Vinegar Dosing HELP

[Cscultho]

I want to have a mixed sps and lps tank so Ive started to dose vineagar to reduce my levels of nitrates -from 20ppm down to 5ppm or less.

My current tank volume is 60g and ive been dosing the past 2 days 10ml of 5% vinegar. This morning i woke up to the tank being cloudy. Is this normal and should i continue with dosing the vinegar at 10ml per day? Also i added a bag of carbon in my sump.

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 20
Ca - 400
kdh - 10.5
7- fish

 

[rob safron]

Sounds like you started too high of dose and have a bacterial bloom. Go slow, The dosing chart is in this http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium.

 

[Cscultho]

Sounds like you started too high of dose and have a bacterial bloom. Go slow, The dosing chart is in this http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium.

does sound that way. so what should i do next?

 

[rob safron]

It talks about it in there. No harm other than maybe depleting the oxygen, watch your fish. Cut the dose down and it should go away.

 

[Cscultho]

-Should i be skimming wet or dry?
-Once i achieve the NO3 level i want and i stop dosing does the N03 shoot back up?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

When you dose organic carbon, the bacteria have to grow somewhere. Sometimes they end up being unsightly, as in white globs in the display tank, or suspended in the water column. Neither is likely bad in any way, but you may not like the look. The suspended bacteria may well feed lots of creatures and they may be unusually "happy".

You could reduce the dose, stop dosing for a while, switch to a different carbon source that might drive a different bacterial species, or continue as is.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

-Should i be skimming wet or dry?
-Once i achieve the NO3 level i want and i stop dosing does the N03 shoot back up?

It may rise again. In that sense, what you are doing is akin to a water change.

 

[Cscultho]

It may rise again. In that sense, what you are doing is akin to a water change.

Thanks Randy.

So i want to stick with vinegar dosing in hopes of driving down my nitrates so i dosed 1ml this morning. Is this a good idea and if so what dosing schedule do you recommend every day?

 

[rob safron]

Randy is the expert but I started dosing about 2 years ago in my 125. Followed the chart in the article I sent you, maybe went a little bit faster. Took a few months to get down to 5 nitrate. Ended up at 60 mls and I have now been at 30 ml maintenance. Tried going lower but my nitrates went back up.

 

[rob safron]

I skim slight wet, I think I read somewhere that’s what you want to do with vinegar dosing.

 

[Cscultho]

Randy is the expert but I started dosing about 2 years ago in my 125. Followed the chart in the article I sent you, maybe went a little bit faster. Took a few months to get down to 5 nitrate. Ended up at 60 mls and I have now been at 30 ml maintenance. Tried going lower but my nitrates went back up.

Thanks Rob.

I will follow the schedule you sent me. Wish me luck.....Ill need it!! dont want to hurt any of my fish and coral in my tank nor do i want to brown my blue tort coral.

 

[rob safron]

I think after a couple weeks you can go faster than the chart. It works. My tank was a mess, hair alge everywhere and nitrate at 50. Decided to fix it or tear down so went with Vinegar. After 3 months, not a sign of hair alge and nitrates down to 0. Has remained clean for 2 years now. I use vinegar, carbon and some GFO. That’s it for filtration.

 

[Cscultho]

I think after a couple weeks you can go faster than the chart. It works. My tank was a mess, hair alge everywhere and nitrate at 50. Decided to fix it or tear down so went with Vinegar. After 3 months, not a sign of hair alge and nitrates down to 0. Has remained clean for 2 years now. I use vinegar, carbon and some GFO. That’s it for filtration.

absolutely beautiful. thanks for sharing!!

-When you began dosing vinegar did you see any browning of your sps coral?
-How do you dose your vinegar? Manually or automated?

 

[rob safron]

Didn’t have any SPS when I started. Mostly soft. My wife hates me but I automated everything. I use dosing pumps for vinegar, aquaforest solutions. Bought an Apex, ect. We are in an expensive hobby.

 

[Cscultho]

Didn’t have any SPS when I started. Mostly soft. My wife hates me but I automated everything. I use dosing pumps for vinegar, aquaforest solutions. Bought an Apex, ect. We are in an expensive hobby.

I hear ya....im still contemplating if i will go automated or not. I still need to setup my 2-part dossers which have been in boxes for the past 2 months. Im quite certain manual dosing will get old quick.

 

[Cscultho]

what is the prefered method for dosing vinegar?

use a dosing pump and dose raw vinegar of a span of time through out the day?

 

[rob safron]

You may get a lot of opinions. Low dose I would say no problem doing all once a day. If your doing very high dose a pump over the day may be better. Especially if your having Ph issues, vinegar messes with pH.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

what is the prefered method for dosing vinegar?

use a dosing pump and dose raw vinegar of a span of time through out the day?

That's what I chose to do, but I started with manual dosing, and in that case, one can saturate it with calcium hydroxide to eliminate the pH drop when it is added.

 

[rob safron]

I just purchased a GHL Doser and have 4 BRS dosing pumps I’ll sell cheap if you need. They are simple and would need a controller or timers to run.

 

[Cscultho]

I just purchased a GHL Doser and have 4 BRS dosing pumps I’ll sell cheap if you need. They are simple and would need a controller or timers to run.

Once i get my other dosers online and running i might take you up on the controller. I need to figure out the other BRS pumps first.