into.

I personally would start slow regardless; and slowly increase the dose as needed. If you change your feeding habits, introduce more fish, remove rock, add it, etc... this all affects your bio load and in turn will affect your need for dosing vinegar. It's the same principle as how much CA you need to dose, if you add more stony corals, and they grow over time, you'll likely need to slowly increase your dose as the demand increases.

I'm surprised your tank looks that good with nitrates that high, assuming they are that high. I would personally start with water changes and improving your filtration to bring your nitrates down on their own without carbon dosing. Once you have them at a respectable level, then introduce your carbon source and adjust accordingly. For all the more fish you have, my guess is your filtration is not adequate which is a broad term for many other possible issues.

My guess is you're either using a cheap test kit, a defective test kit, or testing inaccurately. Make sure you test with a wide array of kits, different times of the day and week to confirm your nitrates. If they are actually quite low and you start heavily dosing a carbon source, you may end up accidentally stripping your system of nutrients which isn't good either.

Hi,
Thanks for the advice! I hadnt thought of carbon dosing to be honest. But I have tested with at least 4 different test kits and they all came back with the same reading, even took a sample to my lfs. I do weekly water changes and recently changed my filtration (like only a week ago ;-) ) from my canister to the hob skimmer/sump combo. When I had my canister I would do weekly cleanings with saltwater, careful not to use tap or hose water as to not kill off any beneficial bacteria colonizing in the media. But I know that canisters can be nitrate factories regardless.

 

[bump3rb33tl3]

I'm not a fan of that chart since it does not, IMO, accurately reflect different tank sizes. It also starts excessively slow, IMO, but that isn't likely to hurt anything.

That said, IMO vinegar should be determined by trial and error, seeing what benefits the tank.

For a long time I was dosing close to 1 ml vinegar per gallon, but that was higher than most folks use.

Thanks! Yea, i was suprised at how much vinegar it called for towards the end.

 

[CodyRVA]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice! I hadnt thought of carbon dosing to be honest. But I have tested with at least 4 different test kits and they all came back with the same reading, even took a sample to my lfs. I do weekly water changes and recently changed my filtration (like only a week ago ;-) ) from my canister to the hob skimmer/sump combo. When I had my canister I would do weekly cleanings with saltwater, careful not to use tap or hose water as to not kill off any beneficial bacteria colonizing in the media. But I know that canisters can be nitrate factories regardless.

No problem. I've used canisters in the past with great success. If you only just changed up the system you may need to give it some more time. You're using RODI water right?

 

[bump3rb33tl3]

No problem. I've used canisters in the past with great success. If you only just changed up the system you may need to give it some more time. You're using RODI water right?

Yes, RODI water.