Adding Kalk to Vinegar Dosing

[TCoach]

How much Kalk do you add to 1 gal of 5% Vinegar? I have been reading that doing that can help offset/eliminate the pH drop from dosing vinegar. Any idea how much, and does it cause any reaction? My vinegar gallon is +95% full, so not much room for any sort of reaction.

Currently I'm dosing 16ml/day to my 92 gal reef.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you manual dosing?

What is your pH now?

When I was dosing vinegar manually, I dumped excess calcium hydroxide into the straight vinegar, so that there is plenty left undissolved after shaking a few minutes, then dosed that manually once or twice a day with no pH drop associated with the addition.

Once I switched to pumped dosing, I dropped the calcium hydroxide additive since it wasn't needed in my system.

 

[DrMMI]

Are you manual dosing?

What is your pH now?

When I was dosing vinegar manually, I dumped excess calcium hydroxide into the straight vinegar, so that there is plenty left undissolved after shaking a few minutes, then dosed that manually once or twice a day with no pH drop associated with the addition.

Once I switched to pumped dosing, I dropped the calcium hydroxide additive since it wasn't needed in my system.

Randy, did adding calcium hydroxide to the vinegar affect alkalinity? Or were you not adding enough to make much of a difference? I assume I could do the same with nopox correct?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, did adding calcium hydroxide to the vinegar affect alkalinity? Or were you not adding enough to make much of a difference? I assume I could do the same with nopox correct?

I went through the calculations here to show that vinegar at 5% acidity that is saturated with calcium hjydroxide will be about 20 times as potent as normal kalkwasser.

Question on vinegar and kalk

Tradition wisdom said adding 45ml vinegar to 1 gallon of water can increase kalk dissolved from 2 tsp to 3 tsp. My question is, if we add more vinegar, will it be able to dissolve more kalk, like 90ml per gallon for 4 tsp or 135ml per gallon for 5 tsp?

www.reef2reef.com

You can use a calculator to see how much alk and calcium are dosed by adding however much vinear you are using in your tank volume.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

let's say it is 20 mL of the mix in 100 gallons each day.

calculator says 20 ml kalkwasser/limewater adds 0.006 dKH.

Multiply by 20 and the mix is adding 0.12 dKH a day. Not enough to worry about in most cases.

 

[Perfectly_Imperfekt1]

Are you manual dosing?

What is your pH now?

When I was dosing vinegar manually, I dumped excess calcium hydroxide into the straight vinegar, so that there is plenty left undissolved after shaking a few minutes, then dosed that manually once or twice a day with no pH drop associated with the addition.

Once I switched to pumped dosing, I dropped the calcium hydroxide additive since it wasn't needed in my system.

@Randy Holmes-Farley , I've been reading on a bunch of threads about dosing carbon(vinegar). I have dosing pumps(Red Sea Reefdose 4). What container would you recommend putting the vinegar in to dose from??

I'm using this container from Amazon for my Alk and Calcium(Brightwell Alkalin 8.3-P and Calcion-P):


Could I use the 3rd chamber for vinegar to be dosed?? Wasn't sure if there's any issues with vinegar and the plastic. I plan on dosing in the return pump chamber. My tank's sump is really small(link to my build in my signature) The dosing tubes are from Redsea TPE tubes.

Do you dose vinegar thru out the day when the lights are on? I believe that's the best time. The Reefdose can daily dose per head of 0.2ml up to 1000ml in increments of 0.1ml for reference.

Appreciate any input.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not sure what plastic your containers are.

I recommend dosing vinegar during the daylight hours due to the pH decline and the O2 consumption.

 

[yupuhhuhme2]

@Randy Holmes-Farley So how much Kalk would you add to 1 gallon of 5% Vinegar to neutralize it’s effect on PH drop? I am dosing 20ml of 5% vinegar to my 30g over the course of 24 hours. I’m nailed on NO3 at 22ppm and use 2 tbsp GFO every three weeks to stay between 0.08 and 0.04 PO4. Before Vinegar I was 8-8.2 PH, now I am 7.9-8. I’d like to get back to 8.2 without driving my ALK past 8.5. Possible with adding Kalk to liquid Vinegar using dosing pump?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley So how much Kalk would you add to 1 gallon of 5% Vinegar to neutralize it’s effect on PH drop? I am dosing 20ml of 5% vinegar to my 30g over the course of 24 hours. I’m nailed on NO3 and use 2 tbsp GFO every three weeks to stay between 0.08 and 0.04 PO4. Before Vinegar I was 8-8.2 PH, now I am 7.9-8. I’d like to get back to 8.2 without driving my ALK past 8.5. Possible with adding Kalk to liquid Vinegar using dosing pump?

When I dosed vinegar that way, I saturated it fully with calcium hydroxide. Thus, add enough so there's excess solids left on the bottom. There's no reason to try to use less.

 

[yupuhhuhme2]

When I dosed vinegar that way, I saturated it fully with calcium hydroxide. Thus, add enough so there's excess solids left on the bottom. There's no reason to try to use less.

@Randy Holmes-Farley Awesome! Did that raise your Alk big time? I’m also doing 1ml of All For Reef per day so don’t want it to get way out of wack. I can adjust the AFR back, but wanted your advice.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

As I mentioned above, it is about 20x as potent as normal saturated limewater, but you aren't dosing much.

If you dose 20 mL, that makes it equivalent to 400 mL of kalkwasser.

You can see what amount of alk that would dose using a calculator like this for your size aquarium:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[yupuhhuhme2]

As I mentioned above, it is about 20x as potent as normal saturated limewater, but you aren't dosing much.

If you dose 20 mL, that makes it equivalent to 400 mL of kalkwasser.

You can see what amount of alk that would dose using a calculator like this for your size aquarium:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

@Randy Holmes-Farley - Is it possible to add another supplement to the vinegar that will negate the decrease it has on PH? I have my Alk and Ca nailed with the All-for-Reef and WC’s.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There’s no way to reduce the pH drop with a chemical unless it is an alkalinity supplement.

Of course, sufficient aeration of the aquarium with low CO2 air can reduce any drop. Spreading the dose out may make the drop undetectable, as most people find with vodka dosing which ultimately has the same pH drop, just spread out more.