How to switch from Vibrant to vinegar?

[Ocean Lotion]

I like everything about Vibrant except that I always have syano. I would like to give dosing vinegar a shot. How would you suggest that I go about making the switch? The tank has 28 gallons of water volume.

 

[mcarroll]

You can simply stop using one and start using the other – there's no process to it.

But instead consider eliminating the need for vinegar and vibrant (and the next miracle cure) by changing some things about husbandry or the tank.

Cyano is usually the result of imbalanced nutrients...ofter where the system has "run out" of basic nutrients like nitrates or phosphates. Those conditions can be addressed directly, if they exist.

So the next question is why you started with the tank treatments in the first place and what events led up to that.

Current and past test results would be interesting to see.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

I have never had nitrates above 0 (13 year old tank). Battled HA and won. Understand what good husbandry is, used to have an aquarium maintenance service in the 80s. Reason I was using Vibrant was to get nuetrients low enough to get my mushroom expoison in control. Had hundreds and they were strating to kill my corals. From my experience dosing performs the same functions as chaeto and since I am doing a tank reboot because of the mushroom take over I will be going sumpless till winter and will dose vinegar in plase of chaeto in a sump. Can anyone give me a recipe for what a dosing schedule shold be for vinegar in a reef with 28 gallons of water?
Thanks

 

[AdamNC]

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

 

[mcarroll]

Let me know if you think that works as I have mushrooms I'd love to make unhappy or even dispense with...but it doesn't seem like low nutrients will bother the mushrooms very much and it may end up hurting the other coral if you go to far.

Check out the links on this post I made a little bit ago for the how-to guide:
https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/4939784/

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Let me know if you think that works as I have mushrooms I'd love to make unhappy or even dispense with...but it doesn't seem like low nutrients will bother the mushrooms very much and it may end up hurting the other coral if you go to far.

Check out the links on this post I made a little bit ago for the how-to guide:
https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/4939784/

Dosing Vibrant stopped the reproduction of my shrooms. Hd blue ones and metalic green ones. The metallic green ones were the most agressive. I got rid of a lot of my corals from my 75 along with my shrooms covered rocks that are mow sitting in the sun. I just had too many, hundreds.

 

[mcarroll]

Ignoring them (and avoiding acros) is the best I've come up with so far.

Mine really seem drawn to acros...you can see them march closer day by day until they're literally on the coral "attacking" it. Bizarre. "Thanks a lot, Beginner Coral!" ...for ten years now.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Thanks for the great info on dosing vinegar. I will be using the table you provided.

 

[mcarroll]

Dosing Vibrant stopped the reproduction of my shrooms.

I wonder if this is a side-effect @UWC predicted or is aware of? If so it's bigger news than it working on algae IMO. Anyone can beat algae. Try your hand vs mushrooms. Things that kill aiptasia just make mushrooms split. (A battle I gave up long ago though....just memories now. )

 

[Ocean Lotion]

Dosing Vibrant also stopped the growth of my Red Sea Green Finger Leather. My Blastos required spot feeding while treating with Vibrant. SPS was just happy as could be.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

I mix vinegar with Calcium hydroxide and RO for my auto top off. I started with 1 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons RO. This caused my Alk to increase to 11 and the nutrient level in my tank to fall to 0. My coral started growing very fast but it also caused them to loose much of there vibrant color. The new coral growth was pastel. This also caused my refugeum algae to loose its color.

I dialed my vinegar down to 1/3 cup, 1/3+ cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons of water. My coral and algae has colored back up and my coral growth is still vey good.

Vinegar is a great tool but you need to get the dosing right or it could damage your corals. Be careful and take it slow!

 

[ZoWhat]

Start by quit buying Vibrant

 

[mcarroll]

I mix vinegar with Calcium hydroxide and RO for my auto top off. I started with 1 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons RO. This caused my Alk to increase to 11 and the nutrient level in my tank to fall to 0. My coral started growing very fast but it also caused them to loose much of there vibrant color. The new coral growth was pastel. This also caused my refugeum algae to loose its color.

I dialed my vinegar down to 1/3 cup, 1/3+ cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons of water. My coral and algae has colored back up and my coral growth is still vey good.

Vinegar is a great tool but you need to get the dosing right or it could damage your corals. Be careful and take it slow!

Dosing UP your nutrients would have kept your corals happier if you needed to keep going down that road. Bacteria can easily outcompete them if allowed. (Carbon dosing allows them.)

I was doing the same thing but I was using kalk+vinegar to cut my two-part dosing down rather than relying on it 100%. Luckily the combo never seemed to impress my nutrient situation like it did yours. Ultimately I settled on only dosing DIY two-part just for the simplicity if using one method vs two.

 

[KrisReef]

I mix vinegar with Calcium hydroxide and RO for my auto top off. I started with 1 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons RO. This caused my Alk to increase to 11 and the nutrient level in my tank to fall to 0. My coral started growing very fast but it also caused them to loose much of there vibrant color. The new coral growth was pastel. This also caused my refugeum algae to loose its color.

I dialed my vinegar down to 1/3 cup, 1/3+ cup calcium hydroxide, and 5 gallons of water. My coral and algae has colored back up and my coral growth is still vey good.

Vinegar is a great tool but you need to get the dosing right or it could damage your corals. Be careful and take it slow!

Interested in your method, and wanted to be clear on what you are doing. Two questions:
1. You said you add 1/3 cup of CaOH into 5 gallons of water. Is that 1/3 cup of dry, CaOH powder? ( It seems like a lot, but again I just want to understand what you are doing exactly).
2. How big of a system are you topping off, and how long does it take to add in the 5 gallons of your top off mixture into your tanks?

Thanks in advance. ( I saw your build thread, your tank room is fantastic!)

 

[Ben Pedersen]

To start, I use vinegar for two reasons, 1 to boost my calcium from my CaOH, and 2 to increase my alkalinity. In my opinion, This is the easiest balanced way to manage both calcium and alkalinity in one step without really dosing (because I add it via my auto top off). I really try to keep it simple.

I mix the vinegar with CaOH powder then add it to 5 gallons of water. The water volume of my system is around 80 gallons. 5 gallons is added via top off approx. every 4 days.

I used to only use CaOH in my top off but my calcium and alkalinity levels were always low. I have a SPS dominated reef with multiple clams so my calcium is always being depleted.

 

[KrisReef]

Nice, Thank you for these details on your system & additives rates.

 

[mcarroll]

An article on the topic of kalk+vinegar:
http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html

 

[Mfreddy]

I tried Vibrant for 6 months, and algae fix for 3. No change or reduction in cyano so as far as I'm concerned Vibrant is snake oil.

Two weeks ago I tried chemi clean. Cyano gone in 72 hours. Amazing.