For my ten gallon, I did 2.5ml vinegar for 7 days. No adverse reaction. So I upped to 5ml. This may sound weird but I swear the water clarity improved, not that it was bad it just want from clear to more clear.
Anyway, I tested this evening. Api master kit and I'm still getting used to reading the colors on nitrate and phosphate. I feel pretty confident that in reading nitrates accurately at 40 and it hasn't come down. Phosphate is pretty hit and miss for some reason. It went from 2 to 1.0. I'll call that an anomaly in me not knowing how to test properly.
Anyway, with no change in nitrates, I upped vinegar to 10 ml today.
It's very interesting this concept of giving carbon to the tank in order to feed bacterium in the water column. I like the idea of that bacteria consuming nitrate and phosphate in ratio, the bacteria is then consumed by successively greater order creatures to complete the food web.
I am accustomed in freshwater world to have so much filter media surface area that the nitrifying bacteria vastly out compete the free floating heterotrophic bacteria that eat DOCs and make the water column appear hazy. The idea is to keep the water bacteria free to avoid overwhelming fish immune systems and make them susceptible to disease.
Just pontificating.
) to dose.
