Kalkwasser and Vinegar/ carbon dosing

[AndrewJ]

If I add vinegar to my Kalkwasser ATO, is the vinegar chemically changed in a way that it is no longer an effective method of carbon dosing?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

No.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Nope. It is perfectly active as a carbon dosing molecule.

When I was manually dosing vinegar once a day, I saturated it with calcium hydroxide solids to prevent any pH drop when it was added.

 

[AndrewJ]

Ty!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Make sure the limewater is either still highly basic or highly acidic and not in the middle where bacteria may happily munch away on the acetate in the reservoir.

Happy Reefing.

 

[AndrewJ]

You're welcome.

Make sure the limewater is either still highly basic or highly acidic and not in the middle where bacteria may happily munch away on the acetate in the reservoir.

Happy Reefing.

I did not think of that!
Taking this one step further, does the same hold true for vodka or vodka / vinegar mix (DIY NoPox)?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I did not think of that!
Taking this one step further, does the same hold true for vodka or vodka / vinegar mix (DIY NoPox)?

Yes. Vodka alone won't alter the pH so is no issue, but if vinegar is there it will.

 

[AdamNC]

NoPoX will lower your pH about .01 per 1ml of NoPoX according to my Apex probe. I use it daily dosing 1.5ml/day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'll just add too that all organic carbon dosing ultimately lowers pH about the same as all the carbon ends up as CO2. It is just that vinegar does it more initially and less later relative to, say, vodka.