How to switch from vibrant to vinegar?

[Ocean Lotion]

I like everything about what vibrant does for my tank except for the constant red slime. I would like to give vinegar a try. The tank will have about 28 gallons of water volume. How would you suggest making the switch?

 

[HotRocks]

I am not super familiar with carbon dosing. I don't know that it's something you want to start if you have cyano.

How long have you been dealing with cyano? How old is your tank?

 

[dwolson]

I got cyno after a Vibrant treatment too. I used Chemclean to get rid of the cyno. Worked.

I hate to add all these additives but it seemed to work and everything is stable.

 

[Brew12]

I like everything about what vibrant does for my tank except for the constant red slime. I would like to give vinegar a try. The tank will have about 28 gallons of water volume. How would you suggest making the switch?

Vinegar and Vibrant aren't exactly switchable. You can stop using Vibrant without replacing it with anything.

Do you have high nitrates that you are dealing with that you want to do vinegar dosing?

 

[Ocean Lotion]

No nitrates. Just would like the benefits os a higher bacteria population in place of chaeto. Do not like the cyano and hoped it would eventually disappear but no luck with that. I would just keep using Vibrant if the cyano was not a byproduct.

 

[Brew12]

No nitrates. Just would like the benefits os a higher bacteria population in place of chaeto. Do not like the cyano and hoped it would eventually disappear but no luck with that. I would just keep using Vibrant if the cyano was not a byproduct.

Cyano can be a byproduct of nitrate deficiency. When not enough nitrate is available in the water for beneficial phytoplankon's many strains of cyano can get nitrogen from N2 instead of NO3.

You may have your best luck at getting rid of the cyano by allowing your nitrates to come up. When I dosed Vibrant fairly heavily I had to dose nitrates to keep the cyano at bay.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Would like to not have to start dosing something else too. You are correct that my nitrates are 0.

 

[Peter K]

I switched from No3po4x to vinegar and noticed a significant reduction in red slime after a few months. I believe Randy has some articles about vinegar dosing on here that might be interesting for you. I do not have experience with dosing vibrant, but switching from an ethanol/methanol based carbon source to vinegar has helped with the reduction of red slime in my experience. I also run my nitrates around 3-5, when they drop to 0 I do still see red slime breaking out here and there in low flow areas.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Thanks Peter. I have read his articles and vinegar sounds like a good thing to try with the results I am getting. Tomorrow I move my corals from a 75 with sump to a 30 long without a sump. This experiment will be seeing how my tank does with a hob skimmer, am all back filter for carbon and dosing vinegar. This winter I will be setting up a Miracles 90 with sump. I will be interested then to see if I can grow chaeto and dose vinegar. Vibrant took out my chaeto.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks Peter. I have read his articles and vinegar sounds like a good thing to try with the results I am getting. Tomorrow I move my corals from a 75 with sump to a 30 long without a sump. This experiment will be seeing how my tank does with a hob skimmer, am all back filter for carbon and dosing vinegar. This winter I will be setting up a Miracles 90 with sump. I will be interested then to see if I can grow chaeto and dose vinegar. Vibrant took out my chaeto.

I'm still confused on why you want to dose vinegar if you don't have high nitrates. Carbon dosing is used to lower nitrates by fueling bacteria growth.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Carbon dosing does more than just consume nitrates. Also phosphates and all the other nasties that having a large bacteria count remove. Also feeds some corals. The articles by Randy prompted me to give it a try. I believe Palert doses vinegar and I am one for following wise counsil.

 

[madweazl]

Carbon dosing does little to remove phosphates; like Brew stated, you're only going to compound your issue by carbon dosing. Your setup is not a good candidate for carbon dosing, regardless of who you follow.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Vibrant had a positive effect on my tank except for the cyano. I could probably fix that issue with chemical clean. How about that I have been in the hobby for over 30 years and have never tried it so want to see what I learn. Part of the fun of this hobby.

 

[madweazl]

Part of the fun is keeping things healthy and growing, not experimentation. IT IS A BAD DECISION!

 

[Brew12]

Carbon dosing does more than just consume nitrates. Also phosphates and all the other nasties that having a large bacteria count remove. Also feeds some corals. The articles by Randy prompted me to give it a try. I believe Palert doses vinegar and I am one for following wise counsil.

I agree that the bacteria it can produce will feed corals. I would recommend dosing nitrate if you would like to use vinegar to drive up bacteria counts.

I'm all about following wise council, but I doubt either of them would dose a carbon source if nitrates were already 0ppm. Maybe we can get @Randy Holmes-Farley to weigh in if there would be any benefit.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

I would be interested in Randy's thoughts. I will not be able to run chaeto w/o a fuge for about 6 months. I know that my 75 I am tearing down runs great with vibrant and no refugium, so I do not see an issue with dosing g vinegar instead of Vibrant.

 

[ReefInskeep]

So, first off, you can dose vibrant AND a carbon source like vinegar. Vibrant’s website actually encourages carbon dosing while using Vibrant, since Vibrant is just a specific blend of bacteria the company developed, as I understand it. But if you’ve already got extremely low nitrates and your only issue is red cyano, I’d say cut back on the Vibrant dosing & don’t worry about adding vinegar. You could do a low dose of vinegar on top of the Vibrant dosing or use an alternate bacterial additive along with carbon dosing. Adding more flow to the areas cyano is developing would probably be best.

It seems like a lot of reefers get so caught up in achieving one thing or perfecting things that they forget the goal is balance & stability. Just be careful and patient when making changes.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

I assumed, and have read others do too, that a carbon source is part of what is in Vibrant. I will read their info on their website. Thanks for the input.

 

[Brew12]

I assumed, and have read others do too, that a carbon source is part of what is in Vibrant. I will read their info on their website. Thanks for the input.

Here are the ingredients.

It is a completely different concept than using vinegar. Vinegar can control algae by reducing the amount of available nitrate. When using Vibrant, you can dose nitrate to keep levels up since it is a bacterial algacide.

It's best to think of them as 2 completely separate products instead of different versions of the same thing.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Anecdotal, but the cyano outbreak i got with using biobpellets(also carbon dosing) was abated by feeding more heavily. Not as controlled as brew’s nitrate dosing. But same reasoning.
Also i dont feed dry foods, i am currently at 3x the amount of frozen food i was feeding previously with no algae issues, except some minor bubble algae.