HUGE Mistake!!!!

[helljack6]

So, the other night I took a reading of my levels and my nitrates where high (over 40) so I thought after doing some reading that maybe if I dosed vinegar for a few days very slowly it would help bring them down. So I set up a dripper filled with white vinegar and started a drip at a drop every 30-45 seconds. Checked it several times to make sure that nothing had changed and then went off to bed for the night around 1am. I woke up this morning to a white cloud in my tank and my pH hanging out at what API indicated as 7.4 when it's normally 8-8.2. And it's not coming up.

The back end story: I only recently acquired an RO/DI unit but due to not having enough pressure on my city water line, I only make so much RO/DI water every couple of days. A booster is on the way at some point.

My issue now is that i've done as much of a water change as I can with new salt water at 1.026 (was about 20 gallons give or take) and have every power head I have running to help circulate the tank water, a wooden air stone in the last chamber of my sump, and anything else I have. Is there anything else I can do or do I need to chalk it up as a loss because I won't make another 20 gallons of water for a few days with my current RO set up.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Should be fine.
What’s the tank volume?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

How are the fish and corals?

 

[Skep18]

Do you have a LFS nearby to go buy some water?

Maybe not the best option but Inappropriate Reefer did a video where he measured TDS of filtered RO (not DI) water form Walmart IIRC. It wasn't terrible. Depending on whats in your tank, maybe getting some local filtered water could help?

 

[tnc112105]

You can usually purchase RO water or premade saltwater from your LFS in a pinch.

 

[madweazl]

The pH should come up pretty quick after you stop dosing the vinegar (also worth checking your alkalinity because it may have dropped significantly as well). For future reference, the vinegar dosing itself isnt responsible for the decrease in nitrates. It promotes the growth of additional bacteria which consume nitrates that are typically removed by a skimmer. It takes time for the bacteria to grow/multiply(?); in my case, it typically takes a week or two before you see results. The skimmer is a must as the bacteria growth will also consume more oxygen from the water.

 

[helljack6]

Thanks everyone. I've been monitoring the tank since I did the water change to make sure my levels were spot on as best as what API would show me. My salinity is stable at 1.026, my ALK is up to 13dkH (using IO reef crystals and was previous kept around 11-12dkh as before I converted to RO, my tap ran at about 14dkH). My chaeto/calurpa is growing and the livestock appear to be fine for everything they're going through. My acan shrunk back a little bit and some of my other LPS aren't as puffed up as they normally are, but they aren't completely sunken in or withdrawn either. Water is still cloudy.

 

[madweazl]

The cloudiness is probably a bacterial bloom and should clear up on it's own in the next couple of days. Hopefully everything pulls through.

 

[helljack6]

Lost a coral beauty angel and a scopas tang over night. The tank has cleared up significantly.

 

[ZoWhat]

Vinegar overdosing will kill fish quickly. I'm no biologist but I believe a fast drop in ph due to vinegar acid quickly deletes the O2 in the water and fish quickly suffocate

I've slightly overdosed vinegar once and every fish was lined up in front of a PH with their gills flapping rapidly to breath oxygen
.

 

[Katrina71]

Drop in an airstone!

 

[helljack6]

Drop in an airstone!

I have a wooden airstone in my sump. It's in the baffle between my second and third chamber

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Vinegar overdosing will kill fish quickly. I'm no biologist but I believe a fast drop in ph due to vinegar acid quickly deletes the O2 in the water and fish quickly suffocate

I've slightly overdosed vinegar once and every fish was lined up in front of a PH with their gills flapping rapidly to breath oxygen
.

I cannot see any reason a pH change of any size will directly impact O2.

 

[ZoWhat]

I cannot see any reason a pH change of any size will directly impact O2.

A couple of years ago I accidentally dropped an 16oz storage cup of vinegar into the DT. On Apex I watched ph drop from 8.1 to 7.4 in a matter of 1min.... fish started swimming sideways and I could tell if I didnt do an emergency WC in 5mins all the fish were gonna lay on the bottom dead.

Whst was i witnessing with that quick of a ph drop?

It looked like they all couldn't breath.....

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

They may have responded to the pH directly, or to low O2 that metabolism of the vinegar would cause. The reduced pH raises CO2, and they may have been breathing heavily as they found it harder to excrete CO2.